EF Education-EasyPost sign Irish talent Darren Rafferty

As reported by GCN last month, young Irish talent Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) will ride for EF Education-EasyPost in 2024, the team confirmed on Monday.

The 20-year-old Irishman has been one of the most exciting under-23 prospects over the past seasons and will look to follow in the successful footsteps of Ben Healy as he moves into the WorldTour with the American squad.

“I can’t really believe it is actually happening,” an excited Rafferty commented. “It is hard to put into words, something that you have worked so hard towards for such a long time. Three years ago, I went to France instead of university with the dream of getting a job as a professional cyclist, and now it is going to happen from next year. It is incredible.”

Rafferty is one in a long line of riders from Britain and Ireland to head to the continent in search of professional terms and it is in races like the Valle d’Aosta U23 that these aspiring cyclists seek to make their mark.

Impressing alongside Brits Joshua Golliker (Groupama-FDJ Conti), 12th overall, and Charlie Paige (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme), fourth overall, Rafferty took his first stage race victory as an U23 rider on Sunday.

Finishing inside the top 10 on every stage but the opening sprint, Rafferty batted away strong competition from Paige, Alexy Faure-Prost (Circus-ReUz-Technord) and Isaac Del Toro (A.R. Monex Pro Cycling) to win the Valle d’Aosta U23, but his signature was sought by the American WorldTeam long before his latest success.

“We started talking to Darren a little bit last year and then really started to focus on him this spring,” said EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters. “We brought him into our laboratory to test everything from metabolism to VO2 max to aerodynamic qualities early in the year, and at that point, which was pre-Baby Giro, the decision was pretty much made to take him onboard because he showed incredible metabolic values and incredible oxygen consumption and power values.”

Prior to his victory at the weekend, the 20-year-old had already made headlines by finishing second to Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development Team) at the Giro Next Gen, and coming home fifth at the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the spring.

For such a talented rider, major victories were not always forthcoming in the U23 ranks, something that initially had Vaughters and his team inquisitive.

“The only question we still had was that his results in junior and U23 races thus far had not actually been as incredible as his physiological values are,” Vaughters noted. “It turns out that the reason for that is that the races just weren’t hard enough. As soon as he went to the Baby Giro and went up the Stelvio, it became very apparent that actually his race results in that hard of a race absolutely match the lab results.”

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Darren Rafferty has won the Irish national ITT championships for the past four seasons, twice as a junior and more recently, twice as an U23

Looking forward to his time with EF Education-EasyPost, Rafferty is understandably taking plenty of inspiration from fellow Irishman, Ben Healy.

“It is a great team with a nice atmosphere and an attacking team that suits my style of racing and how I want to race,” Rafferty said. “I really like how Ben Healy has always been able to race with the team and that was one of the influences of seeing how I could maybe race a calendar that was more open and show what I can do. It was an easy choice in the end.”

Making his own step up to the WorldTour in 2022, Healy enjoyed a campaign that was marked by appearances in smaller stage races in order to bed the youngster into the swing of cycling’s highest level. Healy has since established himself as one of the best climbers in the WorldTour, finishing second at De Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold Race, and fourth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Following his breakout spring campaign, Healy earned himself a start at his first Grand Tour and he duly delivered, winning stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia with a 50km-long solo move.

EF Education-EasyPost will be looking to replicate Healy’s success in his compatriot, though the team also hinted at more young signings to come.

“There will be more announcements like this coming up,” revealed Vaughters. “I honestly believe that we have recruited the best talent out there for 2024.”

“Darren is the headliner on that.”