Impey driven by pain of loss
SOUTH Africa’s Daryl Impey has revealed a personal tragedy just days before arriving in Adelaide this month unwittingly inspired him to an emotional Stage 4 win yesterday as he aims defend his Santos Tour Down Under 2018 crown.
Impey conquered the gruelling notorious Corkscrew Road climb in the Adelaide Hills before powering to his first Tour Down Under stage win after last year earning the general classification triumph without a stage victory.
The Mitchelton-Scott rider, 34, revealed after the stage win he was mourning the death of a good friend, his wife’s cousin, Justin Bitter, which had given him extra motivation.
“A good friend of mine, Justin, passed away,’’ Impey said after the race.
“He played a big part in our family, so when I came here I wanted to do something special, so to be able to deliver I was pretty emotional and it was definitely a confidence booster.”
Impey did not want to talk up his chances of becoming the first rider to claim back-toback titles in the Tour Down Under’s history.
However he does have a solid foundation and a brilliant team to achieve the feat with just two stages remaining.
The Glenelg-Strathalbyn stage today is one which Impey can also win.
He is just seven seconds behind race leader, New Zealand’s Patrick Bevin and predicts the final Stage 6 and the Willunga Hill club is still the place where the race is decided.
“Look, we’re around the mark now, seven seconds is still quite hard to get on Paddy, we're quite similar in characteristics,’’ Impey said.
“But we're going to have to go for it and I'm sure tomorrow will be an interesting stage and definitely Willunga is going to be the big decider still.
“I think we have to be aggressive wherever we can, no doubt trying to win this race is based on seconds, so we’re going to have to take our opportunities and make things happen, so hopefully it pays off.”