Darren Rafferty and Aaron Wade were on the attack in the early stages of the Maryland Cycle Classic in the US yesterday when both young Irish riders joined a 25-man breakaway that dominated the early stages of the race.
Rafferty and the EvoPro Racing team provided plenty of interest in the 196.9km race. After a very aggressive start, a large breakaway forged clear, with Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) and Wade, who was riding his first race with EvoPro Racing, both in that move.
The group got clear about 10km into the race and quickly began to combine to pull out a gap. The presence of World Tour teams EF Education First, Israel Premier Tech and BikeExchange-Jayco in that breakaway ensured there was plenty of cooperation to distance the peloton.
Those efforts in the front group soon began to pay dividends, with the gap between breakaway and bunch stretching out to four minutes. And while there remained a long way to run in the race, it looked like the winner would come from the escape group.
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First-year U23 rider Rafferty had been contributing to the workload in the breakaway before joining one of the Israel Premier Tech riders in an attack off the front. While that move was aimed at splitting the front group, the two riders were brought back.
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However, with just under 130km to go - and with many of the breakaway deciding to leave the work to the bigger teams represented - EF Education First decided to press on up front. Nelson Powless led the breakaway up a categorised climb and his prolonged effort succeeded in splitting the front group.
Some 12 riders pulled clear, with Ireland's Rafferty and Wade among that second section of the group distanced by the leaders. The two Irish riders spent a prolonged period in a chasing group between the 12 leaders and the remains of the peloton minutes back the road.
Up front, the breakaway continued to split and in the end five riders contested the finish, with Sep Vanmarcke (Israel-Premier Tech) winning from Nickolas Zukowsky (Human Powered Health) and Powless.
Cian Keogh was best Irish finisher; the EvoPro Racing man in 30th place in a group at 9:58. After his early breakaway efforts, Rafferty finished in 45th place, in a group at 15:03. Irish EvoPro riders Conn McDunphy, Tom Moriarty, Wade and Mitchell McLaughlin all finished the race, but were among a large number of riders outside the time limit.
