Edendork’s Adam savours a maiden ‘Baby Giro’ stage win

ADAM Rafferty sealed the biggest result of his career to date last week when he won stage five of the Giro Next Gen in Italy.

The Edendork man produced a stunning breakaway five kilometres from the end of the challenging stage to cross the line first in Gavi, northern Italy, just 24 hours after Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development) claimed the first Irish win of this year’s race.

Riding for the Hagens Berman Jayco team, 19-year-old Adam was absolutely delighted with the result and his performance on the day.

“It was class! When I crossed the line, I felt shocked that it actually happened. I enjoyed the moment because it’s not something I’m used to,” he beamed.

“There was a 13K climb that came quite early and only about 20 of us made it over – there was me, a few others and the GC [General Classification] favourites.

“But the problem was, the Pink Jersey [overall leader] didn’t have any team-mates, so everyone was attacking like crazy and then about 10 of us went away and there were three GC riders and me and we were the only ones working. The rest were sitting at the back, which was annoying.

“Then it came to about 5K to go and I just knew I couldn’t wait for the sprint so I just went and gave it my all and thankfully I stayed away!”

That win and impressive performances on the other seven stages during the eight days of action in Italy left Adam 33rd overall in the General Classification, ninth in the Points Classification and 10th in the Mountains Classification on what he felt was a ‘pretty good’ Giro debut.

“Overall it was pretty good because it was my first Giro. Last year I was still at school, so this is my first full year at it and this was the first time I’d done more than five days,” he added.

“Eight days is long enough to be honest! When you get to the last few days you don’t even know what town you’re in, what hotel, you’re just moving place to place.

“You become a bit like a robot, you get the schedule the night before and set your alarm straight away and go again!”

Meanwhile, Adam is hoping for an opportunity to taste life at World Tour level after thoroughly enjoying his time at the Coppi e Bartalim (2.1) with Team Jayco Alula earlier this year.

“It was a really nice experience to see what it was like and to ride with the older version of our team,” he explained.

“It was cool and hopefully I’ll be able to do it again at some stage. It was a really good experience and I’d say it helped me a lot for a race like the Giro.”