For the last two years, while racing with Ineos Grenadiers at the Australian Road National Championships Luke Plapp may have been a lone ranger, but nevertheless, he has managed to claim the green and gold jersey in the road race both times.
This time, however, Plapp will be lining up with Jayco-AlUla – the team with strength in numbers that everyone will be looking at to control the race.
The only Australian WorldTour team undoubtedly would like to reassert its dominance when it comes to the regular turn around the Buninyong circuit, and now they have the winner of the last two editions within their fold.
The question is, will it be possible for Plapp to win again when, instead of aiming to break apart the defences of the dominant team, he now forms part of it?
"It's going to be so different," Plapp told Cyclingnews in the month leading into the race. "I think I've been so used to wrapping my head around tactics of how to win solo, and now I've got a lot of teammates to race with."
Whether that turns out to be a boon or a burden for the rider as he lines up with the possibility of a third consecutive title in view, we will have to wait to find out on Sunday, January 7. Every rider on the Jayco-AIUIa team will be marked, as was Plapp when the defending champion struck out to take victory in 2023: but this time round, there is more than that marking element at play.
The team is taking such a strong group into the race that it may not necessarily be Plapp who gets the chance to take victory for his team.
"I think, first of all, we've just got to get the jersey in the team, and I think they've missed it for a couple of years – which I've loved them not having the jersey," Plapp said with a grin, given he was the rider who shifted the title away from the team the past two years. "But yeah, I hope whether it's me or whether it's someone else, we really just need that jersey back in the team.
"It'll also help show that that Australian heritage is back in and saying like, we're back winning, we're back at winning with Aussies. And I think, yeah, there just is a lot more pride at every race if you turn up in the Aussie team with the Aussie national jersey."
Plapp isn't the only rider making his debut on the Jayco-AlUla roster at the Australian Road National Championships, and he seemed enthused about the prospect that perhaps fellow new recruit Caleb Ewan – who has returned to the Australian team after five years with Lotto-Soudal – could be the one to chase the stripes on Sunday.
"I actually have been a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to showcase the jersey in Europe on the podium and be at the front of the race," said Plapp, who had a tough season with illness and injury in 2023. "Having Caleb in the team, if he could win the Aussie champs, that would be so special.
"Seeing that jersey winning or being in the front of sprints – when I was growing up, and you'd see Robbie [McEwen] or Gerro [Simon Gerrans] winning in Europe in the Aussie jersey, it was really special.
"It definitely inspired me when I was younger, and I didn't get to do that for other people. I hope that maybe Caleb could hopefully win the jersey and then win on that bigger stage. For Australian cycling particularly, that would be massive for kids to see him back."
Ewan came second in the Australian Championships in 2015, and last year, even while he finished 18th, he impressed by holding firm through nearly all of the 16 ascents of the Mount Buninyong Road climb.
However, the action on the last ascent of Buninyong blew the field apart and set Ewan back, and as a Lotto-Soudal rider, he didn't have the benefit of a strong team to help control the race or pull him back into contention. This year that will be different.
Time trial focus
Even if Plapp doesn't end up being the one to chase green and gold for the team in the road race – though it's hard not to see him as the best chance for the squad given his back-to-back wins in 2022 and 2023 – he has a big target before then on Thursday, January 4, when the elite men's individual time trial will be held.
"I'd rather focus on something that's in my control and then at the end of the day, as long as the jerseys in the team for the road race, that'd be awesome," said Plapp.
In 2021, Plapp shifted to the elite category early and immediately claimed the time trial honours. However, since then, the race against the clock hasn't gone his way, with the rider missing the event in 2022 and then having a mechanical in 2023 when the title was won by Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates).
Vine won't be present in Ballarat in 2024 to defend the title, with the rider not making the trip to Australia this year, and while there will still be a strong field of contenders, Plapp is clearly the key favourite. It not only his position as a past winner that makes this the case, but also the clear show of form in the lead up with the rider obviously highly motivated and showing the benefits of his training ramp up at the Tour of Bright, which he won with a flying final stage up Mount Buffalo.
"I'm really, really excited to get stuck into it with the team and that's why I really want to make a good first impression and be going well and really hit the ground running," said Plapp.
So, no matter how the road race goes, it's looking likely that even as Plapp changes teams in 2024 there may still be some consistency in the colour of the jersey on his back. Green and gold is clearly a colour he doesn't want to give up.
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