Australia heads to World Championship Time Trial with possibly Evenepoel’s two biggest challengers, but recon brings reality check

Luke Plapp and Jay Vine have been working towards the time trial in Kigali for a long time. Vine already made an impression in the Vuelta a España, but Plapp has been invisible for a while. The Australian from Jayco-AlUla has never managed to convince at the World Time Trial Championships, but has often shown that he can be a very dangerous customer outside of that event.

However, after exploring Rwanda, he does not have much positive to say. “It's a challenging course, it will be a very tough race,” Plapp told Cycling Pro. “It's a bit better for the climbers, Remco and Pogi will be licking their lips at this circuit. There's a lot of climbing, a lot of time standing on the pedals, and the descents are so fast that there's very little time to recover.”

The 24-year-old fast rider doesn't want to talk about a world title, even though on paper it's not a bad course for him. “I just want to ride my best race on the day and then see what that brings. Pogi, Remco, and even Jay are clearly at the top. They're going to fight for it. If I ride my best race, I'm curious to see what that's worth.”

Whereas someone like Vine has three weeks of racing under his belt, Plapp rode his last race in the Clasica San Sebastian, where he finished seventh. "San Sebastian was a while ago, so I'm just trying to get my body moving again and get back into the mindset of racing. I can't wait, I'm really looking forward to it."

Australia once again has several options for the road race, including Jai Hindley. “We're an under-the-radar team, if I'm honest, but it's just like in the Worlds last year, where we had a really strong team and we got a guy on the podium at the end,” the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe climber explained to Cyclingnews during the Vuelta. Last year, Ben O'Connor finished second in Zurich.

In Spain, the 2022 Giro winner just fell short of a place on the final podium, but his climbing legs are in great shape. “I think we have a really great team, with some guys who are really in form. Hopefully I can come out of the Vuelta in pretty good nick, and it's always special to race for the Aussie team, when you get the opportunity. This year, the Worlds on paper is a super-hard course, and I think it'll be a pretty interesting one.”

Callum Scotson will settle into a domestique role, under Hindley. He predicts a very tough race in Rwanda, something that should suit the Australian team. “It's interesting, because no one really knows how it can pan out, with so many climbing metres, some cobbles… everyone will be interested in what the course is really like.”

The question in the Australian selection is: who will be the leader? “I don't know who Australia is thinking of as their leader for the road race, but I imagine there are maybe three or so guys who can play their cards, and at least here on the Vuelta, we've seen that Jay Vine and Jai Hindley are in great form. There could be one or two others, too, who could turn up and are ready to fight for a result.”