South African Daryl Impey wrapped up the 2015 Tour Down Under, taking home the sprint jersey and retaining his seventh position overall.
Heading into the final circuit stage in Adelaide, the entire ORICA-GreenEDGE outfit was committed to riding aggressively, as they have all week, and gathering valuable sprint seconds in attempt to move up in the general classification.
Their efforts were shown at the front of the peloton ahead of the first sprint, pulling in an early breakaway and rewarded by Impey who claimed the first spoils.
Again working hard at the front to set their leader up for the finish, Impey managed a fifth position on the stage and eventually finished 35seconds behind overall winner Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing).
“It was a little hectic in the final today,” Impey said. “We got it together but with Durbo (Luke Durbridge) crashing out we missed that final guy in the finish and we ran a little bit short at the end.”
“It would have been nice to finish with the win but to finish with the sprinters jersey, and a top ten overall in such a class field, to top off the teamwork the guys put in here is great.”
The ORICA-GreenEDGE team set out to be aggressive in the first WorldTour event of 2015, and aggressive they were. Sport director Matt White pleased with the efforts of the entire team in support of Impey.
“It’s been a good week,” White said. “The guys, they committed everyday and they came up just short a couple of times.“
“For us it’s an important race, so to come away without a win is a little bit disappointing but it was not through a lack of effort from the boys that’s for sure. We showed we are one of the best teams here.
“It’s a nice consolation prize to take home the sprint jersey, a second and a third at this race. We were in the mix every single stage so that is gratifying.”
Happy to see the carbonate of soda (or whatever he calls it) works