Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) has been seen racing with a heavily taped up left wrist during the Tour Down Under, telling Cyclingnews that he crashed in December and it has been sore ever since.
"It was just before New Year's, I was just doing some efforts and descending my favourite mountain, Mount Buffalo, and just came off. But I haven't missed a day of training and I think I haven't missed a beat in racing, to be honest, either," Plapp said.
Although there was chatter online suggesting the wrist was broken, Plapp said he just "re-aggravated" the same wrist that he injured in a crash during last year's Tour Down Under on stage 3.
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"It's just ligaments and sore. There's no damage to it and the doctors have cleared me and everything so it's just more precaution than anything. I found last year when I raced for a few months through Paris-Nice and the Giro [d'Italia], it just helped having it taped, so I'm just doing that again.
"I had problems with this wrist as well last year from the Tour Down Under crash so it's troubled me for a year or so - then [the injury] is the exact same spot as it was last year."
Despite his wrist injury, Plapp was aggressive while racing for the stage win on Willunga Hill on Saturday, attacking numerous times on the final ascent before finishing fourth on the stage behind winner Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). That result moved him up to sixth overall.
"You could see when I was attacking, I was happy to be out of the saddle ... so it's fine.
"I'm really happy with how [Australian road] nationals went with a sore wrist, and I'm pretty happy with how the legs are this race. So it obviously hasn't affected me too much," the Australian time trial title winner and road race runner-up said. "Yesterday, I was right up there in the mix fighting for the stage. So really happy with how everything is going."
While some pundits have criticised him for sitting at the back of the peloton, which can be risky in the event of a crash, Plapp was tail-gunning the final stage of the Tour Down Under, too.
"I think every race I'm towards the back. I don't think this race is any different to what I was doing all year last year. I'm just happy cruising back there. I don't think it has cost me this race at all," he concluded.
