AUSTRALIAN cycling star Luke Plapp has powered clear of his rivals in an enthralling finish to claim his second straight national men’s road race championship in Buninyong on Sunday.<\/p>\n
In his second year as a professional, Plapp looked spent midway through the 185.6-kilometre race.<\/p>\n
But the 22-year-old Ineos Grenadiers rider dug deep to recover and was involved in a four-way battle on the final lap of the testing circuit.<\/p>\n
Plapp attacked multiple times in hot conditions before finally breaking free with little more than one kilometre left in the final straight along Warrenheip Street.<\/p>\n
Tour de France stage winner Simon Clarke riding for Israel-Premier Tech finished second, with world championships bronze medallist Michael Matthews on the Jayco AlUla team crossing third.<\/p>\n
Drew Morey in Kinan colours came in a credible fourth.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know how to play it today,” Plapp said. “I really just tried to bide my time and I don’t know what happened on that last lap.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe I pulled it off.”<\/p>\n
Plapp admitted before the race he was underdone following a pre-Christmas training crash, in which he lost a lot of skin.<\/p>\n
He said he tried to pick Clarke’s brains during the Bay Crits last week and drew on that experience in the closing stages of the national championships.<\/p>\n
“I knew having him there I had to race really smart and try to think what he would do,” Plapp said.<\/p>\n
“I was almost lucky that Bling [Matthews] was there because they all looked at him and that gave me the chance.”<\/p>\n
Sprint star Caleb Ewan overcame illness that forced his withdrawal from Friday’s criterium to take part in the road race but was not a factor in the finish.<\/p>\n
A day before, Queenslander Alastair MacKellar riding for the Israel Cycling Academy team took out the under 23 men\u2019s national championship.<\/p>\n
Over the 139.2 kilometre, MacKellar seemed unstoppable, powering through small groups of the fragmented field before launching a major offensive up the Midland Highway and going on to solo to the finish.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s U23 Oceania road race champion Brady Gilmore on ARA Skip Capital claimed silver with Alex Bogna of the Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team in third.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve raced this course for a couple of years now and I got a bit worried when the break got out to three plus minutes there, but I knew it\u2019s always the last one or two laps that split this race apart and I knew the legs were good,\u201d MacKellar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re at the breakaway all day, it taxes you, so to be able to save as much energy as I could in the pelo and go as late as I could, you can make a lot of time up on that climb.\u201d<\/p>\n