As Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) was celebrating a brilliant Giro d’Italia stage win into Siena yesterday – after savaging racing across the white gravel roads of Tuscany – Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) was fighting up the slopes of the final climb to the finish on Piazza del Campo.
The Irishman was in a group with the likes of Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and race favourite Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) racing for 15th on the stage. Rafferty told stickybottle he was pleased with his performance, which he said whet his appetite for giving Strade Bianche “a rattle” in the years ahead, having won the U23 version of the race three years ago.
He also reflected on his Giro so far and how he feels this season has progressed as a second-year World Tour rider. He explains how he feels different as a rider compared to his 2024 neo-pro season. But first, what about that epic 180km stage 9 into Siena yesterday?
“I was pretty empty to be honest, the legs were gone,” he laughed of battling up that final climb and losing just over 20 seconds to Pidcock in the final 500m. “There was just a fight to finish on that climb because it’s so bloody steep. You can lose time pretty quickly.”
Rafferty explained he was in the bunch – with team leader Richard Carapaz – until the white gravel sectors began with just over 110km completed and about 70km remaining to the finish. He was in a poor position entering the first sector and when a group of approximately 40-45 rode clear, he wasn’t in it.
However, as the day progressed, and riders up front began to suffer, Rafferty was in the chasing group with Pidcock, Roglič, Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), among others. At the end of the stage, they had caught so many riders only 14 men were on the road ahead of them.
Pidcock led in Rafferty’s group. The Briton was 2:22 down on stage winner, van Aert and new race leader Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and 1:20 down on the best of those chasing the lead duo; Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Carapaz in 3rd and 4th.
“We were hoovering up quite a few riders that got dropped or had a puncture or crashed; legs just fell off in the front group,” Rafferty said of stage as it progress over the gravel sectors, adding he was “in general, pretty pleased” with his performance.
“Obviously some of those big GC riders had punctures or whatever. But it was nice to be in that group and to be involved,” he said. “Also it was nice just to push myself a bit and get involved with the racing.”
The Irishman and his team mate, James Shaw, were about one minute down on Carapaz for most of the final 60km. If the Ecuadorian – who won the Giro in 2019 – suffered a mechanical issue, his two young team mates would have soon caught him and been able to help; the main reason they battled to stay in the case group.
Rafferty had already raced the white gravel sectors before yesterday’s 180km stage as he previously rode the U23 Strade Bianche – Strade Bianche di Romagna (1.2U) – winning the 2022 edition of that race.
“I enjoyed the sectors,” he said of yesterday. “I started just a bit out of position, about 60-65 (riders back) and the rush into the sectors was pretty chaotic. I was staying out of the way and letting (Kasper) Asgreen do the guidance for Richie. And once I actually hit the sectors I could move up a good few places.
“But by the time we got to the end of the first one, the split had already happened. But I felt relatively strong in that second group and we held the time gap to the front group for pretty much the last 60 to 65k. There wasn’t really too much difference in the speed. The first sector was where all the difference was made.”
Rafferty drawn to Strade Bianche
And having coped with the mix of gravel and climbing – with 2,400m of elevation gain yesterday – Rafferty said he would love to take on the spring one-day race, Strade Bianche (1.UWT), which tackles the same gravel sectors and the same climbs.
“Definitely, going forward, Strade is a race I’d really love to do. It’s been disappointing to miss out on it the last two years. So I definitely would love to give it a bit of a rattle and see what it’s all about now that I have a taste of it. The Strade under 23 race was a bit different. Yesterday was obviously the first time with the pro bunch.”
Reflecting on the first nine days of the Giro, Rafferty said he has felt better as the race has progressed; an analysis not many other riders would offer up.
“The general gist is that everyone just gets a bit more fatigued,” he said of stage racing. “But, honestly, the sensations for me have been getting slightly better since day one. I didn’t start off super hot, I was a bit off the boil. Now I feel the legs are coming around quite nicely. And the shape should hopefully improve for the hillier days to come.”
Once those climbs arrive, Rafferty said his role – and that of everyone in the team – is to help Carapaz, who is now 4th overall after riding very strongly yesterday at the front, all the way to the finish line to take 3rd.
“It means getting Richie bottles, giving him a rain jacket, generally being there to give him a gel or to close a gap,” Rafferty explain of the ‘all in for Richie’ confidence in the team camp after nine stages.
“That’s the reason why all seven of us are at this race; to give Richie our full support. We’ll fight for position and make sure he doesn’t really have to touch much wind. And then after that, our personal results don’t really matter a whole pile.
“Richie is looking extremely sharp, in really good shape. So the belief and the confidence within this team, and the staff, is there; that he can do a really good job by the time we get to Rome. And for us, it’s good to get the two TTs out of the way in the first half of the race. Then we’ll see where we are and we can work on tactics for the stages to come.”
Though the gaps between most of the riders in the top 10, after Carapaz, are modest, he now has a 45-second advantage on race favourite Roglič going into tomorrow’s stage 10 TT. Rafferty said that buffer meant Carapaz, and the team, were not “trying to chase to make up time we’d lost”, unlike last year’s Vuelta.
Second year as a pro
Overall, Rafferty said while his results have not been sensational so far this season, he has worked hard and ridden for the team. He is confident about the role he has been playing and the quality of the racing and training he has undertaken and absorbed as he continues to develop as a bike rider.
“I’ve felt decent,” he said the his pre-Giro period, which saw him ride Tour de la Provence (2.1) in February, followed by Tour des Alpes-Maritimes (2.1), Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (2.UWT) and Tour de Romandie (2.UWT).
“A lot of the season has been based around preparing for coming here. I had Romandie just before this and then I had an altitude camp just after Catalunya in April. So it’s been a pretty focused block on the road with the team; (two blocks of) 4 or 4 1/2 weeks away putting the work in.
“The work has gone really well, I feel like the results haven’t been anything spectacular. But I also know in the back of my head the performance has been there. I’m doing a job most of the time, it’s not just racing for myself. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. Not everything looks great on a results page but the team has been in a great place in the races we’ve been doing.”
Overall, he says the biggest difference between this year and his first season as a World Tour rider last year is the ability to better manage the racing and training load of top tier pro cycling, while being more familiar with the racing style.
“It’s probably similar to the same feeling I had as a second-year under 23,” he said. “You become a bit more accustomed to how the races go. You’re not expecting a break to stay away and you’re a bit more confident the bunch has control. You can just read the race a bit better. The races all have a similar enough flow to them.
“I also feel like I’ve absorbed the race days a bit better. Last year when I was doing races like Catalunya or Romandie I was three or four days recovering from the week of racing. But now I feel on the Monday or Tuesday that I’m already back to myself. It doesn’t take as much out of the body. So going forward, you can start adding longer blocks of training between hard races.”
And looking beyond this Giro, what’s in store?
“Probably the long vision view is on the Worlds. I’m, provisionally, supposed to do Route d’Occitanie after the Giro. From July 1st onwards I’m not that sure what I’m doing. It’s a question of getting through this race, seeing how the shape is, how the fatigue is.
“Then I’ll discuss with the team what I’d like to do and take it from there. There’s usually not too much racing on at the same time as the Tour. So it will probably be altitude or I’ll just train at home preparing for August and September.”
