South African Daryl Impey (Barloworld)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Daryl Impey finishes the Tour of Turkey after a violent crash with Theo Bos (Rabobank).(Image credit: Presidential Cycling Tour)
South African Daryl Impey will make his return to the professional peloton this week in Italy, after recovering from a serious crash at the Tour of Turkey in April.
Team Barloworld scheduled Impey to race in two one-day races this week, GP Carnago on Thursday and the GP Camaiore on Saturday.
Impey had facial injuries, broken teeth and two broken vertebrae from the crash on the final stage of the Tour of Turkey on April 19. The crash occurred when Rabobank Continental team's Theo Bos grabbed Impey's jersey in the approach to the final sprint.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) suspended Bos for one month following the incident. Impey, who was wearing the leaders yellow jersey at the time, finished the stage and won the Tour but has not raced in Europe since.
"He has been training in South Africa and raced a small race there, but has yet to do a lot of training," Barloworld Team Manager Claudio Corti told Cyclingnews on Tuesday.
Impey travelled to Italy at the end of July and has been training with teammate, Robbie Hunter, near Como, Italy.
On his personal website Impey said he was looking forward to his return this week and will use the races to gauge his form heading into the final months of the season, which will include the Tour of Britain.
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"I leave [Como] on Wednesday for Carnago. Then I [will] also race GP Camaiore, that is more suited towards the climbers, but a good day's 'race training' for sure and I want to use this race and see how I feel," he said.
Claudio Corti said the team expects Impey to re-build his form ahead of the Tour of Britain, September 12 to 19.
"We hope the can start to find condition by the end the end of the month," said Corti. "He will be racing the one-day races in Italy this month and then after that the Tour of Britain."
Impey's had a slight disruption in his preparations this week because of recent changes to visa regulations between South Africa and the United Kingdom. He and Hunter had planned to race at the Blackpool criterium in England on Saturday, but the two were forced to stay home because of the time in obtaining visas for the journey.
