There has been a very strong start to the Irish campaign at the European road championships in Trento, Italy, with Darren Rafferty taking a superb fourth in the junior time trial on Wednesday morning. Rafferty finished 42 seconds behind the winner Alec Segaert of Belgium, who was five seconds quicker than his teammate Cian Uijtdebroeks.
Rafferty went very close to a podium finish in the 22.4 kilometre event, recording a time just two seconds off that of the Frenchman Eddy Le Huitouze. Conal Scully, who also lined out for Ireland, finished 21st.
Rafferty has had a stunning season thus far despite a very bad crash in the Hilltown GP in mid-May. He fractured three ribs and a wrist and had bruising to his left lung, but bounced back to provisionally break the junior 10 mile time trial record on July 1st. His time of 18 minutes 48 seconds is subject to ratification, but was a full 33 seconds better than the 19 minutes 21 seconds set by Ben Walsh in 2017.
Rafferty moved to France after that and has had a stunning run of results. He has clocked up victories in a number of events, including a solo win in the junior race at the prestigious GP de Plouay on August 28th. Today’s showing is further evidence of the junior national time trial champion’s potential in the sport.
The Irish team’s participation in the European championships continues on Thursday afternoon when Kevin McCambridge and Aaron Wade contest the under 23 men’s time trial and Ryan Mullen and national time trial champion Conn McDunphy ride the elite men’s time trial.
European road championships, Trento, Italy
Junior time trial:
1, Alec Segaert (Belgium) 22.4 kilometres in 26 mins 26 secs
2, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Belgium) at 5 secs
3, Eddy Le Huitouze (France) at 40 secs
4, Darren Rafferty (Ireland) at 42 secs
5, Samuele Bonetto (Italy) at 43 secs
Other:
21, Conal Scully (Ireland) at 1 min 54 secs
