Nine months after team RadioShack recruit Daryl Impey found himself in a hospital bed following a horrific crash in the Tour of Turkey, the South African says he’s ready to move onward and upward from the incident and focus on riding his bike for 2010.
A chaotic dash for the line last April resulted in a broken spine and jaw, as well as injuries to his face and elbow. He recalled his time in the hospital bed with doctors warning of possible paralysis to De Telegraaf: “I first saw the pictures the day after. It was a shock. I couldn’t believe it.”
Leading the race’s overall competition, Impey was near the front of the peloton in the final kilometer readying for the top step of the podium when he felt something, “I remember feeling [Theo] Bos’ hand on my back, but I remember nothing of the fall.”
He was referring to Theo Bos’ fleeting attempt to stay upright as the fence narrowed in the final meters of the race. In a panic, Bos grabbed at Impey’s jersey at the same moment he came in contact with the fencing along the finishing straight. His entanglement with the fence started a frighenting chain reaction that brought both riders into the spotlight.
“Those days were hell,” Impey said of his time in the hospital. The doctors didn’t speak English, and he recounted that they didn’t believe him when he tried to tell them his jaw was broken.
Ten days after the incident, Bos reached out to the then Barloworld rider via email, saying he wanted to discuss what had happened. Impey agreed, admitting it wasn’t an easy choice, “It was hard to hear him on the phone.”
But despite the anger he had built up, he realized during their conversation that Bos genuinely felt badly about what had happened. “It is wrong what he did,” he said. “The UCI has punished him for it. I can’t dwell on the crash forever. While I haven’t come face to face with Theo since [the accident], I forgive him. Time heals all wounds so to speak.”
In fact, the 25-year-old chooses to remain positive thinking that the crash may have helped him secure a contract on Lance Armstrong’s RadioShack team. “Perhaps the incident with Bos is the reason I got the contract with Armstrong’s team,” he said. “Because of the crash, I was suddenly a famous rider.”
During his six weeks in the hospital he said that he had dreamed of being offered a contract by Armstrong. He said in the dream the American told him he had a spot for him on his new team. “When I was approached in the fall by Johan Bruyneel, I thought I was crazy. My dream had come true,” he explained.
Bos also got a contract with a bigger team for 2010 and now rides for the Cervelo TestTeam. They’re bound to meet up at some point during the season, and will hopefully be able to bury the hatchet for good in person.