Darren Rafferty has ridden very strongly on the first mountain stage of the Baby Giro, on a day when his Hagens Berman Axeon team mate, and race leader, Leo Hayter destroyed the field. The 21-year-old British rider won solo by five minutes on a day when nobody could live with him, just 24 hours after winning stage 2 and taking the race lead.
For his part, Rafferty worked on the front early on today’s stage before climbing well for the remainder of the 182.8km race. He eventual finished 20th of the 174-rider field. His losing 13:45 to the stage winner was a reflection of the sheer difficulty of the course and the incredible performance put in by his team mate out front.
At one point Hayter was in a chasing group, pursuing a lone leader, with Romain Grégoire (Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ). The Frenchman has been the dominant force in European U23 racing this year, claiming Liège-Bastogne-Liège among a series of wins.
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Yet Hayter rode away from that group a long way from the finish and managed to put five minutes into it as he pounded his way relentlessly towards the finish line in Santa Caterina Valfurva.
Hayter, who also won solo yesterday with a long-range attack, now holds the race lead by a whopping 5:48 over Grégoire, with Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Soudal U23) in 3rd and 5:56 down.
Rafferty is now 20th overall at 14:44 and considering Hayter’s incredible riding, which was predicted by nobody, the Irishman’s Hagens Berman Axeon team will now go all-in for their British rider in a bid to defend the pink jersey.
How it unfolded
Today the riders faced the Passo del Tonale -15.2 km at 6 per cent – followed by the climb to Aprica - 15.4 km at 3.2 per cent – and then the Passo di Guspesse, some 10.8 km at 11.5 per cent. To finish off the day, they had the 12.1km climb up to the finish line at 4.8 per cent.
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Even during the opening hour of racing the field was thinned back to no more than 60 riders. And though a four-man breakaway got clear early and gained almost two minutes at one point, it was not long falling apart. By the time the race reached the Passo di Guspesse, started with 73km remaining, the breakaway was caught and Lenny Martinez (Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ) attacked solo.
An eight-man chasing group then formed on the climb and going over the top three riders emerged from that group; Hayter, Van Eetvelt and Grégoire.
Lone leader Martinez rode well on the climb and crested it solo, with two minutes in hand on the three chasers. Grégoire then managed to get away from the chasing group and pulled out over 40 seconds on them, though he was eventually reeled in again.
Martinez had 1:35 on the three chasers with 21km remaining, all of it uphill. Once the road began to kick up – though long before the final climb officially began – Hayter attacked. He blasted across the gap to Martinez, catching him very quickly and the leaving him for dead.
When Hayter began the final climb proper he had a lead of two minutes on the three chasers, which grew to almost 5 minutes over the remaining 11km of the race. Tomorrow’s stage 4 is a mostly flat 101km from Chiuro to Chiavenna, with Rafferty and his team mates expected to be on the front to control the action in defence of the Hayter’s race lead.
