By Shane Stokes
He’s had a superb debut as a WorldTour professional, wining a stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppe e Bartali, finishing second overall there and taking fifth in the GP Miguel Indurain.
Now Archie Ryan and fellow Irish neo-pro Darren Rafferty will target strong performances in the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes on Wednesday, on a course which should suit both down to the ground.
“I think we will probably both have a free role,” Ryan told stickybottle on Tuesday evening. “It is a race where you have to have the legs and there are going to be other teams doing the majority of work. So we can just play off that and go for it ourselves.
“Darren is in a great shape and it is a good race for him, so I think we can get a good result for sure.”
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Ryan is a gifted climber, and with two category one climbs plus the hors categorie Col de la Couilliole being followed by an uphill rise to the line, the course could also play well to his own strengths.
Like Ryan, Rafferty has also had a strong pro debut. He was second in the opening time trial of the O Gran Camiño stage race and 17th overall, sixth in the Trofeo Laigueglia and has posted many impressive performances either in breakaways or riding for their EF Education - EasyPost team.
And, like his teammate, he too has had a long break from racing, taking several weeks out of competition.
Ryan has spent time training in Andorra, having time at altitude following a mid-season break after the Ardennes classics. After the Mercan’Tour he will compete in the Tour of Slovenia in mid-June, then travel back for the national championships. His programme after that is yet to be decided.
The priority in the meantime is to ride as well as possible and also keep learning about life as a WorldTour rider. Like Rafferty, their rate of progress is impressive and he plans to keep lighting up races.
“I am looking forward to Mercan, really hilly, and Slovenia,” he said. “There seems to be one good GC day which will settle things. So it should be good craic.”
