The hugely promising Irish rider Darren Rafferty will make an early Grand Tour debut at just 21 years of age on Saturday, being named in the EF Education-EasyPost squad for the Vuelta a España.
The Dungannon rider won the Irish national road race championship on June 23rd and has been riding strongly all season for the American WorldTour team.
His prime objective will be to help former Olympic champion Richard Carapaz achieve the best-possible results in the race but, depending on how the race plays out, he could get his own opportunities on individual stages.
“I am excited and a bit nervous. It’s going to be my first Grand Tour. I’m going in with a nice role of helping the team and seeing how far Carapaz can go. Hopefully we can go all the way for him. It’s an honour to ride for Richie.”
Carapaz had a fine Tour de France, holding the yellow jersey for a stage and then later winning a stage plus the King of the Mountains competition.
Rafferty is in his first year with the team and has helped a number of designated leaders in his races thus far. He has also performed strongly himself, netting second on a stage of the O Gran Camiño in February and taking sixth in the Trofeo Laigueglia the same month.
He also finished in the top eight in the best young rider ranking in six races, including the Critérium du Dauphiné in June.
“Just to be on the team with such high-level riders is impressive,” he said of the squad’s Vuelta line-up.
“I will do the best I can and try to be as useful as possible. If I’ve done my job well and I make it to Madrid, I’ll be pretty pleased.
“It’s hard to go in with a massive personal goal, but I think the team goal is definitely a big one. Hope that I can play a small part in making it go all the way.”
Longer term, Rafferty has huge prospects. He won the prestigious Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta and the Strade Bianche di Romagna as an amateur, and was also second overall last year in the under-23 Giro d’Italia.
“I see myself becoming a GC [general classification] rider in the future, so it’s an unbelievable experience to get the opportunity to be here to ride for Richie in my first year as a pro in the Irish national champion jersey.”
Corkman Eddie Dunbar will also compete in the Vuelta, riding as leader of the Jayco AlUla squad.
Meanwhile Archie Ryan finished a fine fourth on stage three of the Tour de Pologne on Wednesday, riding strongly on the final climb and sprinting in towards the front of the small front group. The stage was won by Belgian rider Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek).
In Belgium Irish under-23 champion Caoimhe O’Brien (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK) won the Maria-ter-Heide Brasschaat race in Antwerp on Tuesday.
She won a three-woman sprint to the line, with fellow Irish rider Grace Reynolds (Brother UK-Orientation Marketing) and her own sister Aoife O’Brien (Cyclingteam Belco/Van Eyck) fifth and 10th respectively.
