Darren Rafferty of Hagens Berman Axiom took the overall win in the Giro della Valle d'Aosta. This five-day stage race is considered one of the toughest races for riders under 23 during the road season.

The day after his overall win, EF Education-Easy Post recognized the 20-year-old Irish rider, a multiple national champion in four disciplines, as joining the World Tour level in 2024.

"It's really incredible," he said. It's hard to put into words what I've worked so long and hard for, and three years ago I went to France instead of college with the dream of becoming a professional cyclist. It's incredible."

According to EF-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters, Lafferty had been on their radar since last year, and they knew he had considerable physiological talent, but had not translated that into results by finishing second in the under-23 Giro NextGen, The deal was done.

"We brought him to the lab earlier this year to test everything from metabolism to Vo2max to aerodynamic qualities. At that point, which was before the Baby Giro, he showed incredible metabolic, oxygen consumption, and power values, so it was almost a done deal to use him," Vaughters said.

"The only question is that his previous results in junior and U23 races were not as phenomenal as his physiological numbers. It turned out that the reason was that the races weren't hard enough. Once he competed in the Baby Giro and climbed Stelvio, it became clear that his results in the harder races were in perfect agreement with the lab results."

Prior to winning the national under-23 title, he led the race on the final stage of the Giro della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc.

"It's really incredible. I'm so proud of my team. I can't thank the team enough. It was an unbelievably good race, to get the jersey at the end."

Lafferty finished second on Saturday's longest stage, 172.5 km from Velèze to Fénis, to take the overall lead. In Sunday's summit finale in Breuil-Cervinia, he managed to break into the lead group on the long climb and finished 7th, 3:06 behind stage 5 winner Joshua Goliker (Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ).

"It was really unexpected, but once I caught up [to the lead group], I just kept going. It was a super hard day. I had a good gap from yesterday and it worked out. I knew I had about two and a half minutes to go. I ran in a rhythm that I knew would hold me until the finish."

His pace slowed in the last few kilometers, but he did not panic and "held on as long as I could and hoped I wouldn't take too much time."

"What can I say, I think we were the strongest team. They all put in a great performance today. We couldn't have won without them."

Last year, in his first year with Hagens Berman Axeon, he won the overall in the One Day Stradhe Bianche U23. This year, in addition to his Irish U23 time trial gold medal, he was runner-up in the Giro NextGen and finished second in the points prize in Italy this week.

His next big goal, he says, is to medal for Ireland in the time trial and road race at the world championships in Scotland next month. He last competed at the world championships as a junior in 2021, when he finished fourth in the men's junior time trial.

Hagens Berman Axeon will return to racing in the U.S. in early September at the Maryland Cycling Classic sponsored by UnitedHealthcare. The U.S.-based team will participate in the one-day race as part of seven continental teams, along with five world teams, four professional teams, and the U.S. Men's National Cycling Team.