Latest news with #LukePlapp
ABC News
18-07-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Luke Plapp's incredible mountain time trial in vain as Tadej Pogačar continues to dominate Tour de France
Australian champion Luke Plapp has delivered an exceptional mountain time trial at the Tour de France — but it was still a mere sideshow to yet another sublime stage triumph for runaway leader Tadej Pogačar. The 24-year-old Plapp gave everything to finish fifth over the unforgiving 10.9km uphill slog against the clock from Loudenvielle to the Pyrenean ski resort Peyragudes. The Melburnian found himself leading for a couple of hours from all challengers after covering the brutal course in 24 minutes and 58 seconds, until the Tour's biggest guns came down the ramp among the final 10 starters. And while Germany's Florian Lipowitz (24:56), five-time Grand Tour champ Primoz Roglic (24:20) and two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard (23:36) all surpassed the Australian's time, it was Pogačar who once again showed them all he was in a different league as he clocked 23 minutes dead. It was his fourth stage victory of the Tour that he's turning into a one-man super show as he put another 36 seconds into his advantage over Vingegaard, who's now 4 minutes and 7 seconds behind with the toughest stages still to come. Plapp, the big engine of the Australian Jayco AlUla team, had won the national time trial championship at the start of the year and annexed his first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro d'Italia. This time, he had focused all his energies on this stage. "The last minute, though, was painful, but all in all I enjoyed the race, nevertheless," he said. "I've missed the break these last few stages, and that enabled me to take it easy in the grupetto. I'll definitely be feeling today's effort in my legs tomorrow … but anyway, I wanted to represent the colours (of the Australian flag) well and I'm happy." He predicted, as he sat in the provisional leader's chair watching the rest of the field trying to catch him, that the winner would be "a minute or minute-and-a-half quicker", but Pogačar was so brilliant he ended up almost two minutes faster. Yet Plapp earned one big scalp in particular, as he proved 41 seconds quicker than Olympic champ Remco Evenepoel, who was suffering on the climb and only just clung on to his third place in the GC, now a massive 7:24 behind Pogačar. Lipowitz is just six seconds off a podium place. Pogačar's latest amazing display came just a day after he had destroyed the field on the famed Hautacam climb, and he reckoned his 21st Tour stage win felt just as sweet. "I'm super happy. I wanted everything to be perfect. I almost blew up in the end, but I saw the timer at the top and it gave me an extra push because I saw I'm gonna win," said the 26-year-old who is set to be crowned champ for a fourth time. AAP
SBS Australia
18-07-2025
- Sport
- SBS Australia
He 'nuked it' ... and super Plapp was out for a show
In the latest episode of the SBS Cycling Podcast, Christophe Mallet and Dave McKenzie unpack the drama of Stage 13 of the Tour de France—a gripping time trial. They focus on Tadej Pogačar's dominant ride, especially his decision to use a road bike instead of a time trial setup, which may have given him a crucial aerodynamic edge. The hosts describe the brutal conditions riders faced despite the beautiful mountain scenery, with the heat adding an extra layer of difficulty. Pogačar's third stage win has widened the general classification gap, putting the pressure on rivals like Vingegaard and Evenepoel. The episode also gives well-earned attention to standout performances from the Australian riders. Luke Plapp's impressive fifth-place finish is examined in detail, along with his race tactics and development as a rising force. Christophe and Dave also highlight the form of Ben O'Connor and Harry Sweeney, noting their potential in upcoming stages. Looking ahead, the hosts preview the looming Queen Stage in the Pyrenees, speculating on team strategies and possible breakaways as the Tour enters a critical phase.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Happy' Plappy shines at Tour as Pogacar reigns supreme
