Australian champion Luke Plapp looked set for a powerful showing at the Paris Olympic Games individual time trial after he popped up high on the standings after the first time check, but his race then came to a sudden end after he crashed in the wet and slippery conditions.
The broadcast didn't show how the crash came to pass but in social media footage Plapp can be seen being carefully helped up by Australian team support from near a barrier on the rain-soaked road. The fall occurred as he headed into the technical section, through the middle of the course, and he was forced to abandon.
"Plapp was taken to hospital, where he is in a stable condition awaiting the results of scans," said AusCycling in an initial media release.
Later the Australian team sent an update that said: "23-year-old cyclist Lucas Plapp underwent abdominal surgery tonight in a Paris hospital after crashing in wet conditions during the men’s individual road time trial.
"Plapp slid under a barrier fence shortly after passing the first checkpoint approximately 14 kilometres into the 32-kilometre course. His parents and an Australian team doctor were at the hospital with him."
The team added that further medical details were not available for release at this time.
The current national time trial and road champion was the 26th rider of 34 to take to the start line at the 32.4km time trial, which was won by World Champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). Plapp was just one second back from bronze medallist Wout van Aert (Belgium) when he raced through the first time check at 13.1km and held the fourth spot at that point behind Evenepoel and silver medallist Filippo Ganna (Italy) once all the riders had gone through.
That initial intermediate time check had raised hopes that Australia, who had already secured gold with Grace Brown in the women's time trial, could also be on track for another medal in the men's event on Saturday. However, there was no sign of Plapp on the results at the second intermediate point at 22km, with news of his crash emerging later.
Plapp had entered the Olympics with a solid time trial run-in that started when he recouped the national title in January and he then rounded it off at the Giro d'Italia – where he finished seventh and fifth in the stages against the clock. That delivered a final pre-Olympics confidence boost in a season where he had honed his focus on the discipline.
The rider from Victoria won bronze at the Olympic Games on the track as part of the Tokyo Olympic Games Team Pursuit squad but his focus turned to the road in 2024, with Plapp also on the roster for the men's elite road race on Saturday August 3. The original plan for that event, before the crash, had been for Plapp to ride in support of Michael Matthews, alongside Simon Clarke.
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