Midway through the hardest day so far of this year’s Giro d’Italia, in which the fight for the breakaway lasted 90 minutes and the peloton averaged a speed of almost 42km/h despite tackling over 3700 metres of elevation gain in the blistering Italian heat, Luke Plapp radioed back to his sports directors that he was just "cruising” at the front of the race.
“That was when we knew he was good,” Team Jayco-Alula DS Andrew Smith, grinned after the Australian talent took the stage victory.
As the fractured peloton crossed the finish line in Castelraimondo in dribs and drabs, riders shook their heads at the difficulty of it all. Salt-stained jerseys and weathered faces searched for water bottles and shade, desperately attempting to recover ahead of what promises to be another challenging stage tomorrow. Plapp, though, barely showed any sign of suffering. His purple jersey was spotless, his celebrations – although passionate – were measured and polished. The Melbourne-native was made for days like this.
Stage eight’s tough, rolling parcours, plus the sticky temperatures of the Le Marche region, combined with the kind of motivation that can only be fostered by the rollercoaster ride Plapp has been on to get to this point, were factors which made the 24-year-old’s first Grand Tour stage win a reality. The expectation on Plapp, ever since he burst on to the professional cycling scene as a talented junior rider, has weighed heavily on his shoulders over the years. His physical potential has always been there, but the Australian rider is no stranger to challenges and setbacks.
There have been multiple crashes which Plapp has had to come back from, namely at the Olympics last summer and then earlier in this Giro during the time trial stage, not to mention the wrist surgery he had in February. His struggles when it comes to bike-handling and positioning are no secret – when the camera pans to the back of the peloton in technical or wet stages, Plapp is usually one of the riders at the tailend of the bunch, nervously and tentatively keeping his distance from the chaos up ahead. So what do you do if you don’t like being in a hectic peloton? You get ahead of it, which is exactly what the Jayco-Alula rider did during stage eight of the Giro.
“The fight to get in the break was unbelievable,” Plapp commented after the stage. “It just kept going and going. There was one point where I was following Wout [Van Aert] so many times I was almost dropped myself. I gave it one more chance just to try and get in there and there was a massive group that made it.”
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Plapp’s performance was the way he played to his own strengths – and minimised the impact of his weaknesses. The first step was making it into the front group, but his tactics as the race reached its finale are an indication of Plapp’s intelligence as a bike rider.
“I knew I couldn't beat any of them in a sprint so I had to go at some stage pretty early [Plapp made his winning solo move with 45km of the race remaining]. I think the way the racing's been going this year the long moves have been really successful so that was sort of in the back of my mind – the first one to make a move I think always has an advantage,” he explained afterwards.
Plapp was also considering how his bike-handling ability may impact the result: "To be honest just wanted a bit of a head start on the descent as well."
It’s true that the Australian may not be the perfect bike rider. He isn’t a demon descender and will never be the first to send it round a technical corner, but the way Plapp rode stage eight of the Giro d’Italia is proof that when the terrain is hard enough for him to make a difference, he is a winner. Professional cycling is a tough sport, and the days when it all comes together are rare for the majority of bike riders – it is a testament to Plapp’s mental strength that he has kept believing in his ability to win. The reward for all of the hard graft is the biggest victory of his career and his first ever in Europe. Luke Plapp can no longer be affectionately named ‘Mr January’, the man who peaks during Australian summer and is quiet for the rest of the year. This was a day that changed everything.
“It makes it worth it,” he smiled after the race.”The lows in cycling are super super low and there's a long time between highs so to have a result like this is amazing."
