Watch all the best , with the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes and much more.
It came down to Plapp and Harper arm-in-arm in the final few hundred metres, taking the congratulations of the crowd after one of the most dominant performances in Australian Road Nationals road race history. Plapp was allowed by Harper to take the win, allowed to Plapp to complete a historic hattrick, and also appearing the stronger rider on the day.
“I think the Aussies are back, Greenedge is back,” said Plapp after the finish. “I think from the gun, we had everything under control. Me and Harps had a great time out there, I can’t thank him enough.
“We saw we had everyone on the ropes from how the team were early and once we (gesturing at Harper) were out there, we always had it in the bag.”
The pair had been active in the first two breakaways of the day, eventually making the decisive move with 103 kilometres to go on the early slopes of Mt Buninyong and inexorably pushing out their lead.
“Plappy and I have come across the line for 1-2, hopefully Kell’s about to make it 3, but it really was a team effort,” said Harper. “We had numbers and could dictate the race really. Plappy was flying, at the end I had to tell him to ease up a bit for me. A great day.”
Stream free On Demand
Men's Road Race Highlights
episode • Australian Road National Championships 2024 • cycling • 16m
episode • Australian Road National Championships 2024 • cycling • 16m
How it happened
The early breakaway was an important one in determining the direction of the race, with a strong Jayco-AlUla presence including Chris Harper and other notable individual riders like Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) marking the move as a dangerous one. Such was the composition of the move that defending champion Luke Plapp decided to use some energy to shoot across from the rapidly dwindling peloton to the climb, and Jayco-AlUla also had Lucas Hamilton come across soon after with namesake Chris Hamilton (dsm firmenich-PostNL).
That prompted a general chase from the peloton and with 136 kilometres left to race, the front of the race saw a regrouping with an elite selection from the initial peloton, the riders still in with a shot at winning the race well down on the 102 starters in the early afternoon in Buninyong.
Attacks went again, and 10 kilometres later a new breakaway was formed, with Clarke, Plapp and former winner Miles Scotson (Arkea-Samic) off the front of the race. They were joined by Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic), Sam Welsford, Kell O’Brien (Jayco-AlUla), Liam Walsh (Team Bridgelane) and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) with Harper flying across solo in a strong effort to bridge.
There was a small, skirmishing attack with 103 kilometres left with Harper and Welsford jumping clear, and the next ascent up Mt Buninyong, Plapp sprang past them in an attack from the group behind, with only Harper able to respond. That would be the move that would go all the way to the finish, with Plapp and Harper working well together to steadily extend their lead, Plapp waving to friends and winking at the camera as he clearly enjoyed his ride with his new teammate to the finish.
The only remaining question was how the winner would be decided between the two teammates and who would join them on the podium. In the end, it was Plapp who was ushered to the line by Harper, taking a historic three consecutive wins in the elite men’s road race, also doubling up for the championships with his time trial success.
Behind, Chris Hamilton forced clear a move on the penultimate lap, with Kell O’Brien and Elliot Schultz (Team Bridgelane) joining him. They came into the finish together six minutes behind the runaway pair, with O’Brien the strongest in the final sprint to claim a 1-2-3 finish for Jayco-AlUla.
