Irish riders Darren Rafferty and Ronan O'Connor made their mark at Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc, with both going clear in breakaways during the very hilly five-day stage race featuring many of the top U23 riders in the world.
Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) ended the race in 12th overall and also took 3rd on the opening stage when he went into the breakaway and proved one of the strongest from that move on the late climb, which you can read about here.
O'Connor, the former Irish junior road race champion, is in his first season at U23 level and is riding with top Italian team, Team Colpack Ballan; a Continental outfit focused on developing young riders.
This was O'Connor's first major race abroad after completing his Leaving Cert and he got himself up the road on stage 4, when the field raced 173.8km from Pont Saint Martin to Pian Coumarial.
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The 18-year-old Irishman was among the early movers off the front of the bunch despite 4,500m of climbing awaiting the riders including the final climb of 12km, averaging seven per cent.
O'Connor's group stayed clear for almost half of the stage and though it was caught, the young Irishman rode very strongly through the remainder of the day to take 24th place, at some 10:42. The Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ Kiwi-French duo of Reuben Thompson and Lenny Martinez - who were the strongest climbers in the race - took 1st and 2nd that day.
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Rafferty finished just ahead of O'Connor on that tough stage 4; placing 22nd at 8:07. That saw him slip four places overall from 8th to 12th, a position he retained all the way to the race finish on Sunday.
That final stage - again with a tough summit finish - took the riders 119.7km from Valtournenche to Cervinia, with British rider Oscar Onley (Development Team DSM) winning from a breakaway. While some of the general classification riders managed to distance the remains of the select group on the final climb - some 18.3km at 5.3 per cent - Rafferty was in that next section; finishing 29th at 4:58.
O'Connor - who was getting his first taste of this top tier U23 racing over the high mountains - placed 59th on the stage at 20:19. That week of racing will stand O'Connor in good stead as he now begins to establish himself as the top U23 rider following a very successful couple of years as a junior rider.
In the end, Martinez (19) took overall victory, after taking the leader's jersey on stage 2. He won overall by 25 seconds from stage 4 winner and team mate Thompson. Simone Raccani (21), who was riding for the Italian national team, placed 3rd at 1:46.
Rafferty was 12th at 10:39 while O'Connor ended the race in 51st at 50:17. Rafferty was also 3rd in the young rider classification while O'Connor was 9th. Just 86 of the 143 riders who started the race finished the event, which was a war of attrition throughout.
