South Africa’s Daryl Impey relished his recent success in the seven-stage Criterium du Dauphine, calling it a “massive confidence-booster” ahead of the Tour de France beginning on July 7.
Mitchelton-Scott’s Impey sprinted to victory in the 179km first stage and finished third in the 180.5km second stage. He took hold of the yellow leader’s jersey ahead of the third stage and led on the points classification.
After losing his race lead following stage three, Impey did enough to win the green points jersey at the conclusion of the tour.
“Winning a stage at the Dauphine was obviously a massive confidence-booster for me,” Impey told In the Bunch. “It is the last major race before the Tour de France and it is very high-level.
“It is probably the fourth biggest race on my calendar. I do not think I have ever gone into the Tour de France as well prepared as I am this year.
“It was really nice to basically get confirmation that I am ready.”
South Africa’s Daryl Impey relished his recent success in the seven-stage Criterium du Dauphine, calling it a “massive confidence-booster” ahead of the Tour de France. Photo: ©A.S.O./Alex Broadway
Impey took his chances where it counted as the tour only had two sprint stages. “The green jersey was a little bit different to previous years as we only had two sprint stages.
“The rest of the points were left out on the high mountaintop finishes. The points are always less on the climbing days.
“It was always going to be a tough ask to keep the jersey and I was also fortunate that not the same riders were winning on those mountain stages.
“It was sort of in the hands of the peloton. Dan Martin [UAE Team Emirates] was quite close, but he was not able to gather enough points on the final stage to overtake me.
“It was always important to nail those first two sprint stages and see how it went from there. It was then more about being hopeful that the climbers would not accumulate too many points.”
Impey finished with a final points classification of 45, three more than Martin in second.
Last week – just days after the Dauphine – Impey managed to finish second in stage three of the Tour de Slovenia, also a sprinting course.
He withdrew before the fourth stage to avoid over-exertion. Although his team has not yet announced who will be taking part in the French Grand Tour, Impey said he felt confident he will be included.
“It depends what kind of crew is going; we might take a sprinter and a climber or just one or the other. I am quite fortunate that I fit into those roles.
“It is always difficult to say which stages I will be targeting because I am not too sure how much work I will have to do beforehand.
“But I am normally just option-B for stage wins, purely because we have a greater goal as a team.
“Where there is an opportunity I will take it with both hands and hopefully a stage win will be on the cards this year.”
Impey, 33, has this season been a part of the Australian-based team for his seventh year running.
He said he was beginning to move into a captaincy role from within the group.
“Being in the team for so many years now it is only natural that I would be taking on a more senior role.
“It does not really bother me too much. I quite enjoy having that sort of role and I definitely have my spot in the team.
“To be able to do the sprints and climbs is quite a fortunate position for me to be in because I know I could be used on both sides for the team.
“That is sort of my guarantee for being selected in most of the big races.”
On top of his success during the Dauphine, Impey also claimed the overall honours at the Tour Down Under in January, having been on top of the WorldTour standings for a few months.
He backed that up by winning the SA National Road Championships time-trial and road race in February, which he described as a “box finally ticked”.
