Adam Rafferty has climbed onto the GC podium on a day when both he and David Gaffney put in a huge shift (Photo: Nassos Triantafyllou)
Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) has made the most of the first major climb at the Peace Race (2.2U), proving one of the very best climbers in the field. He took 2nd on the stage and has now moved into the general classification podium positions.
As Rafferty was leading the charge at the very front of the race on the 13km cat 1 summit finish climb to Dlouhé stráně, compatriot and team mate David Gaffney, a first-year U23, was once again showcasing his talents.
Though Waterford's Gaffney finished 43 seconds behind Rafferty, and stage winner Kamiel Eeman of the Belgium national team, he was still in the top 20 on the stage. And for a rider new to U23 racing this year, on a climb like that, that is a first class performance.
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For Rafferty, he will of course regret getting so close to his first win of the season in the Czech race today only to come up short.
However, having finished 2nd overall at Tour of Rhodes (2.2) and 9th at Tour de Bretagne Cycliste (2.2), today was another example of his really reliable execution rate in his target stage races this year.
Though Peace Race (2.2U) is no longer part of the UCI Nations Cup, as the series has been scrapped, most of the teams in the field are national teams. And that means the Irish riders are up against many of the top U23 riders from around the world.
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Rafferty and Eeman, who rides for Lotto-Groupe Wanty, reached the line side by side today, some three seconds up on Richard Riška (Slovakia).
The remainder of the field was strewn back down the climb, which split the race to pieces; Gaffney finishing in 20th at 43 seconds. There was almost six minutes between the top 50 across the line.
The two Irish riders finished in the bunch on the opening two stages, which came down to bunch sprints. Gaffney was aggressive on the opening day of action and took a two-second time bonus along the way.
Today's result means that, heading into the final stage tomorrow, Sunday, Eeman leads the race by six seconds from Rafferty, with Riška 3rd at 11 seconds. Gaffney is 19th at 53 seconds.
Tomorrow's final stage - some 131km from Krnov to Šternberk - features 2,000m of elevation gain. A chunk of the climbing is located on the finishing circuit.
That loop will be negotiated five times and features a near 1km climb, with a gradient just above 10 per cent, which should suit the Irish riders.
