Aliyah Rafferty (Tofauti Everyone Active Majoco) has put in a career breakthrough ride today in France, where she took her first podium finish in a major European race.
Though she was in the day-long breakaway, numbering just three riders, at Grand Prix CERATIZIT Women Junior (1.1), she still proved one of the very strongest in the final after 94.5km of racing, with heavy raining from start to finish in Plouay, with 1,300m of climbing.
Rafferty, who won the junior TT and road race titles at the National Road Championships in Co Meath in June, got clear in that three-rider group very early in the race. She was with Norwegian champion Oda Aune Gissinger (MIX Onder Ons Parike-AA Drink Young Lions) and Britain's Mabli Phillips (Shibden Apex RT).
And though the peloton never really let them ride off into the distance, keeping the gap well below one minute for a lot of the race, things changed as the hilly race progressed.
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As it became increasingly clear the leading trio were working well together, proving to be a strong unit and unlikely to be caught, the attacks began from the bunch behind with about 40km.
That action resulted in Luxembourg's Jente Koops (NXTG Racing U19 Development Team) and Megan Arens (Grouwels-Watersley R&D Road Team) getting clear, and riding across to the trio up front.
And once they caught the three leaders, making for five up front, they worked very well together and the gap back to the bunch continued to grow, nearing almost seven minutes by the finish.
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Up front, the five worked well for about 15km but with 17km to go the first attacks began, with Arens making the first move. Though the others got across to her quite quickly, that move broke the cooperation of the group, with the race now very cagey at the front.
Arens attacked again with 11km to go, with Norwegian champion Gissinger going after her, and starting to look like the strongest rider in the leading group.
However, though Arens and Gissinger pulled out a decent gap, over five seconds, Rafferty went to the front of the three-strong chasing group and closed the gap.
Koops then attacked with Gissinger going after her with 10km to go, and that was to prove the winning move. While Rafferty once again looked very strong in the chase behind, the two leaders soon had a gap of 20 seconds.
That's how it stayed as the riders raced into the final 5km, and with 3.5km remaining - as the three chasers looked like they may be closing the gap - Gissinger put in a big attack at the front, getting clear and riding solo to the finish.
She won by 18 seconds from Koops, with Rafferty beating Arens in the sprint for 3rd place, some 40 seconds down on the winner. British rider Philips was dropped by Rafferty and Arens in the final and finished on her own, in 5th place, at 56 seconds.
The bunch finished some 6:46 down on the winner, with the sprint for 6th place won by Rafferty's British team mate, Rebecca Gardiner. Irish rider Ella Tandy, also a team mate of Rafferty's, did well to finish in the bunch, down to just 25 riders, to take 16th place.
