Fresh from a stage win at Giro Next Gen last week, Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) collected an Irish TT title, for the third year in a row, last night at the National Road Championships in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, promoted by Lakeside Wheelers.
Warming down in the car park afterwards - alongside his sister, Aliyah, who won the junior crown, and brother, Darren, who claimed bronze in the elite race - Rafferty said the 25.4km TT, on a wet night, was "a lot harder than I expected, to be honest".
He said claiming his stage victory last week at Giro Next Gen only made him "wanted to win again". He added during that eight-stage race, one of the hardest U23 events in the world, he really felt the benefit of having left school last year and having been a full-time bike rider for the last 12 months.
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"It's made a huge difference generally," he said. "My TT is not much different to last year, but in the road races that extra endurance is the big improvement I’ve noticed. And even on the mental side of things, I can just relax. Even when I get off the bike (after training) there is no stress."
Rafferty topped the podium last night by 23 seconds from Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development), with Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) in 3rd at 27 seconds. All three came into championship week after Giro Next Gen, where Dunwoody also won a stage.
Rafferty said the fact the U23 TT category - which he also won at last year's nationals after being junior champion in 2013 - was now so strong, he was relieved and very happy to have claimed the gold medal.
"It's always decided by a matter of seconds, you can never be complacent. You can’t afford one second of rest. You just have to keep going because, as you said, there is some really strong riders here. You have to be in your top game.
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"They are so many really good riders I think the competition is going to get better on Sunday in the road race. We have a lot of world class riders in the category, so it's going to be a fun race."
He added he did not ride the course in advance of last night's race, opting instead to check it out in the car, speculating that was a decision that might have made even seem even harder, or caused a bigger shock to the body.
"I think that’s the first time I’ve done a TT in the rain," he said. "It was just a really hard course and I tried my best to go really hard. I knew I could afford to lose a bit of time on the way back just because of the way the wind was blowing.
"There was quite a strong cross-head wind on the way out and then obviously cross tail on the way back. It was just a really difficult TT, I'm really really happy to get the win."
Asked if he found to hard to refocus for the championships after the excitement of Next Gen Giro, he said that victory in Italy has spurred him on.
"I really enjoyed the moment, it was super special for me. It just makes me want to win and kind of added that feeling of wanting to go for it again. But, for sure, there is a bit of relief because in the first part of the year I was trying and trying… So then it was just nice that the win came at such a good race.
"I was delighted, it was my first win and obviously quite a big race to do it at. So it was surreal. And then I suppose doing it with Seth winning the day before made it that bit extra special."
