Bronze medal gives Adam a boost ahead of France stay

ADAM Rafferty’s bronze medal win in the junior men’s time-trial at the National Championships on Thursday has given the Edendork teenager a timely confidence boost ahead of his trip to France where he will spend the summer racing for Team 31JollyCycles U19.

Conal Scully (Carlow RCC) beat Quillan Donnelly (Usher Irish Road Club) by 15 seconds to take the junior men’s gold medal, with Rafferty third, a further 24 seconds adrift, but the Tyrone lad admits his race preparation may not have been ideal!

He sat his physics GCSE on Thursday morning, finishing his physics exam at 10.30am before jumping into the car and making the four-plus hour drive to County Tipperary for that evening’s time-trial.

“I did all right considering!,” he laughed. “I’m happy because It’s been a while since I got a National medal.”

After Thursday’s exertions, Rafferty raced in the junior men’s road race on Saturday and he admits he got his tactics wrong on this occasion. And while he felt some fatigue in his legs after the time trial, he doesn’t feel that played any part in not featuring at the sharp end of proceedings on this occasion.

“Tactically I played it badly,” he admitted. “Oisin [his former Island Wheelers team-mate, who won the road race] rode a great race and I’m not saying that if it had come to a sprint I would have won but while there was a wee bit of a kick from the TT, there were other people in the road race who did the TT as well so I can’t really complain.”

Now that the National’s are over, Adam will follow in the footsteps of his older brother, 18-year-old Hagens Berman Axeo rider, Darren, who won the under-23 time-trial title and was second in the road race at the weekend.

The elder of the Rafferty brothers raced for Team 31 JollyCycles U19 last year in France, producing a series of breathtaking results along the way including winning three stage races in three weekends, taking the overall classification of the two-day Tour du Carmausin-Ségala on July 11th, winning the Ronde sud Bourgogne seven days later (having won the stage three time-trial and taking a solo victory in the concluding stage four road-race), and then taking the overall Tour de la Vallée de la Trambouze.

And while Adam, who is a year younger than Darren was at that stage, isn’t setting his sights quite that high this year, he is looking forward to the experience.

“I’m excited about the summer ahead, I’m just trying to get things ready at the minute because with my exams I have been flat out and haven’t had the chance to sort anything,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to going over and I’d like to get a few podiums and replicate even half or a wee bit of what Darren did.

“But this year is about getting to know the courses and building experience and then next year I want to go out and win stuff.”

Having picked his older brother’s brains ahead of his departure and having seen the level of racing in continental Europe himself, Adam knows he will be fully tested every time he steps onto his bike in France.

“Mainland Europe is another step up,” he confirmed. “We used to go over to England to see where we stood because here in an average race you could have 20 juniors but over there [Europe] you would have 60 or 80 all of whom are capable of winning!”

And after what has been a somewhat frustrating season, the Edendork youngster hopes his form is peaking at the right time.

“I’ve been slowly improving as the season has gone on, getting closer to where I want to be every week,” he added. “I had a couple of sicknesses but I’ve been generally getting better and hopefully I’ll be at my best in France.”

Adam’s first race in France will most likely take place on July 13th.