South African cyclist Daryl Impey made history last week when he became the first African to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France cycle race. This world-class cyclist also has a local connection. In 2006, he won the Kremetart cycle race in a time of just over 4 hours and 16 minutes.

The 27-year-old cyclist from Johannesburg made the whole nation proud when he wore the prestigious yellow jersey for two days last week. The Tour de France is the world’s biggest cycling event and one of the biggest sporting events internationally. It stretches over three weeks and attracts the top professional teams from across the globe.

When Impey won the Kremetart race in 2006, he was already an experienced rider. In 2002, at the age of 16, he represented South Africa at the World Junior Championships and had a glimpse of the world of professional cycling. He decided that this was what he wanted to do for a living and started training harder to make his dreams come true.

He signed his first professional contract in 2003 and became part of the Microsoft Cycling team. During the next two years he won titles in South Africa and in places like China. Still as a junior, in 2004, he took part in his first Kremetart and surprised the more experienced riders by winning the first stage of this tough race. He also caught the attention of a French amateur team by the name of  Velo Club la Pomme-Marseille and soon afterwards decided to make the jump to Europe.

Impey admits that he quickly found out that the world of a professional cyclist is very difficult, especially if you compete abroad. He had to learn a new language and things did not always go the way he wanted.

When he returned to South Africa, he signed up with the Microsoft team and things started to go a lot better. That same year, he competed in his second Kremetart 175km stage race. He secured victory by a mere four seconds, narrowly beating a strong challenge from Hanco Kachelhoffer from the Konica Minolta team.

“I had a great season in 2006 and had seven victories, which gave me the confidence I needed and I started to set my mind on Europe again. I set another goal, with a new team MTN-Microsoft and 2007 would be the season that I would need to do well and no more excuses. Time was running out and I wasn’t getting any younger. I wanted to prove that I could race in Europe and I needed the results to get teams to look at me,” Impey writes on his website. (www.darylimpey.com)

In the following years, Impey had victories in numerous races on the international pro circuit. This included a stage victory in the Herald Sun Tour in Australia in 2008. In 2009, he won the Tour of Turkey race and also ended second in the SA Road Championships. During this time, he rode for the well-known SA team, Barloworld, which included another famous local racer, Robbie Hunter.

Impey’s tenacity paid off in 2011 when he had a stage win in the Tour de Moroc and won the SA Elite Time Trial championships. His first taste of the Tour de France was in 2012 and he managed a fifth place in Stage 13. The same year, he also represented his country at the Olympic Games.

The year 2013 turned out to be a bumper year for Impey. He was the South African National Time Trial champion once again and he caught the eye of an Australian team, Orica-GreenEDGE. Impey was selected mostly because he is an excellent team rider and works very hard to get the sprinters in his team to the finish line. His skills paid off and he managed to take his team-mate, Simon Gerrans, to victory in Stage 3. The team also won the time trial on Day 4 of the race.