Six-time Australian champion Luke Plapp has gone it alone to deliver a solo cycling masterpiece and blast to an outstanding maiden Grand Tour triumph on the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia.
The 24-year-old from Melbourne made his decisive attack on the 197km mountainous route from Giulianova with 46 arduous kilometres still left to go to the finish in Castelraimondo on Saturday.
Yet his power and huge engine, which had helped him get into the breakaway with 100km left, then enabled Plapp to leave his fellow breakaway riders in the dust on a steep ascent before negotiating two more formidable climbs alone and earn his first ever WorldTour win.
