NATIONAL PRIDE
Aft er more second place fi nishes at
the South African National Road Race
Championship than he can remember,
Daryl claimed his fi rst title in 2018.
Come 2019, he wasn’t a favourite to
win, but he timed it just right to defend
his title and claim the rainbow jersey
for a second season.
In the last few laps of the race, it
looked certain that either DiData’s
Nicholas Dlamini or ProTouch’s Jayde
Julius would take the win. And when
Dlamini broke away on a climb, he
seemed to have the race in the bag.
Impey was part of the chasing bunch,
but was covered by three other DiData
riders. But in a stunning breakaway, he
attacked at just the right time on the
Tom Jenkins climb to take the lead. He
crested the climb on his own and time-
trialled his way along the remaining
descents and drags to the fi nish.
“It was a very tough race and they
threw everything at me,” says Impey,
who raced as an individual and didn’t
have the team support of his main
rivals. “I’ve got a target on back there,
that is for sure. But that’s never put
me off from chasing the SA title. It’s
really important to me and I’ve always
ridden to win. Aft er so many years
of mechanicals and bad luck, it was
amazing to fi nally win last year. To
repeat it in 2019 was a major bonus.
So I’m really honoured to wear the
rainbow jersey in Europe.”
“I FEEL LIKE I’M
STILL IMPROVING
YEAR BY YEAR,
AS IF MY CAREER
TRAJECTORY
HAS CONTINUED
TO MOVE IN THE
RIGHT DIRECTION”
2 0 1 9 TO U R D E FR ANCE
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