Darren Rafferty rewarded for strong season with pro contract

Darren Rafferty has been rewarded for what was a very strong season by signing a contract with the American Hagens Berman Axeon squad for 2022.

The Continental-level youth squad is widely recognised in cycling as having played a huge part in the early development of a number of strong professional riders, including Ireland's Eddie Dunbar. Dunbar was with the team for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, building his talent and results there before signing a multi-year deal with Team Sky/Ineos Grenadiers.

Rafferty underlined his talent last week with a superb fourth place in the junior time-trial at the European road championships. He was just two seconds off a bronze medal.

“I’m super excited to be making the jump up to the Continental level and joining the well renowned Hagens Berman Axeon as a first year under-23,” he said in a team announcement on Monday. “I believe Axeon is the perfect team for me to progress and develop with the best atmosphere to get the most out of myself.”

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The 18-year-old Dungannon rider is the current junior time-trial champion and has had a superb run of form this season, despite a very bad crash in the Hilltown GP in mid-May. He fractured three ribs and a wrist and had bruising to his left lung, but bounced back to provisionally break the junior 10 mile time-trial record on July 1st. His time of 18 minutes 48 seconds is subject to ratification, but was a full 33 seconds better than the 19 minutes 21 seconds set by Ben Walsh in 2017.

He then moved to France after that and has had a stunning run of results in amateur events while racing with the Team31 JollyCycles squad. He won 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 on July 25th.

He also took two stage wins plus second overall in the Tour Junior Causses-Aigoual-Cévennes on August 8th. More recently, he raced to a solo victory in the junior race at the prestigious GP de Plouay on August 28th.

He is a multiple Irish national champion across four disciplines, namely road-racing, time-trial, mountain bike, and cyclo-cross. Rafferty joins the Axeon squad from Team31 JollyCycles U19.

Team owner Axel Merckx, former pro and son of the famous Eddy Merckx, enthused about the new signing. "Darren is a young rider that has progressed very quickly through the junior ranks," he said. "He has great potential and showed it by finishing fourth at the European Junior Championships in the time-trial.

“We’re talking about someone who wasn’t well known a few months ago and really went for the opportunity that was presented to him. With his aggressive style of riding he is going to be a great asset to the team and I’m really excited about him joining us next year.”