Darren Rafferty was asked to linger a little longer than his EF Education-EasyPost teammates at the signing-on podium in Ponteareas on Tuesday morning. The Irish champion’s striking efforts on behalf of his leader Richard Carapaz on stage 9 of the Vuelta a España had not gone unnoticed, and he was presented with the solidarity jersey, awarded to the day’s outstanding domestique.
“I think I got a bit of TV time, but everybody on the team is doing similar work,” Rafferty told Cyclingnews. “Earlier in the week, I wasn’t as useful as some of my teammates, and they’ve been stepping up whenever I’ve been weaker than I would have liked. So sometimes you get the limelight, but it’s a big team effort at the end of the day.”
Rafferty may have been keen to downplay the significance of his prize, reasoning that the bulk of a domestique’s work is never recorded for posterity by the television cameras, but the Tyrone man played a key role in the stirring attack that lifted Carapaz firmly back into the hunt for overall victory at the end of a mixed opening week.
The plan outlined on the EF Education-EasyPost bus before the start was simple in theory – place riders in the early break and then have Carapaz bridge across – but altogether more difficult to execute in practice.
Rafferty and James Shaw managed to get up the road during the early skirmishes, and the Irishman then dropped back to help Carapaz launch his offensive on the slopes of the Puerto de El Purche.
“We wanted to try to have at least two riders in the group and it just so happened that I managed to get in there,” Rafferty said.
“From there, it was about making myself as useful as possible for as long as possible because I just don’t have the level, obviously, to go all the way to the line with Richie. But I tried to do as much as I could for the first couple of hours, that’s all I could do.”
The 21-year-old’s display on the road to Granada was all the more heartening given how, like Carapaz, he had struggled in the heat on the first mountain stage to Pico Villuercas, where the mercury nudged above 40°C.
“I thought I was going to be more useful for longer that day, but it was tough and really hot,” he said. “I think a lot of people just suffered with those temperatures.”
Rafferty’s cameo on Sunday helped to set Carapaz on his way with over 80km still to race. Although the Ecuadorian couldn’t get back on terms with the day’s winner Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), he resisted the pursuit of the red jersey group. He reached Granada second on the stage, 1:39 behind Yates, and he moved up 15 places to third overall, 4:32 off Ben O’Connor’s red jersey.
After a difficult start, Carapaz and EF’s Vuelta has taken on a new dimension as it reaches its midpoint. It helps, too, that a race as uncontrollable as this Vuelta seems to lend itself perfectly to Carapaz’s preferred, aggressive style. On the Alto de Mougás in the finale of stage 10, it was striking that EF was the only team to test the waters with a bout of force.
“I think it works in Richard and our team’s favour. In general, I think it’s a good situation to be in for us,” Rafferty said of the current lie of the land at the Vuelta. “I think we’re just all-in for Richard, so that will be the plan every day – hopefully get him into red or as close as possible.”
The second week of the Vuelta also marks a watershed moment for the neo-pro Rafferty, who had never raced for more than a week at a time. His under-23 resumé, which includes victory at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta and second place at the Giro Next Gen, clearly points to an aptitude for stage racing, but his first tilt at the Vuelta is about learning more about the demands of the discipline. No matter a rider’s previous experience, the second week of a debut Grand Tour is always a voyage into the unknown.
“I’m not feeling too bad, but I was glad of the rest day on Monday,” Rafferty said. “It came at a good time for me and for the team. I think the momentum was starting to come my way a bit. But I’m just taking it all one day at a time from here on in and hopefully, I can make it all the way to Madrid. From now on, I don’t really know how it’s going to go. Hopefully every day I can keep chipping away, make it to the line and be as useful as I can to the team.”
