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South African road race champion Daryl Impey has once again been named by Mitchelton-Scott in their Tour de France team. Impey will make his sixth Tour appearance, all for the Australian team, but this will mark his first in the national champion's jersey - he will also do so on a specially-designed bicycle. Previously, the 33-year-old has only had the South African flag emblazoned across his kit during time trial stages of Le Tour as he has been national champion seven times in this format. While Impey - who in 2013 became the first South African ever to wear the yellow jersey as the leader the Tour de France -- won the Tour Down Under at the start of this season, and a stage of the Criterium du Dauphine earlier in June, he will return to Super Domestique duty during the three-week Grand Tour in July. That is because the Mitchelton-Scott Tour de France line-up has been built around Adam Yates, the 2016 Tour de France best young rider and fourth-place getter. Impey will be one of the diverse support act of specialists tasked with guiding the 25-year-old through the Tour which begins with an unpredictable first nine days before the climbers come to the fore in the mountains. The Australian trio Luke Durbridge, Mathew Hayman and Michael Hepburn and New Zealand's Jack Bauer will be the core of the team expected to protect Yates in the opening stages where crosswinds and cobbles have the potential to derail his General Classification hopes. They also form the base for the team time trial which will be a crucial early showdown for the GC contenders. Spain's Mikel Nieve and another Australian in Damien Howson will be given more 'license' to sniff out opportunities for stage wins on mountainous stages when the overall contenders nullify each other. Impey, meanwhile, will be relied upon for his strength and experience in the transitional stages. As one of the best all-round riders in the world he has shown his ability to keep pace with the 'mountain goats' and finish strong in the hurly-burly at the end of sprint stages. The South African's best finish at the Tour de France came in 2016, when he claimed a 38th place overall.
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