Australian champion Luke Plapp has delivered an exceptional mountain time trial at the Tour de France -- but it was still a mere sideshow to yet another sublime stage triumph for runaway leader Tadej Pogacar. The 24-year-old Plapp gave everything to finish fifth over the unforgiving 10.9km uphill slog against the clock from Loudenvielle to the Pyrenean ski resort Peyragudes on Friday. The Melburnian found himself leading for a couple of hours from all challengers after covering the brutal course in 24 minutes 58 seconds, until the Tour's biggest guns came down the ramp among the final 10 starters. 🇦🇺 Luke Plapp sets a fantastic 2nd intermediate time, 1' ahead of Van Eetvelt's time!🇦🇺 Luke Plapp signe un 2ème intermédiaire canon avec 1' d'avance sur le temps de Van Eetvelt !#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 18, 2025 And while Germany's Florian Lipowitz (24:56), five-time Grand Tour champ Primoz Roglic (24:20) and two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard (23:36) all surpassed the Australian's time, it was Pogacar who once again showed them all he was in a different league as he clocked 23 minutes dead. It was his fourth stage victory of the Tour that he's turning into a one-man supershow as he put another 36 seconds into his advantage over Vingegaard, who's now four minutes and seven seconds behind with the toughest stages still to come. Plapp, the big engine of the Australian Jayco AlUla team, had won the national time trial championship at the start of the year and annexed his first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro d'Italia. This time, he had focused all his energies on this stage. "The last minute, though, was painful, but all in all I enjoyed the race, nevertheless," he said. 🇦🇺 Luke Plapp just chillin' in the hot seat 😎 🇦🇺 Luke Plapp très détendu sur le hot seat#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 18, 2025 "I've missed the break these last few stages, and that enabled me to take it easy in the grupetto. I'll definitely be feeling today's effort in my legs tomorrow … but anyway, I wanted to represent the colours (of the Australian flag) well and I'm happy." He predicted, as he sat in the provisional leader's chair watching the rest of the field trying to catch him, that the winner would be "a minute or minute-and-a-half quicker", but Pogacar was so brilliant he ended up almost two minutes faster. Yet Plapp earned one big scalp in particular, as he proved 41 seconds quicker than Olympic champ Remco Evenepoel, who was suffering on the climb and only just clung on to his third place in the GC, now a massive 7:24 behind Pogacar. Lipowitz is just six seconds off a podium place. Pogacar's latest amazing display came just a day after he had destroyed the field on the famed Hautacam climb, and he reckoned his 21st Tour stage win felt just as sweet. "I'm super happy. I wanted everything to be perfect. I almost blew up in the end but I saw the timer at the top and it gave me an extra push because I saw I'm gonna win," said the 26-year-old who is set to be crowned champ for a fourth time.
Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Giro d'Italia: Diego Ulissi takes Pink Jersey from Primoz Roglic
The four-year wait for an Italian owner of the Pink Jersey is over. Diego Ulissi will wear the Maglia Rosa for the ninth stage after taking it from Primoz Roglic, while the new leader's team-mate and compatriot, Lorenzo Fortunato, is now in second place and continues as King of the Mountains. Ulissi, 35, named in honour of his father's hero, Diego Maradona, won the first of his eight Giro d'Italia stages in 2011. His career-best grand tour result, 17th in the general classification of his home race, came in 2021. Ulissi was as far down as 30th after stage seven here but thrust himself into first place between Giulianova and Castelraimondo and is the first home cyclist to wear pink in the race since Alessandro de Marchi in 2021. Roglic and Mads Pedersen had shared ownership of the Pink Jersey thus far, in two stints apiece. Luke Plapp, who is on a comeback from surgery on a lingering wrist injury this year, took a maiden grand tour stage win. The 24-year-old Australian made a solo attack with just over 40km remaining as he knew he wouldn't come out on top in a sprint and to his surprise he took the day by 38 seconds from Wilco Kelderman and Ulissi. 'The way the racing's been going this year, long moves have been really successful, so that was sort of in the back of my mind: the first one to make a move has an advantage,' Plapp said. 'I wanted a head start on the descent as well. To stay away until the finish was definitely not what I expected. 'Jeez, that was unbelievable, the fight to get into the breakaway. It just kept going and going; there was one point when I was following Wout [van Aert] so many times I almost dropped myself, then gave it one more chance. It was all worth it in the end. 'It's pretty crazy, I still can't believe it, to be honest. I feel like it's been a long time coming. Last year I got so close to the Giro so many times. And for today to happen is so, so special.' Roglic came home in 12th, 4min 50sec behind Plapp, and the Slovenian remains only 17sec behind Ulissi in the general classification, with Juan Ayuso a further 3sec down. 'It was a hard day, and in the end we had to let the jersey go,' Roglic said. 'The guys were super strong, we did our best. Sometimes you lose the jersey, but still quite some days to go, no?'
