The Rafferty brothers - Darren and Adam - are in action this week for two different World Tour teams - EF Education-EasyPost and Team Jayco AlUla - creating a really significant moment in the history of Irish cycling.
From Co Tyrone, Darren (21) is in his second year with EF Education-EasyPost, making his Grand Tour debut at La Vuelta last season. He is riding Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (2.UWT) this week.
Adam (19) is signed to the UCI Continental team Hagens Berman Jayco for this year, his second season with the development team of World Tour squad Team Jayco AlUla. However, he has been called up to the Jayco AlUla World Tour line-up for Coppi e Bartali (2.1) this week, finishing in the bunch on stage 1 yesterday.
Though Irish cycling has had many examples of brothers racing at the same time, and being very successful, the fact the Raffertys are riding at the same time for teams in the highest tier of professional cycling has only been matched once before; by the Roches.
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Back in 1991, Dublin brothers Stephen and Laurence Roche were both riding for Tonton Tapis-GB and the last time they raced at the same time at the highest level was at the Nissan International Classic in September of that year.
That Nissan Classic - almost 34 years ago - is the last time Irish brothers raced at the top level, with the Raffertys, who are both at the start of their careers, bridging that long gap as the race in Spain and Italy this week.
Laurence (57), who rode the Tour de France in 1991, retired from pro cycling at the end of that year, though he went on to race again as an amateur in Ireland. Stephen (65) continued with his racing career for two more years, going back to Carrera; the team he was on when he won the Giro, Tour and Worlds in 1987.
Darren and Adam Rafferty riding for World Tour teams this week comes at a time when Ireland has never had more cyclists competing with Continental, ProContinental and World Tour teams. And, for the first time, there is a large group of female Irish riders racing at the highest level in Europe.
At the same time, domestic cycling is enduring a tough time, with smaller fields in road races in recent years, though Cycling Ireland has recently launched a plan aimed at stemming the decline witnessed since 2018.
