Rafferty siblings are using pedal power to reach the very top

EDENDORK’S Rafferty siblings would appear to be going places and quickly.

Darren, Adam and Aliyah are all highly regarded talents on two wheels and the trio showed that at the recent Ulster Cyclocross Championships in Portadown.

The eldest of the three, Darren, who enjoyed a season to remember riding for Team 31 Jollycycles U19 in France and internationally for Ireland, claimed the overall men’s title.

He led the senior men’s race from start to finish, beating Christopher McGlinchey (Spectra Wiggle p/b Vitus) into second and Dean Harvey into third. Lee Harvey (VC Glendale) finished fourth with Darnell Moore (Team Caldwell Cycles) taking fifth.

Despite having not been training for the event, nor focusing on it after a gruelling roads season across Europe, 18-year-old Darren was pleased with his win.

“It was a tight one! It was a good race, I enjoyed it, but I haven’t really done much since I came back from France,” he explained.

“I would like to be winning it but I haven’t done much training for it so it was good to be able to win it and hopefully that means I’ll have a good platform to start from next year.”

Next year promises to be another he won’t forget in a hurry as he teams up with the American Hagens Berman Axeon squad for 2022.

He will move to Girona in mid-January before travelling to Italy for a two week training camp at the start of February when the real business will begin.

“It should be good. It’ll be good to get some training in nice weather in Tuscany, not far from Florence. There should be some nice rides near the coast,” he added.

“But it’s the chance to lay down a marker and to get an idea of who’s who and see where everyone is at. I’d say it will be intense.”

The intensity of the training camp will be hight because the in-team competition is what will decide who races when and where during the season, which gets underway in March in either Croatia or Greece and Darren is keen to make an early impression.

“There are 13 riders and normally each race has six places, so it will depend on the programme and some races clash so you’ll have two teams going,” he explained.

“You’ll give what you’d like to do and then they’ll try to work around everyone the best as possible, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. Hopefully I get a couple of races I want to do.”

Darren’s younger brother, Adam, who finished third in the junior men’s Ulster Cyclocross race in Portadown, will follow in his older sibling’s tyre tracks this coming summer when he joins Team 31 Jollycycles U19 in France.

The 16-year-old GCSE pupil at St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon, who started training with Darren’s coach, Stephen Gallagher, of Dig Deep Coaching, this year, will also live with the same family that looked after his brother last summer and he is hoping to make the most of the opportunity that lies ahead.

And the Island Wheeler is certainly going to use Darren’s success as an inspiration to achieve his own goals after what he described as a frustratingly consistent season in 2021.

“I felt good this year but I didn’t have that many results. I got fourth in the National’s – I was consistent, consistently fourth and that sort of position, which was annoying!,” Adam explained.

“I’ll be going over to France as a first year junior so there won’t be as much expected results wise, it will be about gaining experience and seeing the courses.

“What Darren has achieved is a great inspiration to me and it shows what can be done. Before, you never really thought it was possible but now with Sam Bennet on the World Tour, Darren going to Hagens Berman, a lot of people are getting big teams so it’s good to see it is possible

“This coming year or the next I’d like to get on the World’s team or even the Euro’s team, any of those two would be a big achievement and maybe a win in France, that would be a dream.”

Little sister, Aliyah, meanwhile, is most certainly another Rafferty to look out for. As Adam says, ‘she just wins’ and while she is still only 14 and a first year under-16 racer, the Island Wheelers member has shown plenty of potential over recent years.

And on Sunday of last week at the Ulster Cyclocross Championships she belied her tender years by finishing second in the ladies under-16 race, just behind champion, Aine Doherty (VC Glendale) but ahead of Aoibhinn Sharkey (VC Glendale).