The Advertiser
21-05-2025
- Sport
- The Advertiser
Carapaz special at Giro after Aussie breakway bid fails
Luke Plapp's bid in a breakaway to earn his second win at the Giro d'Italia has fallen short as former champion Richard Carapaz announced himself as a contender for the 2025 crown with a terrific late burst to capture the stage 11 honours. Australian time trial champ Plapp, still on a high after his terrific solo victory on Saturday's eighth stage, was this time at the heart of Wednesday's five-man breakaway that looked set to contest the stage win after battling across the fiendish Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 percent. That was before points leader Mads Pedersen shook the sleeping peloton into life, leading a riveting pursuit and enabling them to catch the quintet on the final slopes of the third arduous climb of the challenging 186km route, from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti. Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz stole the show in familiar fashion, powering away over the last nine kilometres after an explosive surge to take a solo victory by 10 seconds from the race leader Isaac del Toro, who won a sprint to the line for second to pad out his overall advantage with bonus seconds. The young Mexican del Toro is now 31 seconds ahead of his UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Ayuso at the head of the general classification. The rest of the main GC contenders came home safely, with Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:24 behind, and top Australian hope Michael Storer 14th at 3:20 down. But former Olympic champ Carapaz's victory has reminded everyone that the man who was winning his first Giro stage since taking the overall race victory in 2019 is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place. The 31-year-old Carapaz hadn't won in 308 days, since victory in last year's Tour de France last year. "It's been a long time," he said. "So this is very, very special for me, and extremely exciting as well, great work. "And I want to dedicate it to my family and to my son. It's his birthday today." There was good news about the recovery of Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion who was forced to abandon after a crash on stage six. Another Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Eurosport: "Jai had a light concussion, but he's feeling okay. "He told me his injury is to a transverse process (one of the bony projections by the side of a vertebra) and he's got a very sore back, but he hopes to be back on the horse ASAP. " Luke Plapp's bid in a breakaway to earn his second win at the Giro d'Italia has fallen short as former champion Richard Carapaz announced himself as a contender for the 2025 crown with a terrific late burst to capture the stage 11 honours. Australian time trial champ Plapp, still on a high after his terrific solo victory on Saturday's eighth stage, was this time at the heart of Wednesday's five-man breakaway that looked set to contest the stage win after battling across the fiendish Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 percent. That was before points leader Mads Pedersen shook the sleeping peloton into life, leading a riveting pursuit and enabling them to catch the quintet on the final slopes of the third arduous climb of the challenging 186km route, from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti. Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz stole the show in familiar fashion, powering away over the last nine kilometres after an explosive surge to take a solo victory by 10 seconds from the race leader Isaac del Toro, who won a sprint to the line for second to pad out his overall advantage with bonus seconds. The young Mexican del Toro is now 31 seconds ahead of his UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Ayuso at the head of the general classification. The rest of the main GC contenders came home safely, with Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:24 behind, and top Australian hope Michael Storer 14th at 3:20 down. But former Olympic champ Carapaz's victory has reminded everyone that the man who was winning his first Giro stage since taking the overall race victory in 2019 is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place. The 31-year-old Carapaz hadn't won in 308 days, since victory in last year's Tour de France last year. "It's been a long time," he said. "So this is very, very special for me, and extremely exciting as well, great work. "And I want to dedicate it to my family and to my son. It's his birthday today." There was good news about the recovery of Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion who was forced to abandon after a crash on stage six. Another Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Eurosport: "Jai had a light concussion, but he's feeling okay. "He told me his injury is to a transverse process (one of the bony projections by the side of a vertebra) and he's got a very