Darren Rafferty’s cycling journey began with Team Ireland at the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2019, and just six years later he’s riding Grand Tours and chasing podiums on the world stage.
IRISH cycling has had a few famous dynasties to date and the Rafferty family from Tyrone will surely follow them if its current trajectory continues.
Not one but three Raffertys – Darren (21), Adam (19) and sister Aliyah (17) – made the Time Trial podium on day one of the National Championships recently, when the eldest took bronze in the senior TT and both of his siblings won their age-group titles.
Aliyah went on to complete a Junior double and Darren narrowly missed out on defending his national title in the subsequent Road Races, just six seconds adrift in fourth with teenager Adam finished 11th.
Two years ago Darren caused a huge stir by winning silver in the ‘baby’ Giro d’Italia, a race in which Adam took a stage win last month (June)).
This summer, in only his second year as a pro, Darren found himself racing in the Giro itself, a race that engrossed and inspired him when it came to Ulster in 2014.
After racing the Vuelta’ for EF Education EasyPost last year he was again selected to help their Ecuador superstar Richard Carapaz make a Grand Tour podium so, what is it like in the maelstrom of these gruelling three-week epics?
“The hardest thing to wrap your head around is that, even on your two days’ rest, you still ride your bike, so the whole things means riding 25 days in a-row and racing for 21 of them.”
Hardest of all came the days when he was asked to get ahead of the race on big mountain stages, in order to help his team leader when the final attacks came.
“You race quite hard for the first 30-40 minutes and then, once you’re in the breakaway, you really have to push to stay ahead of the peloton. After four hours or more of racing you need to be there to help him on the descent, even if it’s just to grab a jacket or give him bottles or gels. It’s like tactical chess.
“Stage 16 and Stage 19 were the two days I was in the break. Richie was second until the second last day of the Giro and then finished third so it was great to be a part of that, especially after we went with a similar team to the Vuelta last year and he finished fourth.”
So how does a young rider from Dungannon become such a great climber, something once the preserve of South American cyclists?
“I think, in the past, a lot of them lived at altitude but, with altitude camps being done by everyone now and the whole sport moving on in general, it’s a lot more even now.
“With climbing it’s more about ‘slow twitch’ endurance-based riding, about holding high power for long periods of time, regardless of whether you’re going uphill or flat. It’s interesting looking at some of the Dutch riders who are now so good at climbing. It’s genetically aerobic-based riders who tend to do a bit better on longer effort climbs.”
Since completing his Giro dream Darren got home to race Nationals and celebrate his 22nd birthday on July 1.
The Tour de France is not on the horizon yet so he’s getting a well-earned breather before racing the Tour of Austria in mid-July and the Tour of Poland in August, another WorldTour stage race.
EasyPost is an American team with a service and training base in Girona but their riders can live wherever they want once they’re well situated for flights.
He lives in La Massana, a pretty, traditional ski resort in Andorra, and estimates he’s one of 192 pro cyclists currently based there.
“March, April, May is where there’s a lot of races jammed in but, with the Tour (de France) on now you get a nice bit of breathing room to prepare for August, September and October.”
He’s already made Cycling Ireland’s six-man long list for this year’s UCI World Road Championships which also include his Easypost teammates Ben Healy and Archie Ryan.
Worlds take place, uniquely, in Rwanda in September (21-28). a continent he’s never before visited and professional cycling is certainly Rafferty’s window to the world.
It’s only six years since he raced in the European Youth Olympics, an event for which his sister Aliyah was a flagbearer in Slovenia in 2023.
This year’s EYOF takes place in Skopje, North Macedonia (July 20-26) and it brought Rafferty all the way to Azerbaijan in 2019.
“That was a great event. To go to a country you’d never before heard of, at 15, with athletes from other sports, I still have extremely fond memories of that group. We were all staying together, there were food buffets and transport all set up for us. It all felt very elite.”