Tara Murray
Maribyrnong resident Lucas Plapp has claimed his second men’s individual time trial national championship in Ballarat, three years after his first elite win in 2021.
The 23-year-old almost experienced history repeating itself when he dropped his chain in the first two kilometres. It was the same mechanical issue he suffered last year when he finished off the podium, on the same point of the course.
However, this year, the new Team Jayco AlUla recruit calmly took his spare bike and continued with an imperious ride to win with a time of 46.19.54 over the 37.5-kilometre course, 32.71 seconds ahead of teammate Chris Harper.
Team Jayco AlUla veteran and 2014 time trial national champion Michael Hepburn closed out the podium, with Kelland O’Brien next in fourth to cap off a dominant 1-2-3-4 finish for the Australian UCI WorldTour outfit.
“I’ve missed wearing this jersey for the last few years,” Plapp said.
“I think people don’t realize how much of a team effort the TT is, it’s been a really big team effort around this with Sync, with Giant and the whole team getting ready for this.
“I think being the first race of the season, you have to nail every little thing, it’s been so much work getting it ready for today, so this is a real testament to the hard work the team has done behind the scenes.
“I just had to get on and ride the fastest equipment in the world.”
Plapp estimated his mechanical cost him roughly 30 seconds, as it did in 2023, but he took the learnings from the mishap last year and put them to work to steady the ship.
“Just a bit of bad luck from me, but I think last year I really got overexcited and tried to make up for it and I just wasn’t mature enough and I think I really learned from that, and I was able to stick to the processes and we got it done in the end,” he said.
“I did get a little bit overwhelmed, but (Mathew) Hayman on the radio was really cool, calm and collected, and I just trusted the training.
“We trained a lot without power in case something ever happened, so it was really nice knowing that was still sort of in the back of my mind and I knew my sensations and what power I had to hold.
“I think fortunately enough this course has been really kind to me in the past and I know it off by heart, so I knew where to go, how fast I needed to be going, where to put the power out.”
