Future stars of the highest calibre are often revealed by the Czech Tour, the country's biggest stage race. In the summer of 2019, however, everything was different. That's when Daryl Impey emerged as an unassuming superstar in the peloton. The first African cyclist who wore the leader's yellow jersey at the Tour de France, he was the second rider from the continent to win a stage on the Grande Boucle.
The Johannesburg native was already thirty-four years old when he took to the start of the 2019 Czech Tour in Ostrava, while just a few weeks earlier he had celebrated the success of a lifetime in the Mitchelton-Scott jersey by winning a stage at the Tour de France.
He started the season with a triumph at the Santos Tour Down Under, where he dominated the fourth stage. That's when he defeated stars such as Richie Porte, Wout Poels, Rohan Dennis, 2016 Czech Tour winner Diego Ulissi and up-and-comer Tadej Pogačar, who had won the overall triumph at the Peace Race the year before. Impey subsequently added the South African time trial and mass start titles. He didn't shine during the spring, nor did he have a dazzling Critérium du Dauphiné rehearsal. But his big moment came during the ninth edition of the 2019 Tour de France...
The South African rider has donned the maillot jaune in the past. In fact, during the 2013 edition, the then Orica GreenEdge team won the team time trial, which also benefited Daryl Impey, and for two days he was the ruler of the race, which was eventually won by Chris Froome. "To ride in yellow was absolutely stunning. I mean, it's the Tour de France, the biggest race on the planet. I was lucky that a lot of circumstances came together. But nobody will take those two days in the maillot jaune away from me again," commented Daryl Impey on the special moment.
An even more magnificent moment came in July 2019. Daryl Impey stayed at the front of the race along with Belgian Ties Benoot when another of the escapees failed to maintain the pace on the final climb of the third category Cote de Saint-Jus in the Massif Central. "Winning a stage in the Tour de France was a lifetime achievement for me. I can never win anything bigger. It's insurmountable. Every cyclist in the professional peloton dreams of it. For the first time in my cycling life I had tears of emotion in my eyes," he gushed with happiness back in July. He followed the first South African to celebrate a partial triumph on the Grande Boucle, Robbie Hunter in 2007.
Impey took a fortnight off and started racing again. The Czech Tour then started with a team time trial, a strong weapon in the Australian line-up. Impey was the team leader. And a triumph in the opening time trial sent him into the yellow jersey of Czech Tour leader.
Before coming to the Czech Republic, he had two overall triumphs in the Tour Down Under. A first place at the African Games, eight South African championship titles, and victories in the Tour of Turkey and Tour of Alberta.
In Moravia, he then showed that there is no one better in the Czech Tour peloton. During the stage with the finish in Frýdek-Místek he sprinted second, in Unicov he was seventeenth, but as a member of the main pack. Then in Šternberk he spun for teammate Lucas Hamilton and finished second in the stage and celebrated the overall triumph. Just nine seconds ahead of his teammate.
"We were the favourite in the race and faced a lot of pressure. Our goal was to win the race and I had the highest ambitions from my position as leader, which came true," rejoiced Daryl Impey in Šternberk.
He stayed at the top level for four more seasons, but with the exception of a stage win in the Tour of Switzerland, he never added another overall triumph or Grand Tour stage, of which he has taken eleven in his career.
By January 2024, he took up the position of assistant sport director at the Israel-Premier Tech formation, where he closed his cycling career. It didn't take much to end the South African's career thirteen years earlier. As a member of the renowned RadioShack team, he signed a contract in the pro-continental Pegasus formation. But the project collapsed and Daryl Impey was left without a contract.
For three months, he raced for the continental team Qhubeka, which had yet to rise to prominence. In May, he was taken by the German ProContinental formation NetApp, where he was a teammate of Jan Bárta and the current Czech Tour director Leopold König. The following season he was already showing exceptional qualities in the World Tour line-up of Orica GreenEDGE, where he spent nine seasons before leaving for another three years as a rider with the Israel-Premier Tech.
Foto: Jan Brychta
