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.”
