Daryl Impey drives the RadioShack train (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Hendrik Redant and Daryl Impey are two of the victims of the demise of the Pegasus team. While Impey still hopes to ride for the team this year, Redant admits he has nothing at the moment.
Redant, 48, quit his job as sport director at Omega Pharma-Lotto to join the new Australian team, “a step I wanted to take,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws.
But the team lost out first on a ProTeam and then a Professional Continental licence, leaving him with empty hands. “Everything at the other teams is full. Posts as team manager are full. Right now I have nothing.”
Even if he would stay with Pegasus as a Continental team, he would not give up his ambitions, looking to be back with a ProTeam in 2012.
Financially, he is not able to afford a sabbatical year. Redant said “I would prefer to continue with racing, but perhaps I must return to surveying, the profession I last performed in 1986. I will give myself another 10 days cooling-off period, and then I will decide.”
Impey had signed a two-year contract with Pegasus, and calls the recent happenings “a very stressful time for everyone involved.” The 26-year old said on his personal website, “With the news coming so late and everybody being on holiday not much could be done over the festive season and finding a ProTour or Pro Continental team at this point is very difficult, the offers before have come and gone and most rosters are full.”
Still, he has not given up hope for the Pegasus project. “I know Chris White is doing everything in his power to see if things can be sorted out and I believe he is working around the clock to find a solution. I am hoping to get back to Europe as soon as possible as I feel I have sacrificed so much to be there, that to walk away from it now is not a solution.”
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He calls the situation “sad and frustrating but I need to keep my morale up and train for my goals as I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am hoping to have some answers by next week.”
Impey is continuing to train, “and I have felt much better and smoother than I was last year.” While he is obviously unsure what his race schedule might be, he is aiming for the South African Championships and the premiere Tour of South Africa in February.
