Adam concludes season to remember with Euro bronze

ADAM Rafferty brought the curtain down on a hugely successful season in style last week when he won a bronze medal at the European Road Race Championships in France.

The Edendork man, who races for Hagens Berman Jayco, won a stage at the Giro Next Gen earlier this year and earned his debut for World Tour team, Jayco AlUla, before retaining his Irish TT crown and he capped a 12 months to remember by finishing third in the under-23 men’s time trial at the UEC European Road Cycling Championships in Drôme Ardéche where the Irish team excelled overall.

As well as Adam’s medal success, Conor Murphy, who races domestically for Omagh’s Caldwell Cycles, took second place in the Junior Men’s Individual Time Trial, just 4.6 seconds behind the recently crowned Junior World Champion Michiel Mouris of the Netherlands; Ben Healy earned bronze in the men’s road race and David Gaffney did likewise in the Junior Men’s Road Race. Meanwhile, Rafferty’s younger sister, Aliyah, was also in action in France, finishing 22nd in the junior women’s time trial and 45th in the road race.

“For me it was great but also for Ireland it was unreal,” beamed Adam, who finished third behind two Belgian riders, Jonathan Vervenne in first and Matisse Van Kerckhove in second, with just six seconds separating the top three.

He continued: “For sure, I probably could have paced it better. I went out too fast but at the end of the day it is what it is and that’s what I got so I’m very happy with that.

“And it’s been the best season so far of my life and when I look back at it, I’m pretty proud of it. It was a good year.”

After enjoying such a successful first full season with Hagens Berman Jayco and on the international stage in 2025, Rafferty is as motivated, if not more so, than ever to continue pushing and developing next year.

“If I don’t equal it or do better next year, it will be a disappointment,” he acknowledged. “You always have to keep going forward and it’s motivation [for the future].

“I’ll be racing for [Hagens Berman Jayco] again next year and it should be pretty much the same races again, so I’ll have more experience and I’ll know how to handle them.