sore back, but he hopes to be back on the horse ASAP. " Luke Plapp's bid in a breakaway to earn his second win at the Giro d'Italia has fallen short as former champion Richard Carapaz announced himself as a contender for the 2025 crown with a terrific late burst to capture the stage 11 honours. Australian time trial champ Plapp, still on a high after his terrific solo victory on Saturday's eighth stage, was this time at the heart of Wednesday's five-man breakaway that looked set to contest the stage win after battling across the fiendish Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 percent. That was before points leader Mads Pedersen shook the sleeping peloton into life, leading a riveting pursuit and enabling them to catch the quintet on the final slopes of the third arduous climb of the challenging 186km route, from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti. Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz stole the show in familiar fashion, powering away over the last nine kilometres after an explosive surge to take a solo victory by 10 seconds from the race leader Isaac del Toro, who won a sprint to the line for second to pad out his overall advantage with bonus seconds. The young Mexican del Toro is now 31 seconds ahead of his UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Ayuso at the head of the general classification. The rest of the main GC contenders came home safely, with Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:24 behind, and top Australian hope Michael Storer 14th at 3:20 down. But former Olympic champ Carapaz's victory has reminded everyone that the man who was winning his first Giro stage since taking the overall race victory in 2019 is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place. The 31-year-old Carapaz hadn't won in 308 days, since victory in last year's Tour de France last year. "It's been a long time," he said. "So this is very, very special for me, and extremely exciting as well, great work. "And I want to dedicate it to my family and to my son. It's his birthday today." There was good news about the recovery of Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion who was forced to abandon after a crash on stage six. Another Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Eurosport: "Jai had a light concussion, but he's feeling okay. "He told me his injury is to a transverse process (one of the bony projections by the side of a vertebra) and he's got a very sore back, but he hopes to be back on the horse ASAP. " Luke Plapp's bid in a breakaway to earn his second win at the Giro d'Italia has fallen short as former champion Richard Carapaz announced himself as a contender for the 2025 crown with a terrific late burst to capture the stage 11 honours. Australian time trial champ Plapp, still on a high after his terrific solo victory on Saturday's eighth stage, was this time at the heart of Wednesday's five-man breakaway that looked set to contest the stage win after battling across the fiendish Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 percent. That was before points leader Mads Pedersen shook the sleeping peloton into life, leading a riveting pursuit and enabling them to catch the quintet on the final slopes of the third arduous climb of the challenging 186km route, from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti. Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz stole the show in familiar fashion, powering away over the last nine kilometres after an explosive surge to take a solo victory by 10 seconds from the race leader Isaac del Toro, who won a sprint to the line for second to pad out his overall advantage with bonus seconds. The young Mexican del Toro is now 31 seconds ahead of his UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Ayuso at the head of the general classification. The rest of the main GC contenders came home safely, with Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:24 behind, and top Australian hope Michael Storer 14th at 3:20 down. But former Olympic champ Carapaz's victory has reminded everyone that the man who was winning his first Giro stage since taking the overall race victory in 2019 is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place. The 31-year-old Carapaz hadn't won in 308 days, since victory in last year's Tour de France last year. "It's been a long time," he said. "So this is very, very special for me, and extremely exciting as well, great work. "And I want to dedicate it to my family and to my son. It's his birthday today." There was good news about the recovery of Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion who was forced to abandon after a crash on stage six. Another Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Eurosport: "Jai had a light concussion, but he's feeling okay. "He told me his injury is to a transverse process (one of the bony projections by the side of a vertebra) and he's got a very sore back, but he hopes to be back on the horse ASAP. "
