Team Jayco-AlUla has announced the signing of Luke Plapp. The two-time Australian road champion (2022 and 2023) will join the team from Down Under for the 2024 season. The 22-year-old has signed a long-term contract until the end of 2027.
Brent Copeland on the transfer of Luke Plapp
"There is no doubt that Luke is incredibly talented. To welcome him to our team on a four-year contract is very pleasing," says Brent Copeland, manager of the Jayco-AlUla team.
Copeland emphasises that Plapp will continue to develop as a class rider with his new employer. "Luke is still a very young rider; we are motivated to work with him and let him grow with us as a team into the future. With our strengthened climbing squad for the coming season, Luke will have good support around him. We're looking forward to him attacking in terms of the overall classification and continuing to aim for top results in the time trial."
Luke Plapp alongside Simon Yates and Eddie Dunbar
Standing 1.81 metres tall and weighing 72 kilograms, Plapp showed that he has potential as a tour rider with a second place in the overall standings of the 2023 UAE Tour in February and third place in the 2022 Tour of Norway. At Jayco-AlUla, Plapp will face Simon Yates, fourth in the 2023 Tour de France, and Eddie Dunbar, who achieved his first top result in a Grand Tour with seventh place in the Giro d'Italia.
However, the first major goal for 2024 is to defend the title at the Australian Championships. These traditionally take place in January. "I'm such a proud Australian and to be riding for an Australian team now is an honour. I can't wait to get started. The next four years with this team are going to be fantastic," says Luke Plapp, who is also a very good track rider. He won bronze in the team pursuit at the 2021 Olympics and was also Junior World Champion in the points and two-man team race in 2018.
What happens at Ineos Grenadiers?
While Jayco-AlUla already has 29 riders under contract for the coming season and the personnel planning should be largely finalised, Ineos Grenadiers has to cope with the next departure of a very strong rider.
Following the Australian's departure, the British team's roster for 2024 comprises just 26 riders. Leaving the team are Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ben Tulett (Jumbo-Visma). The World Tour's team with the biggest budget (Estimated budget of 50 million euros) has so far only presented the Spaniard Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) and the 18-year-old American Andrew August.
