Australian Luke Plapp delivered his debut Grand Tour stage victory in stunning fashion at the Giro d’Italia with a mammoth 46km solo ride to glory on a stage for the ages.
The 24-year-old defied the odds to attack clear from a strong breakaway group and hold on for a memorable triumph on what was a relentless and unforgettable day of racing.
Team Jayco AlUla made their intentions clear with aggressive tactics from the moment the flag dropped, with young Italian Davide De Pretto fighting hard to make it up the road in a three-rider break for the first hour of action.
Eventually a large group of 20 cracked the peloton to escape over the top of the Sassotetto climb, with Plapp joined by teammate Koen Bouwman. With the break established, the bunch halted the chase and allowed the escapees to open up an advantage of more than five minutes.
Despite the time gap, the breakaway never settled with a number of riders eager to push on the pace and reduce the numbers. However, Plapp was never far from the front, looking comfortable and in control as he followed the series of attacks.
A dangerous move then went clear on the Montelago, and while he was initially distanced by a trio of attackers, Plapp superbly worked his way back to the front before leaving his rivals behind as the summit approached.
With 46km still remaining the attack appeared risky as a strong chase group of three formed behind, but the Australian time trial champion quickly opened up a gap of over one minute. As the kilometres ticked down, the time gap remained the same with Plapp on course for a sweet and memorable victory.
With the final categorised climb out of the way nothing could stop the triple Australian road race champion from savouring the moment as he crossed the line to take thefirst Grand Tour victory of his career.
Luke Plapp:
“It’s pretty crazy, I still can’t believe it to be honest. It’s been a long time coming, I’m always targeting the Aussie summer and I’ve just never been able to make a result happen in Europe. Last year I got so close at the Giro so many times and for today to happen, it is so, so special.
We marked it as a stage for a few weeks now and then this morning on the bus we were really excited, so to make it happen, it’s a dream come true.
It was unbelievable, the fight to get in the breakaway! It just kept going and going, there was one point there where I was following Wout [van Aert] so many times that I was almost dropped myself. Then I gave it one more chance to try and get in there and there was a massive group that made it. It was such a fight to get in the breakaway, but it was all worth it in the end and to have Koen in there as well with me, it was amazing.
I knew I couldn’t beat any of them in a sprint, so I had to go at some stage pretty early and I think the way the racing has being 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, so I just thought I’d give it a crack. To be honest I just wanted a bit of a head start on the descent as well, so to stay away all the way to the finish is definitely not what I expected.
I think from the Olympics last year to wrist surgery in February and now crashing in the first TT, it makes everything almost worth it. I mean the lows in cycling are super low and there’s a long time between highs, so to have a result like this is amazing.”
Pieter Weening (Sport Director):
“It was a really fast start and in the end where the breakaway went up the road it was quite difficult as well, so we knew it they were all strong guys there in front. You can see also with the seven guys left in front, they were all quality riders.
We knew [Plapp] was strong because one moment I was telling him ‘Luke, yeah be careful, don’t do too much’ and he said ‘man, I’m cruising.’ So from that moment on we knew he was good.
On the bottom of the third category climb with 50km to go, Kelderman and Ulissi went early, and we told him just do your time trial effort till the top and then we’ll see what’s going to happen, and well yeah, on the top he was already I think 15-20 seconds in front and he maintained it all the way till the finish line, it was really, really good and a real strong performance.”
Ulissi is the new pink jersey of the Giro d’Italia, 1466 days after the last time an Italian rider was the leader of the general classification. Second in the standings Fortunato, third Roglic.
Stage 8
1 Lucas Plapp Team Jayco Alula 4:44:20 0:16 0:00
2 Wilco Kelderman Team Visma – Lease A Bike 4:44:58 0:06 0:38
3 Diego Ulissi Xds Astana Team 4:44:58 0:06 0:38
GC
1 Diego Ulissi XDS Astana Team 29:21:23 0:00
2 Lorenzo Fortunato Xds Astana Team 29:21:35 0:12
3 Primož Roglič Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe 29:21:40 0:17
