When Luke Plapp was a student at Maribyrnong Sports Academy his vision was quite clear, become a World Champion. Since leaving MSA and entering the professional ranks of the cycling world, Luke has become so much closer to achieving that dream.
Luke started at Maribyrnong Sports Academy in 2015 as a year 9 student and came to the school under the cricket program. He began cycling at the age of 12 to help him stay fit during the Football and Cricket seasons, and to also ride with his dad on the Sunday morning coffee run.
Strength and Conditioning coach at MSA Todd Carlon worked daily with Luke during his 3 years at the college and says he has never seen the leg strength that Luke displayed by any junior. “Luke's greatest advantage was his want to do more work than everyone else. Luke used to have a quote that he would use to motivate himself saying "Send It"“
Luke deferred his VCE year in 2018 to concentrate on the Junior World Championships, a decision which proved to be very fruitful. Luke won the Junior World Championship in both the points race and the Madison, and took silver in the Time Trial. This was the breakout year that was about to propel Luke into the stratosphere.
In 2020 he became the U23 National Time Trial champion and followed that up the following year by winning the open National Time Trial. In 2021 Luke was a part of the Australian Cycling Team participating at the Tokyo Olympics in the Team Pursuit winning a Bronze medal. In 2022 he was signed as a fulltime rider to the Professional team Ineos Grenadiers.
Luke has now changed professional teams and has signed for the Australian UCI WorldTeam, Team Jayco – AlUla. We look forward to keeping an eye on Luke’s performance on the World tour and we hope he will once again make his presence felt in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.