{"id":360110,"date":"2024-01-15T18:54:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T19:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360110"},"modified":"2024-01-15T20:01:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T20:01:49","slug":"aussie-olympians-bold-claim-ahead-of-tour-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360110","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Olympian's bold claim ahead of Tour Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympian<\/a> Luke Plapp is full of confidence after his third consecutive victory at the Australian road nationals.<\/p>\n

Now, the young star believes his Jayco-AlUla team can make history at this week's Tour Down Under<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"We're looking to win every single stage down the GC (general classification)," Plapp declared at the pre-race press conference.<\/p>\n

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"I think that's a good team target and I really feel confident that we've got a great group of riders here."<\/p>\n

The Tour Down Under is the biggest cycling race in the southern hemisphere and has been running since 1999.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

No team has ever claimed victory on every stage and the overall.<\/p>\n

Even though Plapp has set the bar high for the home team, he believes it will be his British teammate \u2013 last year's second place finisher Simon Yates \u2013 alongside Caleb Ewan who will make short work of this week's competition.<\/p>\n

"He's (Simon) the team leader and he is here for a reason, and we've also got Caleb (Ewan) who is in some really red-hot form," he said.<\/p>\n

"I think we saw that at nationals as well and he's really motivated and wants to start his season off really strongly.<\/p>\n

"I think this course suits him even better having Willunga, so I'd love to play a part in helping him succeed and win the race and then see how I can fare in that as well.<\/p>\n

"I'd love to be up there too, but at the end of the day we are here to win."<\/p>\n

Jayco bringing a stacked squad to the first race of the season is a clear sign pressure is mounting on the Australian team to produce a result on home soil, but they won't have it all their own way.<\/p>\n

Fellow Australian sprinter and dual Olympian Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe) alongside Biniam Girmay (Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) will challenge Ewan in the sprints.<\/p>\n

Climbers Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) will also look to deny Jayco-Alula's ride at creating history.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Although Alaphilippe, a previous two-time world champion, enters the race with unknown form, the Frenchman starred in previous years and now seeks to return to the sport's pinnacle.<\/p>\n

The thought of competing at a home Olympics at Paris 2024 is even more motivation.<\/p>\n

"I don't know, but for sure I'm motivated to do my best," Alaphilippe said.<\/p>\n

"You never know how you will feel during the first race of the season. It'll be the first big effort … and with the heat, you have to be careful.<\/p>\n

"It's an important year for me to try to come back on my best level and I will give my best so I have no stress.<\/p>\n

"I just want to enjoy."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympian Luke Plapp is full of confidence after his third consecutive victory at the Australian road nationals. Now, the young star believes his Jayco-AlUla team […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360115,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360110\/revisions\/360115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/360112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}