Source : ABC NEWS
Luke Durbridge has won the Australian national men’s road race title for the first time in 11 years, after being gifted the win by three-time defending champion Luke Plapp.
Durbridge led from the first of 13 laps, bursting away with Paris Olympic track gold medallist Conor Leahy, before attacking solo with just over 80km to go.
As Durbridge’s solo lead stretched to just over three minutes, a collection of riders behind failed to organise an effective chase.
However, as the West Australian faltered after three-and-a-half hours in the saddle, Plapp bridged the gap and looked for all money like he would go on to claim an unprecedented fourth-straight title.
Luke Durbridge owes Luke Plapp a huge amount of thanks for the victory. (Supplied: Cycling Australia/Chris Auld)
But instead of jumping away from his Jayco AlUla teammate, Plapp guided the 33-year-old through the final 13.7km lap and to victory in a heartwarming display of teamwork.
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After summitting the final climb arm in arm, Plapp allowed his veteran teammate to glide away to reclaim the title he won in 2013.
“It’s amazing,” Durbridge said immediately after the race.
“It hasn’t really sunk in. That’s one of the proudest moments of my life.”
With some of Australia’s greatest and brightest riders, including Jay Vine, Chris Harper and former Giro d’Italia champion Jai Hindley all attacking off the front to try and close Durbridge down, his Jayco AlUla teammates shadowed and thwarted every attack.
As Durbridge started to flag up ahead, Plapp was given the green light to attack from the bunch with 15km to go, catching his teammate as the bell sounded for the final lap.
“I’ve just got to thank Luke Plapp at the end there,” Durbridge said.
“It was looking pretty dire straits … he’s a true champion.
“I don’t know what would have happened if he didn’t come across, but he gave that to me and I can’t thank him enough.
“Both quads had gone and my back too, he just said ‘hold the wheel and it’s yours.’ I just had to suffer.”
Liam Walsh finished in third place, with Harper fifth, Vine sixth and Hindley ninth.
Held in Perth for the first time since 1997 after 18 years in Victoria, Durbridge was a popular winner, having grown up in Perth’s eastern suburbs and having regularly trained on these roads.
Youngster Stewart stuns elites
Lucinda Stewart is the youngest elite women’s road race champion since 2019. (AAP Image: AusCycling/Chris Auld)
Earlier in the women’s race, 20-year-old Lucinda Stewart stunned a high-quality field to claim both the U23 and elite race victories.
Stewart, of Liv AlUla Jayco’s continental development team, won the 109km race in a four-up sprint ahead of former ARA-Skip Capital teammate Ella Simpson, Cassia Boglio and Katelyn Nicholson in two hours 46 minutes and 59 seconds.
“I actually have no words,” Stewart, who leaves for Europe on Tuesday to meet her new teammates, said post-race.
“I’m just stoked to be able to pull this off.”
Stewart is the youngest winner of the women’s elite road title since Sarah Gigante won it as an 18-year-old in 2019.
That quartet were part of a five-woman breakaway that established a massive lead of over six minutes on the circuit, catching out a number of the pre-race favourites with an attack launched on the second of the eight laps.
Amber Pate and Amanda Spratt eventually, belatedly realised the danger that group posed and gave chase with just under 40km remaining.
However, they could only cut the lead of that group in half, finishing two minutes and six seconds behind, with Sarah Roy leading home the rest of the peloton, four minutes, 55 seconds back.
“I just feel so much pride in these colours,” Stewart said.
“I look up to these girls, my teammates, so, so much and I have so much respect for them. I know how strong they are and to be the only one in the break from my team I knew I had to pull it off, there was no other option.
“I definitely felt the pressure … I knew how much those girls had worked and I just really wanted to pull it off for them.”
Liv AlUla Jayco team director Gene Bates said he was “a bit surprised” that none of the other teams tried to stop the gap from growing so large
“That really played into our hands in the end, so we couldn’t be happier” he said.
