Darren Rafferty turns professional with EF Education-EasyPost

One day after Darren Rafferety won the prestigious Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc, the Dungannon rider has been confirmed as joining the professional ranks for 2024 and beyond.

Rafferty will go in at the top level, becoming part of cycling’s WorldTour level with the American EF Education-EasyPost squad. He had been contacted by teams this year, particularly after finishing a superb second in the Under-23 Giro d’Italia in June, and told The Irish Times at the national championships that he hoped to take a big Under-23 victory this season before turning pro.

He duly did so on Sunday, winning his latest event, and providing further proof of his huge talent.

“I can’t really believe it is actually happening,” he said in an EF Education-EasyPost announcement on Monday. “It is hard to put into words something that you have worked so hard towards for such a long time.

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Three years ago, I went to France instead of university with the dream of getting a job as a professional cyclist, and now it is going to happen from next year. It is incredible.”

Rafferty came to the attention of the EF Education EasyPost team last year when he won the Strade Bianche di Romagna and rode strongly against professional riders in the Grand Prix de Wallonie.

Team chief executive Jonathan Vaughters explained exactly how the contract came about.

“We started talking to Darren a little bit last year and then really started to focus on him this spring. We brought him into our laboratory to test everything from metabolism to Vo2 max to aerodynamic qualities early in the year, and at that point, which was pre-Baby Giro, the decision was pretty much made to take him on board because he showed incredible metabolic values and incredible oxygen consumption and power values.

[ Darren Rafferty seals overall victory in prestigious Italian stage race ]

“The only question we still had was that his results in junior and Under-23 races thus far had not actually been as incredible as his physiological values are. It turns out that the reason for that is that the races just weren’t hard enough. As soon as he went to the Baby Giro and went up the Stelvio [climb], it became very apparent that actually his race results in that hard of a race absolutely match the lab results.”

Double Irish Tour de France stage winner Dan Martin turned pro with the squad in 2008, as did Ryan Mullen eight years later. Irish road race champion Ben Healy is currently in his second year with the team and won a stage of the Giro d’Italia in May. His presence in the squad was a factor in Rafferty’s decision, as well as the manner in which Healy and others have been able to ride.

“EF is the team I believe will give me the most opportunities,” he said.

“It is a great team with a nice atmosphere and an attacking team that suits my style of racing and how I want to race. I really like how Ben Healy has always been able to race with the team. That was one of the influences of seeing how I could maybe race a calendar that was more open and show what I can do. It was an easy choice in the end.”

He will next target the upcoming world championship road race and time trial in Glasgow. After that he will hope to end the year well, then turn his focus towards his future in the WorldTour.

“I want to spend the next couple of years finding where I am going to be best,” he said. “I will take it year by year and learn as much as I can from the riders around me and just hopefully keep progressing.

“I am not really setting any limit. My development over the past couple of years has been nice to see for me personally, so I think there is a lot of room for improvement. That is exciting for me.”