By Shane Stokes
Top young Irish talent Darren Rafferty took the best-ever Irish general classification result in the under 23 Giro d’Italia on June 18th, finishing the race second overall. His performance in the Giro Next Gen marks him out as one of the most promising of the next wave of Irish riders and, as he now confirms, have led to pro teams reaching out.
“After the Giro there was some interest,” he confirmed to stickybottle, speaking in the wake of the National Road Championships, with the names of at least one World Tour team now in the ether. “So that was nice. But I’m not rushing into anything yet. I just want to take my time, see if I can build on the results and just make sure I make the right choice.”
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Various rumours suggest that one of the teams interested in the Dungannon rider is EF Education-EasyPost, the current squad of Ben Healy, and former squad of Dan Martin and Ryan Mullen.
Rafferty was back in Ireland last week for the national championships, winning the under 23 time trial and taking second in the U23 road race.
Those results follow on from that superb Giro Next Gen performance, where he finished third on the Passo dello Stelvio stage, climbing brilliantly on one of the highest mountains in pro cycling.
He ended that race second overall, 47 seconds behind the winner Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development Team). He was also third overall in the King of the Mountains.
“It was nice confidence boost. Kind of surprising,” he said of the Italian event. “It was a tough race, the first time really going for my own result in a stage race. I’m proud of how I did but still a lot of room for improvement, I think, especially just with the sharpness. I would still like to win a race this year. That is still missing from the results sheet.”
Rafferty did triumph last season, winning the Strade Bianche di Romagna, but is yet to top the podium this year. His class has long been obvious and he told stickybottle that the aim is to join the pro ranks for 2024.
“I hope so. I think I definitely took a step forward this year and that’s the goal. That’s the ultimate goal. So yeah, (I want) a few more results, that’s what I am saying. I am still missing the win that I would like. Then I can be a bit more content with myself and hopefully make that step up.”
"Gutted" to miss out on gold
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Rafferty’s Giro Next Gen performance meant that he went into last Sunday’s elite and under 23 road race championships as the clear favourite for the U23 gold medal. He finished second to Dean Harvey last time around and was determined to do better. In addition to the U23 title he also wanted to perform against the elite riders. However things didn’t go quite to plan.
“It was a good race,” he said. “Aggressive as always at the champs. Very tough first hour, I think for everyone. I just found myself in the early break and then following a lot of the other moves. I missed the big move that went and spent 30, 40 minutes chasing, then realized that was never going to come back."
Rafferty continued: “So I had to just try and make sure that I turned my attention on the under 23s, to kind of forget about the front boys. I recovered for a bit and then got into a nice group of seven. We were working well. And yeah, it was just myself, Jamie (Meehan) and Conal Scully in the front from the under 23s.
"Then it split again. In the last couple laps there was four of us. I was feeling pretty good, but I just knew I’d put too much into the first couple hours.”
Still, he went into the final few kilometres believing that gold was still possible. However Jamie Meehan (Brocar Ale) jumped early and was able to hold him off.
“I really thought I was going to take the sprint,” he said. “I came from behind and then the legs just sort of went to jelly with 50 metres to go. I’m gutted, but really happy for Jamie. It’s always nice to see someone strong take the win.”
Stickybottle asked him if it was possible that he was still getting over the Giro Next Gen.
“No, I don’t think that is really an excuse,” he answered. “I’ve had a pretty easy week. I genuinely thought I was on for a good day. I’ve never really had much of a sprint but I really believed in it (last Sunday) and just kind of tied up at the end. Disappointed, but there’s always more racing. Fair play to Jamie. It’s been a good week already, it’s just a shame not to pull it off at the end.”
That brought things back to his quest for a victory in 2023, something he will chase with his Axeons Hagens Berman team in the weeks ahead. He is due to ride the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta in mid-July, a race where he finished third on a stage last year, and it is very much a target. He also has his hopes set on the world championships in Glasgow.
“I’ve been second best a lot recently,” he explained. “So I’ll just try and improve that over the next month or two. I’ll turn my focus to that until the middle of July, and then hopefully get selection for the worlds. It should be a good summer still.”
