🎥 Crash Plapp in time trial: Badly battered Australian under the knife after heavy fall in rain

He seemed well on his way to a fine finish in the Olympic time trial on Saturday afternoon. Luke Plapp rode a lightning-fast time at the first intermediate point, but crashed hard right after. Very hard in fact. So hard that his time trial was cancelled and he had to go under the knife. The Australian Cycling Federation reports this in a message on its website.

Soon after, images went up on X showing a disoriented Plapp, lying against the fences. The Australian lay battered and the damage appeared to be considerable.

"Although his fall was not shown in the broadcast, a video on social media showed the aftermath of the fall, in which Plapp - conscious and in motion - was helped off the ground by a member of the Australian Olympic team," the report said. "Plapp underwent abdominal surgery at a Paris hospital overnight. Further medical details are not available at this time."

The Jayco-AlUla rider is scheduled to (in principle) participate in the road race, but that participation seems highly uncertain now. Together with Michael Matthews, Plapp forms the duo for Australia on paper.