Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Six-time Asian champion Luke Plapp has done it single, delivering a solo biking masterpiece, and blasting to an outstanding first Grand Tour victory on the ninth stage of the Girod’Italia.
With 46 kilometers left to go before the finish line in Castelraimondo on Saturday, the 24-year-old from Melbourne launched a significant assault on the 197-kilometer mountain route from Giulianova.
But his enormous engine and power allowed him to escape the sand on a steep climb before negotiating more treks to continue and claim his second WorldTour victory.
After almost four and a half hours in the saddle to get by 38 seconds,” Plappy,” the horse from Australian staff Jayco AlUla, chuckled in astonishment.
He won the second time in Australia at the 108th Giro, two weeks after Kaden Groves clinched step six in Naples.
After a disjointed 2025 strategy when he had surgery on his wounded wrist, Plapp, who is three times a champion of the American street race and a triple federal time trial champion, came back with a great comeback.
He had been traveling on his time trial way when he crashed on only the next step of the Giro in Albania.
Diego Ulissi, the entire leader, came in third place behind Juan Ayuso, while Wilco Kelderman of Visma-Lease a Bike came in second.
When the Italian was informed that the” Maglia Rosa” was his, he screamed in delight at winning the top prize in his country’s largest race.
