Just days after World Tour-bound Archie Ryan said Irish cycling can regard itself capable of mixing it with the best in the world, junior rider Adam Rafferty has echoed those sentiments. On a day when he placed 8th in the junior TT at the World Road Championships in Scotland, and team mate Liam O'Brien was 11th, Rafferty said the success in the Irish camp was now a building dynamic.
He believed his and O'Brien's performances today - coupled with his brother, Darren Rafferty, finishing 5th in the U23 men's TT and Lucy Benezet Minns placing 4th in the junior women's TT - he sensed a generational move forward was now very much underway in Irish cycling.
Not only were such strong performances being turned out by young Irish riders, they were spurring each other on. And now he and the other young guns also had a growing number of Irish cyclists, who had already achieved significant success, to look up to. He cited Lara Gillespie., Sam Bennett, Ben Healy, Ryan Mullen, his own brother and the aforementioned Ryan.
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"I know I'm a bit biased," laughed Rafferty (17), "but I think this is one of the best time trialing generations to come through; Lucy 4th yesterday, Darren 5th, Dean (Harvey) in the top 20 (in the U23 TT) and then me and Liam in 8th and 11th today. So the results are there for the Irish."
Rafferty added those results were also generating a very positive and confident group dynamic, which he believed would beget more success.
"It seems very professional," he said of the Irish team camp at the Worlds. "And I think everybody is a lot more motivated now, when you know the results are possible. As Archie said the other day, we're not a third world country. And I think especially with these championships… It shows that we can be up there. It's a huge advantage as well to have people like Ben and Ryan here. They're chatting away to us, giving us advice. You're having these conversations at breakfast with World Tour riders
"And you know there are people to look up to now at the very highest level; Darren, Ben, Archie, Sam, Ryan… everybody really. And with the girls as well, that's pretty much the same, you only have to look at Lara."
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He said both he and O'Brien had put a lot of effort into dialing their TT performances; today's result not the first time they have landed close to the top of the scoreboard in UCI-ranked junior TTs this year. Rafferty explained he had worked on his own position, with some advice from his brother, adding his coach - Stephen Gallagher - had also been instrumental in preparing him.
"I've always had Stephen as my coach, I wouldn't have been able to get that 8th place today without Stephen, without a doubt. I also had a very good run up to (today's TT). I had a solid two or three weeks just living and breathing for that time trial; everything focused on it. I was in France every day on the TT bike."
Today Rafferty finished 58 seconds down on Oscar Chamberlain (Australia), who won gold. Had the Irish rider gone just one second faster he would have jumped two places to 6th. However, he was not dwelling on that, and had no regrets, saying he simply could not have gone any faster.
"Going in, I was saying to myself if I got a top 10 I'd be happy with that, and I did get that," he said. "Heading out on the main road there was a decent cross-headwind coming in from the left. So I was just focused on getting as aero as I could. I knew having spoken to Darren yesterday, and really all of the riders… I knew you needed to keep most of your energy for that stretch between the first and the second intermediate checkpoints.
"But it was still important to go after the first one quick because it's hard to make up time again. So I was focusing on position a lot (at the start); keeping down low and keeping the breathing and everything under control."
While he got a time check through the first intermediate checkpoint he said he thought he was 15 seconds down on O'Brien, rather than 15 seconds up. And due to a technical glitch with the timing system, he got no time check for the second intermediate point.
When no information was relayed to him, he said he doubted himself a little. However, he pressed on and was 3rd fastest when he finished, resulting in a trip to the hotseat. And with most of the favourites among the riders who started after him, he said it was a case of watching all of the other results and hoping he'd stay in the top 10.
"I was hoping and praying and then there was a sigh of relief every time somebody came over the line and they were behind me," he said. Next year he would finish in his A Levels and once school was done he wanted to go to Europe for a full-time U23 season with designs on "really hitting it hard".
