Luke Harper won his third elite men’s road race at the Federation University Australian Road National Championships in a row, bringing the jersey back to his new team, Jayco-AlUla, after clipping off the front of the race with more than 100km to go with new teammate Chris Harper.
The pair, who had time to chat and celebrate on the way to the line, road through together with Plapp at the front. Then it came down to a sprint of three, minutes later, to decide who would take bronze in the 185.6km race which marked the end of the title battle for another year and also the end of the Ballarat areas nearly two decade reign as the home of the National Championships.
Kelland O’Brien took the sprint comfortably, making it a clean sweep of the podium and bringing the Australian road title back to the nation’s only WorldTour team after a two year absence.
The race played out over 16 laps of an 11.6km circuit, with each including the pivotal Mount Buninyong Road climb and a total of more than 200m gain in elevation and a maximum gradient of 8.4%.
Earlier in the Championships Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) also won the elite time trial, recapturing the jersey for the race against the clock that he last wore in 2021, while Caleb Ewan claimed his fourth criterium title and started off his return to the Australian squad with a win. The Australian WorldTour team delivered a clean sweep of the elite men’s titles as well as a clean sweep of the men’s road race and time trial podiums.
More to come ….
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