Darren Rafferty had a strong performance in a highly-competitive under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Friday, racing to 12th in the 173.6km event.
The Dungannon rider finished sixth in the time trial on Monday and hoped for a strong showing in the race. He was supported by Jamie Meehan, Liam O’Brien and Dean Harvey and bridged to a chase group of favourites with 44 kilometres left.
Rafferty has however looked fatigued after riding and finishing his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España, several weeks ago, with that event coming towards the end of what has been a draining first season as a professional.
He faded on a tough climb with 24km remaining and finished 2′48 behind winner Niklas Behrens (Germany) and Martin Svrček (Slovakia), who sprinted for the win.
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The day was marked by tragedy when news came that Swiss competitor Muriel Furrer had died after a crash during the junior women’s road race.
“The 18-year-old rider fell heavily yesterday, Thursday, during the women junior road race, and suffered a serious head injury before being flown to hospital by helicopter in a very critical condition,” cycling’s governing body the UCI, wrote in a statement. “Muriel Furrer sadly passed away today at Zurich University Hospital.”
The UCI expressed condolences to her family, who reportedly said they wished for the championships to continue.
Saturday sees the elite and under-23 women’s road race take place. National champion Fiona Mangan and sisters Caoimhe and Aoife O’Brien will represent Ireland, the latter taking the place of Megan Armitage. She was originally selected but later withdrew from the squad for the 154.1km event.
The action concludes on Sunday with the elite men’s road race. All eyes are on Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia), who is seeking to be the first rider since Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Ireland’s Stephen Roche in 1987 to win the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the world championships road race in the same season.
He dominated the Tour and the Giro, and was in fine form when he soloed to victory in the recent GP Cycliste de Montréal.
Irish hopes in the 273.9km race will be represented by Eddie Dunbar, Ben Healy, Archie Ryan and Conn McDunphy. Dunbar will hope to have carried over some of the form which earned him two stage wins in the Vuelta a España, while Healy is one of the best Classic riders in the world when in top shape.
Like EF Education EasyPost team-mate Rafferty, Ryan has had a fine first season as a professional. He won a stage and finished second overall in the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in March and was fifth overall in the Lidl Deutschland Tour in August.
McDunphy was a strong second in the Rás Tailteann in May and will likely play a support role for his more experienced team-mates.
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