Life after the peloton: Daryl Impey on calling Australia home

The dust has settled on another successful edition of the Santos Tour Down Under but before the WorldTour peloton returned to Europe, we caught up with some familiar faces who were in Adelaide for a trip down memory lane and to find out whether they’re still on their bike. First up is Daryl Impey.

Daryl Impey first came to Australia for the Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) and loved it so much he has decided to stay – for good.

The South African, who is an honourary Aussie given his history with the race and Australia’s GreenEDGE team, now calls the country home with his wife and their three boys moving to Sydney permanently two years ago.

“We pretty much came here because of this race, we saw Australia and thought ‘wow this would be a great place to raise a family’,” Impey said.

“I still love South Africa, it has its challenges, but we had an amazing opportunity to come here and so far it’s been the best decision.”

Impey raced the TDU 10 times throughout his career dating back to 2010, including eight times with Australia’s WorldTour team, and remains the only rider in TDU history to go back-to-back after winning the ochre jersey in 2018 and 2019.

 “It’s the favourite race for me, it’s always good to start the race here, it’s summer, pretty straightforward racing, a nice hotel and the same hotel for the duration,” he said.

“I’ve had great experiences here, won it as a teammate, won it myself and as a director, so it’s special.

“The race has got bigger and better so it’s super nice to have it on my resume or palmares as we say.

“And it was one of the defining points of my career, because after being a teammate for Simon Gerrans and Caleb Ewan here, it was my first real big opportunity to do something and to nail it gave me that confidence.

“Then to do it again the next year was special.”

 The 41-year-old retired in 2023 and has made a smooth transition to the sports director’s chair, which has led him to his first season with INEOS Grenadiers.

“It was always going to be hard for me to walk away from the sport. When I stopped I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and I kept the door open for some DS’ing,” he said.

“I really enjoyed my first year, did minimal days and a few different things like training camps, working with the coaches, so I knew it was something I enjoyed doing.

“It’s great when a plan comes together, but when you are DS with a bunch of motivated guys who came out here early to train, it’s pretty easy to get your head stuck into what you’re doing.

“Of course being away from home is the hardest part, but the trade off is you are doing something you love doing.

“I still have loads of friends in the peloton and especially at this race, a lot of my friends come here.”

When he’s not on the road with the team, Impey is busy at home with his three boys who are aged 12, 9 and 6, and still gets out on his bike and even records his kilometres.

“They’re into everything – AFL, soccer, eagle-tag, it’s like touch where you have to grab the tag,” Impey said.

“We do a little bit of bike riding, the middle son he’s into it a bit, they came here last week to watch the prologue and see what dad does now compared to what dad used to do.

“I still enjoy riding, I just dedicate a lot more time to the family now and with kids sport you tend to do less and less.

“I used to do 30,000km a year, two years ago I did 5,000km and last year I did 3,000km, so it’s not looking good.

“I still got out with the boys the other day and suffered like a dog, but it’s good to get out with them for a ride.

“I miss feeling fit and the buzz you get from racing, but I still get a little bit of that in the car.