Tour de Suisse: Daryl Impey wins stage 4

Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey wins stage 4 at Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey wins stage 4 at Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 The breakaway trio – Matthew Holmes (Lotto-Soudal), Mark Hoelgaard (Trek-Segafredo) and Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Fenix) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Scenery through the Swiss landscape during Stage 4 from Grenchen to Brunnen (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Riding in the peloton are Ineos Grenadiers teammates Omar Fraile and Geraint Thomas (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Remco Evenepoel of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Michael Schär of Switzerland (AG2R Citroën Team) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Stage 4 rolls 190. 8km from Grenchen to Brunnen (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Stephen Williams of Bahrain Victorious yellow leader’s jersey at the start in Grenchen (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Riders of Team Groupama-FDJ salute the Tour de Suisse mascot during the team presentation in Grenchen (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Thibaut Pinot of Groupama-FDJ (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Swiss rider Tom Bohli of Team Cofidis leads the peloton (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 View of the peloton passing by Lake Lucerna on 190. 8km stage 4 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Stunning scenery on stage 4 as peloton passes through Lake Lucerna in the village of Ingenbohl (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Tour de Suisse on stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey wins stage 4 at the Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey wins stage 4 at the Tour de Suisse in a sprint ahead of Michael Matthews and Søren Kragh Andersen (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Stephen Williams maintains overall race lead at the Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images ) Image 1 of 20 Daryl Impey (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse to show he is back to his best after two years of injuries and long comebacks.

The South African rider opened his sprint with perfect timing down the left as other riders clashed on the right, to surge past Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) and hold off Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) on the line. Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM) was third. It was Impey’s first WorldTour win since his victory on stage 9 at the 2019 Tour de France.

A nasty high-speed sprint crash exactly a year ago forced Impey to miss the Tokyo Olympics but despite now being 37, he was able to win again. Welshman Stevie Williams (Bahrain Victorious) finished in the 60-rider front group, despite some attacks from other riders on the late climb. He leads Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal) by just six seconds, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) third at seven seconds.

Thursday’s 190km fifth stage is from Ambri to Novazzano close to the southern border of Switzerland and close to Italy. “I’m ecstatic. It was a tough day,” Impey explained after celebrating with his teammates.

“The competition is so good these days with the young guys, and after everything that happened last year, I didn’t know if I was going to get back on top of the step. “To finally pull off a victory after all of the hard work is special. I had great support from the team and from my family at home, they’ve helped me through tough times.

I’m really happy to win. ” Impey used his climbing and sprinting ability to stay in the front group over the late Sattel climb that ended 14km from the finish. He then followed his instincts in the sprint, the road opening up for him to sprint to victory.

“I felt pretty good going over the last climb. Then I found a good position behind the EF team and had a good position going into the last kilometre and a half to go,” Impey explained. “I thought I’d lost it all with 800m to go, I was in the mix but the gap opened on the left hand side and I just went for it.

I was about to put my hands up but saw a blue flash coming up on my left and so had to go all the way to the line and throw the bike. I wasn’t even sure I’d won but I was really happy I did. ” Impey hinted that 2022 could be his final season in the peloton.

His current contract with Israel-Premier Tech ends this year. “To beat riders like Michael Matthews on a finish like today, near the end of my career, is a fantastic win,” he said. More to follow.

. . Results powered by First Cycling (opens in new tab).