Team Barloworld’s Daryl Impey, the rider who’s controversial crash during the last stage of the Tour of Turkey launched the rider and Rabobank’s Theo Bos into the headlines, is looking ahead to his future in the sport.
Impey recently arrived home in South Africa after a week in Alanya, in Turkey, following his diagnosis of two fractured vertebra in his lower back. On Tuesday April 28 he underwent an operation on his jaw and will be forced to adhere to a liquid diet for the next six weeks.
“The fracture was more serious than they thought but it is stable on the L1 area and that gives me a lot of hope. I’m going to have to stay in bed for at least six weeks,” Impey said in an email to the Team Barloworld doctor Massimiliano Mantovani and team manager Claudio Corti .
“The doctors have told me I could have been paralysed. I hope that Bos gets the punishment he deserves.”
Bos who rides for the Continental Rabobank team appears to have grabbed Impey’s jersey in a desperate move to stay upright in the final kilometer of the race. Compounding the issue was the fact that Impey, wearing the leaders yellow jersey, was piloting himself towards victory in the race.
In the video footage it appears at first glance that Bos tossed Impey under his front wheel causing both riders to topple into the steel fences lining the road. After further review of the video, you can see that there were other factors in play, and Bos’ actions were an act of desperation. The Dutchman was being forced into the fence by the ebb and flow of the peloton as it raced towards the finsh line, and while Bos should never have taken his hands off of his handlebars, physics would prove that purposely manhandling another cyclist with that force is not possible.
Still, Impey remains positive about the situation, and the cycling world hopes he will have a full and speedy recovery.
“It is not good but I must just recover (I hope to ride end of may) and I will be back to win races! I know I will”, he said in his email.