By Shane Stokes
National junior coach Martin O’Loughlin has hailed the progress of Darren Rafferty, saying that the Irish time trial and road race champion has built steadily and consistently in recent seasons and that he has shown serious potential.
O'Loughlin also spoke to stickybottle about how many young riders are training and being coached like professionals from the time they are aged 14 years, with the early success of some young riders down to that lifestyle; something he says Rafferty's coach has kept him away from.
Rafferty had a very successful season in 2021 and has secured a contract with the Hagens Berman Axeon team for next year. The American Continental-level squad previously guided Eddie Dunbar plus a host of other riders to WorldTour contracts and successful pro careers. Joining the team gives Rafferty a platform to doing the same.
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“Darren is somebody that was so unlucky during Covid,” O’Loughlin told stickybottle. “He should have been defending his Junior Tour title this year and possibly going out to win the Junior Tour of Ireland twice, and yet he never got a chance to ride it. And that opportunity has passed for him.
“Look, he’s done amazingly well. He had such a bad crash early on in the season. He has been really, really well looked after. He has an excellent coach in Stephen Gallagher. Stephen has coached him commensurate with his age. He has just come along very, very slowly.”
The history of Irish cycling is full of strong riders who shone brightly as underage and junior competitors, but who then ran out of momentum. O’Loughlin referred to several of them, saying that they initially achieved results which pointed to a big future, but who never built on that early promise.
“That’s the thing you often see with juniors. Sometimes they are as good as they’re going to get, because they have been working full time with coaches since they were 14 and they have been training like little mini professionals,” he said.
“But Darren hasn’t. Every year he has been training that little bit more. Stephen has been pushing him a little bit more, you know, giving him the opportunity to grow and to get stronger.”
He said that there were clear early signs of talent with Rafferty, but what was additionally important was that he didn’t do too much too young, and that he has been able to keep building.
“He definitely had good results before. Even in Youth Olympics, he was exceptional,” he said. “He had a bit of a mishap, he had an equipment issue in the time trial in the Youth Olympics and had no results to show for that, but he was eighth, I think in the road race. Since he was 15 years of age, he has really shown he has what it takes.”
The 18-year-old Dungannon rider has had a stunning season despite a very bad crash in the Hilltown GP in mid-May. He fractured three ribs and a wrist and had bruising to his left lung, but bounced back to provisionally break the junior 10 mile time trial record on July 1st.
His time of 18 minutes 48 seconds is still subject to ratification, but was a full 33 seconds better than the 19 minutes 21 seconds set by Ben Walsh in 2017.
Rafferty then moved to France after that and clocked up a stunning run of results in amateur events while racing with the Villeneuve Cycliste/Team31 JollyCycles squad. He won three stage races in three weekends.
He took the overall classification of the two day Tour du Carmausin-Ségala on July 11th, winning the Ronde sud Bourgogne seven days later - having won the stage three time trial and taking a solo victory in the concluding stage four road race. He then took the overall Tour de la Vallée de la Trambouze on July 25th.
He also took two stage wins plus second overall in the Tour Junior Causses-Aigoual-Cévennes on August 8th, as well as a solo victory in the junior race at the prestigious GP de Plouay on August 28th.
Following those performances, he lined out for Ireland at two major championships, and showed well in each of them. He was fourth in the European junior time trial championships on September 8th, missing out on a medal by just two seconds.
He was then 35th in the European road race two days later, then travelled to Belgium for the world road championships. He placed 11th in the time trial on September 21st and 24th in the road race three days later.
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“Darren is a really, really exciting talent,” said O’Loughlin. “There is just so much he can do. He was fourth in the time trial at the European Championships. He was then just so unlucky in the worlds, in that it was the worst possible course he could have had.
"It was pure flat with a tailwind. If there was a headwind, if there was a typical Belgian crosswind/headwind, you know, it would have been a totally different result, as far as I was concerned.
“The riders who did really, really well were actually some of those that we did really, really well at European track championships. The guys who could spin 120 revs a minute and who were extremely aero.
"You could clearly see from some of the riders’ positions that they had done wind tunnel work. Whereas with Darren, there’s just so much more that he can do in that. He is really a raw diamond in that regard. It is exciting from that point of view.
“He reminds me a little bit of where Leonard Kamna was a few years ago. He was super strong, but you know, really raw. Darren is somebody who can be in that mould and do really, really well.”
Following the world championships, Rafferty returned to Ireland for the nationals. He dominated both the junior time trial and road race there, then concluded his season by riding the junior event at the Chrono des Nations time trial on October 17th.
He finished a superb second in that event, finishing just four seconds off the time of the Belgian rider Alec Segaert.
O’Loughlin enthuses about his time trial ability but also believes he can ride well on the uphills. He said that time will tell how he fares in the bigger mountains but, thus far, the signs are promising.
“He’s not a small rider, in that he is not super small like some of these guys. But look, he’s climbed with the best in France, and left them behind,” he said. “We will only know when he goes into (other races).. He hasn’t hit the big, big climbs yet against super strong opposition, but I think he’s an amazing talent.”
Asked if Rafferty reminded him of any previous professionals, O’Loughlin said that there is something about his appearance which strikes a note.
“Darren is his own person, but he actually looks like an old pro,” he said, laughing. “He’s got that Sean Kelly/Jamie McGahan look. He just looks hard. And that’s great, that is the sort of persona (you need). People look at him and say, ‘he looks so hard.’ Sometimes when they see him they are half-beaten already.
“But he’s very professional in his outlook, he takes his sport seriously, and he’s able to put his disappointments behind him, which is great. He had a very, very bad crash earlier in the year. He had a hole in his back, punctured by a stick.
"It was literally like a sword wound in his back, this big circular hole, about an inch in diameter. They were wondering if he would need a skin graft, because they tried sewing it, but when you try to sew a circle… It healed anyway, but it is amazing that he came back so quickly.”
Results aside, O’Loughlin referred to two other aspects of Rafferty’s personality that he said are encouraging. The first of those is his willingness to knuckle down and make situations work for him, specifically in how he has settled into life abroad.
“English is everybody’s second language. It is the second language of the world, so it is a fantastic language to have. But with Darren, he’s only over in France a few months, but when you see him being interviewed he’s speaking fluent French. That’s a guy who immersed himself in it. And really, that’s how you actually make progress.”
He said that this ability to communicate will have been important with Rafferty’s French team this season, and so too his ability to pinpoint what he needs.
“It is great when your team leader can talk to you in your own language. It really gives you faith in your leader,” O’Louhglin explained. “And Darren is a leader.
"Having had him at worlds, when we were sitting down at team meetings, he knew exactly what he wanted from the event and he knew exactly what he wanted from his teammates. It’s great to see that maturity in a man so young.”
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