Rafferty limits damage at U23 Giro with TT chance remaining

Adam Rafferty, in purple, on the back of the general classification group on the final climb as it is being led by the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team of race leader Lorenzo Finn (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) told stickybottle before today's final stage in the mountains at the Giro d'Italia Next Gen he would be in damage limitation mode on the last climb, and that's exactly what came to pass.

The Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies team of race leader, Lorenzo Finn, spent much of the stage on the front. They were chasing down early attackers and also trying to deter any of the Italian's GC rivals from darting off the front.

After racing up the two cat 1 ascent of Forcella di Acciano and Passo Lanciano, the main field had been well and truly trimmed down. And as the group hit the last climb of Piana delle Mele to the finish, fewer than 20 riders remained in the race leader's group.

Rafferty was there, consistent in this race every day, until the pace was really ramped up for the final 3km. At that point, the GC group splintered, with Rafferty then trying to limit his losses all the way to the line.

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Race leader, and U23 road race world champion, Lorenzo Finn, has been very good value and he is headed to overa victory (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Young French star Aubin Sparfel (Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team), and the really impressive British rider, Elliot Rowe (Visma-Lease a Bike Development), attacked the group and rode away to a 1-2.

Sparfel beat Rowe in the sprint to the line, after 135km of racing, with Finn beathing down their necks. The Italian had attacked the group he was in and went off in pursuit of the two leaders, though he ran out of road to catch them.

Sparfel was a delighted winner - dedicating his victory to Shane O'Brien - and crossed the line three seconds up on Rowe, with Finn 3rd at five seconds.

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Rafferty was 16th on the day, at 1:28. And though he rode well, he would have liked a top 10, which would have been a repeat of the performance he put in on the climbs yesterday.

Aubin Sparfel and Elliot Rowe attacked the final climb hard and went to the line, with Sparfel winning (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

As a result of perhaps losing time to more riders than he would have expected, he has slipped two places on the overall. He is now 10th, some 4:15 down on winner elect Finn.

Rafferty is a noted TT rider - having won bronze in the U23 TT at the Europeans last year - and he will relish tomorrow's concluding TT; some 22.2km in L'Aquila.

He needs to gain less than a minute on a couple of riders ahead of him to get back up to 8th. And whether he can go any further up the general classification will be down to how well some of the pure climbers ahead of him can handle a TT.

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