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Darren Rafferty has taken the biggest win of his career to date, taking the general classification in the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta – Mont Blanc stage race in Italy by over two minutes.

The Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta – Mont Blanc is a UCI (2.2U) five day stage race, in which Rafferty took the lead on GC on Stage 4’s mountain stage. The race is considered one of the most important stage races for under-23 riders, with Dan Martin the last Irish man to finish on the GC podium in second place in 2006.

Despite finishing just over 3minutes behind the winner of the final stage, Rafferty managed to defend his overall lead finishing just 22” behind his two main general classification rivals, Isaac Del Toro (A.R Monex Pro Cycling Team) and Alexy Faure Prost (Circus-ReUz-Technord).

Rafferty went on to praise Hagens Bermen Axeon for their help throughout the race. However, as of this morning, it has been announced that Rafferty will join EF Education-EasyPost in 2024.

“EF is the team I believe will give me the most opportunities,” said Rafferty. “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. 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.”