![\"Q&A:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/CORVOS_00037929-079.jpg\")
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News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n The 24-year-old breaks down his first WorldTour victory, the challenging period before that, and what might be next.<\/p>\n The 2025 season is proving to be something of a breakout for Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla). The 24-year-old is a proven performer at home in Australia, with six national titles already \u2013 three on the road, three in the ITT \u2013 but before this year, he hadn\u2019t won a race in Europe.<\/p>\n In early April though, in his first race back after wrist surgery, Plapp won a stage of the UCI 2.1 Tour of Hellas (the Tour of Greece). He wouldn\u2019t have to wait long for his second win on European soil \u2013 a victory that was much bigger than his first. On a mountainous stage 8 of the Giro d\u2019Italia, Plapp fought his way into the breakaway, then attacked solo with 45 km remaining to take his first WorldTour win<\/a>, at a Grand Tour no less.<\/p>\n Plapp didn\u2019t finish the Giro \u2013 he withdrew on stage 17 due to illness \u2013 but the race was still a successful one; not just for him, but for his Jayco AlUla team. Plapp’s teammate Chris Harper won the incredible penultimate stage<\/a> too, a day that will go down in Grand Tour folklore for the remarkable way it decided the race overall.<\/p>\n A little over a week after leaving the Giro, Plapp took the time to catch up with Escape to reflect on his race, his season more generally, and what might come next. Speaking from his new European base of Monaco, Plapp still sounded hoarse and congested. In his words, he’s been as \u201csick as a dog\u201d since leaving the Giro, but he feels like he’s now turning a corner.<\/p>\n The following interview transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and fluency.<\/p>\n Matt de Neef: I want to get to the Giro in a sec, but I just wanted to talk a bit about the lead-up first. You had a good start to the year and then you had wrist surgery, and I think you had 10 weeks before your next race. What was that layoff like?<\/strong><\/p>\n Luke Plapp: Yeah, it was tough. So I re-injured my wrist just after Christmas, just before Nationals [while descending Mt. Buffalo<\/a> in north-east Victoria \u2013 ed.] and raced Nationals and TDU really, really sore but knew how good the legs were so I wanted to really try and still make the most of Nats with TDU as the really big focus this year. And went into TDU feeling pretty good and then on the last day at Willunga, it really, really got sore.<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Matt-de-Neef-150x150.jpg\")
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