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Darren Rafferty was the best-placed Irish rider at the end of the junior road race at cycling’s world road championships on Friday. Rafferty finished in the chasing group sprinting for the bronze medal in the race, placing 24th.
That group was 24 seconds behind the solo winner Per Strand Hagenes (Norway) and just five seconds behind the silver medallist Romain Gregoire (France).
Ronan O’Connor was Ireland’s other finisher, placing 66th.
Rafferty has had a superb season, winning several important amateur races in France. He was fourth earlier this month in the junior time trial at the European road championships, and was 11th in Tuesday’s junior world championship time trial.
He has secured a contract for 2022 with the American Hagens Berman Axeon team, one of the best development squads in the sport.
The world championships continues this afternoon with the Under-23 men’s road race. Ben Healy, Dillon Corkery and Adam Ward are the three Irish entrants.
World road championships, Flanders, Belgium
Junior road race, Leuven: 1 Per Strand Hagenes (Norway) 121.4 kilometres in 2 hours 43 mins 48 secs, 2 R Gregoire (France) at 19, 3 M Mihkels (Estonia) at 24, 4 M Svrcek (Slovakia), 5 A Hajek (Austria) both same time
Irish: 24 D Rafferty same time, 66 R O’Connor at 8 mins 26, DNF: Dean Harvey, Conal Scully.