Darren Rafferty has gotten his delayed French season off to a flying start with victory in a stage race there after taking the yellow jersey and defending it on yesterday's final stage.
The 18-year-old, who started his racing career with Island Wheelers on home roads, is competing in the colours of Team 31 Jollycycles U19 in France and has won the three-stage Tour du Carmausin-Ségala.
Rafferty laid the foundation for his overall victory when he made the three-man breakaway on Saturday's opening stage of the race in Garric in the Tarn department of southern France.
On the 96km stage the Irish teenager got clear in the winning move. At the finish he fought it out for stage victory with Amaury Garnier (La Motte-Servolex Cyclisme) and Lenaïc Langella (CC Marmande Junior).
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Garnier took the stage, and the first leader’s yellow jersey of the race, from Langella, with Rafferty forced to settle for 3rd place.
However, the leading trio had worked
so well together that they gained 2:42 on a 10-man chasing group. The race
split to pieces and the first 60 riders, of the 130-man field, were covered by
20 minutes.
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Yesterday the riders took on two
stages, starting with a 16.9km team TT, which was won by Rafferty’s Team
31 Jollycycles U19, putting the Irishman into the race lead.
He went into yesterday afternoon's road stage, some 96.4km, with an 11-second lead over stage 1 winner Amaury, with stage 1 runner-up Langella in 3rd at 50 seconds.
And when Raffael Zarbo (OCC Antibes Junior) won the closing stage solo, and Rafferty finished in a 27-rider chasing group at 46 seconds, the Irish rider had done enough to defend his yellow jersey.
Both of the French riders he had been with in the opening stage breakaway, and who were 2nd and 3rd overall going into the final stage, lost time yesterday afternoon, when the race split.
That meant Rafferty extended his lead, winning the race by 31 seconds from Amaury, with Langella 3rd at 57 seconds. Just 71 riders of the starting 130 finished the race.
Less than two weeks ago Rafferty showed his form by breaking the Irish junior 10 mile TT record. He managed that record-breaking ride just six weeks after he suffered three broken ribs, a broken wrist and bruising on his left lung in a crash in the Hilltown GP in mid May.
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