South African Daryl Impey has impressed once again at the national championships to claim his sixth time trial title today in Wellington, Western Cape.
The victory today puts Impey into the history books as the first South African to win the time trial title six times, having beaten David George’s record of five titles since the race was first held in 1997.
“No-one has ever had six time trial titles here so it that is quite nice to have that achievement as well,” explained Impey. “In 2012 I didn’t ride the nationals so it works out that in the elite nationals I have won this event each time I have raced.”
Using his experience, Impey blasted around the 39.8kilometre course in a time of 49minutes and 14seconds to finish almost two minutes faster than his closest rival.
“It started off well, I think I paced it really well and from the start I could feel I was having a decent day,” Impey continued. “I could see I was putting time into Reinardt (J V Rensburg) early on and that was a good confidence booster and I kind of learnt a bit from last year how to pace it.”
“It all worked out really well and I felt like I still had something to give so I was pretty chuffed with the effort in the end.
“I thought Reinardt would be the second best guy but Willem Smit was obviously also having a very good day, and once I knew I was putting that amount of time into Reinardt I knew I was quite safe.
“It’s not normal you put that amount of time into other guys but I had a really good day today and it was a course that really suited me.”
The South African National Road Race Championships takes place on Sunday 12th February, where Impey will be back in action aiming to bring his national coloured road jersey to ORICA-SCOTT.
South Africa National Time Trial Results:
1. Daryl Impey (ORICA-SCOTT) 49:14
2. Willem Smit +1:56
3. Reinardt J V Rensburg (Team Dimension Data) +2:42
