Le Tour de France 2013 – Stage 6: Aix-en-Provence > Montpellier, 176km. Daryl Impey Leads

Daryl Impey (GreenEDGE & Republic of South Africa) was in danger of always being remembered as the rider who suffered a horrific crash in the final metres of the Presidential Tour of Turkey in 2009 with the yellow jersey on his back – the podium substituted for an ambulance, that day.

Not now.

Now, he’ll be remembered as the Dark Continent’s first maillot jaune.

But that Turkey crash is just part of a career where the South African always fights back from injury and set back.

His Barloworld team – for whom he rode the 2008/9 seasons – folded.

However, a contract with Radio Shack took him back up to the sport’s highest level for 2010.

But just twelve months later, he was down at Continental level with South African team MTN Qhubeka – who threw him a lifeline after his contract with stillborn Australian ‘Pro Tour’ outfit Pegasus proved not to be worth the paper it was written on.

MTN were the team he originally turned professional with in 2007.

His 2011 results with that squad – including a stage win and second on GC in the Tour of Morocco – saw Pro Continental squad NetApp offer him a contract, and in the autumn it was back to the top division when he signed with fledgling Australian Pro Tour team, GreenEDGE.

In April of 2012, in the second stage of the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco from Guenes to Vitoria-Gasteiz, the 28 year-old from Johannesburg grabbed his first World Tour win.

And he added a stage in the Tour of Slovenia for good measure.

His remarkable ‘rebirth’ continued in that year’s Giro d’Italia as he achieved his ambition of riding a Grand Tour.

Impey didn’t finish the Giro; the team deciding to pull him out after stage 16 – not to take too much out him in anticipation of a Tour de France ride.

The South African did his job in France and duly finished the hardest race in the world.

This season saw him win the Republic of South Africa Time Trial Championships; Stage Two in the Pais Vasco, again; a stage in the Bayern Rundfahrt; the TTT in le Tour – and now the maillot jaune.

And to boot, he’s another one of the ‘good guys.’

Here’s what the team had to say about his perfect day:

“Daryl Impey finished in a front group of 16 riders on stage six of the Tour de France to move into the race lead.

“The South African becomes the first African to wear the Tour’s yellow jersey.

“Simon Gerrans led out Matt Goss for the sprint and conceded five seconds to Impey when the bunch split before the line.

“Simon came to me yesterday afternoon and asked if it was okay for him to pass the jersey along to Daryl,” said Sport Director Matt White. “I said it was fine. They’re great mates. What they’ve done for each other will never be forgotten.

“Simon won his stage with the perfect lead-out from Daryl, and he had his two days in yellow. For Daryl to be the first African in yellow, even if it’s only one day – well, it will change his life forever.”

“I was pretty emotional on the podium,” admitted Impey. “I was standing there and thinking ‘this is it.’ – this is the proudest moment ever of my career. I don’t think anything will ever top this.

“That’s not to say I’ll never be able to do it again, but not in this way. It’s like winning the jackpot.”

It just goes to show that fairy tales do happen in le Tour.

But not if you come from the Isle of Man, it would seem.

A crash at 20 miles to go; radio failure for QuickStep, meaning the team didn’t know he was down; a tough chase and a pitch perfect Lotto for Greipel meant that the Manxman we were waxing lyrical about just yesterday could do no better than fourth on a day which he’ll feel should have been his.

But that’s show biz – and there are others much worse off.

Take Jakob Fuglsang (Astana & Denmark) – he started this race with a realistic hope of being a podium challenger.

But a disastrous TTT where Astana dropped a shed load of time was today compounded by his losing key work horses Fred Kessiakoff and Jan Brajkovic – the Astana dinner table won’t be buzzing.

It’ll be a strange mood at the Lotto table; Greipel wins – but their GC hope Jurgen van Den Broeck heads home.

It’s a good job Marc Sergeant has hedged his bets and brought Greipel or the Tour would be a disaster for the team.

And penultimate pontificate of the day; Stephen Roche says it’s time to draw a line in the sand on the ‘D-word’ and the threat of Pantani’s name coming off the score cards is taking it too far.

We’ve been saying that for three years – just as long as we now hit the dopers hard.

Tomorrow?

Lumpy but fast at the end – a break could stick, but if it is a bunch sprint and Cav’s there, he’ll win.

And yes, I know I said that yesterday, thank you.

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