Darren Rafferty and Dean Harvey of Team Ireland have ridden strongly in a brutally hard U23 men's road race at the European Road Championships in the Netherlands today, with Rafferty taking a top 20 finish on a day when fortune favoured the brave.
The Co Tyrone man was on the attack up the Col du Vam climb, through the finish area with three laps to go. His attack, which was chased hard by the Dutch, resulted in the remains of the peloton further splitting as the pace, and the climb on the circuit, had already shredded the field.
Harvey was with Rafferty in the remains of the peloton for a long time as it was trimmed right back with every lap that passed.
Henrik Pedersen of Denmark claimed a solo victory - aged just 18 years - after a storming ride from an early three-man breakaway. That front group was eventually trimmed back to two riders. Ivan Abad, a Spanish rider with Team Movistar, and who won a stage at Tour de l'Avenir earlier this year, was with Pedersen up front.
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While their gap was trimmed back from four minutes to two with three laps of the near 14km circuit to go, they still had a gap of about 1:30 with two laps to go and held onto that on the penultimate lap. It looked like the field would catch them with three laps remaining, buts something of a stalemate appeared to creep in back in the peloton, with the pace notably knocked back as they crested the climb through the finish area for the penultimate time.
Up front, there was no such reluctance to press on. Pedersen attacked and got clear of Abad on the last lap to win the title solo, with the Spanish rider taking silver at 25 seconds. That's a huge win for the Dane, a first-year U23 rider who was Danish junior champion last year and is signed with Uno X Development Team for next season.
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Just 12 seconds behind the Spanish silver medal man today, Paul Mangier of France sprinted up the Col du Vam finishing climb to take the bronze. He was one second up on Madis Mihkels of Estonia in 4th, with Mangier and Mihkels leading in the remains of the bunch.
Ireland's Rafferty was to the front of that group, which split a little in the final push for the line. Rafferty took 20th place some 47 seconds down on the winner. Harvey was 72nd at 5:58 after the group he was in lost a lot of time on the last lap once they had been distanced by the remains of the peloton.
Irish U23 road race champion Jamie Meehan finished in a group one minute down on Harvey; placing 89th. His Team Ireland team mate, Kevin McCambridge, was in the same group, placing 91st at 7:02, with Odhran Doogan also in the same group and finishing 93rd at 7:06.
More to come.
Ireland's Darren Rafferty on the attack on the climb?#EuroroadU23pic.twitter.com/tSMYLj9AP3
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