Ireland's Adam Rafferty excels as big show starts on Baby Giro

On the mountainous road to Monte Livata, Adam Rafferty, in purple, went up the road almost from the start and was the only man from this breakaway still in the shake-up on the finishing climb, aided in a big way by team mate Ben Wiggins (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) has put in a master class of a stage on the climbs at Giro d'Italia Next Gen. The Co Tyrone man got up the road early, and from that group he was, by far, the strongest.

He was on the attack from just after the start of the 155km stage to Monte Livata began. Despite that, he stayed away until the final, when all of those he had attacked early with had long fallen by the wayside.

Stage winner, and new race leader, Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies), eventually closed down the three minutes to the breakaway riders.

By the time he got to the front of the race, a four-man group had gone clear of the 32-rider breakaway. Rafferty and one other rider got across, making it six leading.

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Italy's Lorenzo Mark Finn, in the world champion's jersey, gets to the front of the race and makes his move; Adam Rafferty the figure in purple just visible in the distance (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

The select group of GC riders with Finn then caught the six leaders early on the 13.7km final climb up to the summit finish at the Monte Livata resort.

That put Rafferty in the top 10-15 on the road on the lower slops of that last climb, with the rest of the field scattered a long way back the road, on a stage with 3,500m of elevation gain.

As that last climb began, Rafferty was the only rider from the original six that went clear just after the start still in contention at that point.

He had been aided through the day by team mate Ben Wiggins. The British rider was among the 25 men who got across to Rafferty's original early seven-strong breakaway.

Ben Wiggins, in purple, was among 25 riders to get across to Rafferty's early seven-man breakaway and rode out of his socks for the Irishman (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

And as has been the case on lumpy terrain this year, Wiggins impressed, especially for a rider more suited to the classics.

He did a lot of work on the front of the large breakaway, trying to hold the group's advantage and put Rafferty in a strong position for the final; keeping him clear of Finn until as close to the finish as possible.

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After he got the front of the race, Finn rode his way to the top of the final climb for a fine solo win. He took the stage victory by 52 seconds from Mateo Ramírez (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) and Henrique Bravo (Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team) in 2nd and 3rd.

Rafferty rode his own pace up the final climb and put in a very controlled performance, especially as he had been up the road for 128km. He crossed the line in 10th, at the back of a four-man group, 2:38 down in U23 world champion Finn.

Rafferty, fourth in line, in the large breakaway before he went forward from it, into the final, during today's stage 6 (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

A measure of Rafferty's performance today was that, of the six riders he got away with early on the stage, the next best finiser today was in 40th place, almost 12 minutes down on the winner.

That ride has moved Rafferty up to 8th overall, some 2:48 down on Finn, but only 35 seconds off fifth place. Rafferty is now the only Irish rider left in the race after Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development) was a non-finisher today.

Rafferty faces a climbers' stage again tomorrow, with 3,200m of elevation gain, over three main climbs, including the final cat 1 of Piana delle Mele to the finish.

If he can limit his losses, he then faces into the final 22.2km TT into L'Aquila on Sunday. That should provide a chance for him to gain time on his rivals, given his ability against the watch.

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