After the high of taking a career breakthrough result at Grand Prix Ceratizit (1.1) in France at the weekend, Aliyah Rafferty missed her flight home; the podium presentation and doping control delaying her.
There was nothing for it but to fly to England and then get the ferry back to Ireland on Sunday night. She arrived home at 1am on Monday but was up again at 7am for her first day back at school. She's an international rider, who really put herself on the map on the European scene on Saturday - in a televised UCI-ranked event - but she's still at school.
Now in her final year at St Patrick's Academy in Dungannon, she'll do another day in the classroom today but then she's gone again. The Co Tyrone teenager is off to Rás na mBan in Kilkenny, where she'll be part of the senior Irish team despite being a junior. She goes there on a huge high after scoring 3rd in Plouay, in the longest race on the junior women's international calendar.
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"I'm so happy," she told stickybottle. "I feel like I've always been there or thereabouts but not really finishing it off a lot this year. So just to stand on the podium... It was amazing, I'm delighted.
"I've been strong in the races this year, but it hadn't just clicked. But on Sunday it clicked. I took the opportunity when I saw it and I'm really glad I did."
Rafferty (Tofauti Everyone Active Majoco) - one of 85 starters from 17 countries - faced 15 laps of a 6.4km circuit, with 1,300m of climbing. She got clear in a four-rider group after about 15km, which was almost immediately reduced by one.
The Irish junior road race and TT champion, Rafferty rode strongly with Norwegian champion Oda Aune Gissinger (MIX Onder Ons Parike-AA Drink Young Lions) and Britain's Mabli Philips (Shibden Apex RT).
"I jumped on it without thinking," she said of making her move. "And after a while I was thinking 'this is really early'. My plan was not to do anything too early and wait for the second half of the race because it's a pretty attritional course.”
However, she said the composition of the teams represented in the breakaway, among the strongest in the race, increased their chance of staying away.
"So I thought I'd give it everything and commit," she said of ripping up the pre-race plan and getting stuck in. "The three of us went as hard as we could. It was a really hard day in the breakaway, almost 75k. It was really long, but it was good that we came through the finish line every lap to give us motivation."
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With about 30km to go, and their gap above two minutes, they were caught by Dutch duo of Megan Arens (Grouwels-Watersley R&D Road Team) and Jente Koops (NXTG Racing U19 Development Team).
On the final lap, Gissinger and Koops got away to take 1st and 2nd, with Rafferty beating Arens in a two-up sprint for 3rd some 40 seconds down. The bunch – down to just 25 riders - sprinted for 6th almost seven minutes down.
Rafferty said she felt they might catch the leading pair very close to the finish, but it just wasn't to be. However, she was happy when the sprint for 3rd came down to her and Arens.
"It worked out perfectly for me," she said. "I went with maybe 250m to go. And I was really glad that I could pull it off and get on the podium. It would have been annoying if I had been in the attack of three and then not gotten on the podium."
One of the previous winners of the race - the junior men's edition - is Rafferty's brother Darren, now riding for World Tour team EF Education-EasyPost.
"He won four years ago, so I was really hoping I could win," she said. "But, honestly, a podium at this race, at a race this big, is crazy."
Rafferty said seeing her brothers - Darren and Adam (Hagens Berman Jayco) - doing so well in recent years, including Adam winning a stage at Giro Next Gen in June, really spurred her on.
They were messaging her on the morning of the race wishing her luck "and they love seeing me doing well". She even got the chance to train alongside Adam in Girona for a couple of weeks earlier in the summer.
And now after her big performance in France, she goes into Rás na mBan - Ireland's premier women's stage race - and is also hopeful of getting selected for the European Road Championships in France in early October.
"And then I plan on doing the Chrono des Nations TT in France, which I came fourth in last year, that's the goal."
After winning two Irish titles this year, and riding the way she did last weekend, Rafferty will have many more goals in Europe to focus on in the years ahead.
