NSWIS welcomes Tour de France stage winner to coaching role

The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) is excited to announce two-time South African Olympic representative and Tour de France stage winner, Daryl Impey as the new Head Coach of its Endurance Cycling program, which encapsulates road, track endurance and mountain bike.

Mr Impey, who is universally regarded as South Africa’s greatest-ever cyclist, said he was thrilled to lead NSWIS’s highly regarded program, which aligns with the AusCycling endurance model. Indeed, the NSWIS program has long been viewed as a nurturing ground for talent. The program also continues to provide athletes with the platform to realise their full potential and attain outstanding accomplishments in the highly competitive world of cycling.

The 40-year-old, who is Director Sportif for Israel’s Premier Tech Pro Cycling team, said he’d draw upon the ‘roller coaster-like’ experiences from his 16-year professional career to guide – and prepare – NSWIS’s cohort of endurance cyclists for the rigours and realities of competing against the world’s best in the sport’s heartland, Europe. 

“I’m looking forward to working with the squad,” said Mr Impey, who has relocated to Sydney. “There is no doubt any Australian athlete who is in the NSWIS system is an athlete with great potential.

“But something I want to impress upon them is the importance of mental toughness because I want to prepare the athletes for Europe; help them know what to expect. That’s important because I feel as though I lost a year when I first went overseas as I spent that time trying to work myself out and what was expected of me.

“It was a lot, but if I can help shorten that [learning] gap it will help them adapt to what is a very tough, disciplined environment. An individual requires numerous traits to be a successful cyclist, and I rate mental resilience the most important of them all.

“When that voice [inside your head] asks you every day: ‘do I really want to do this’ it’s important to answer it by getting up and doing it. ‘Important’ because it comes into play when you’re racing and you’re tired . . . the work you did means you know you can do more as you’ve done the work. It’s harder when you haven’t.”

Mr Impey, who spent nine years riding for the Australian GreenEDGE team, provided an insight into the competitive spirit that drove him to a professional road cycling career which stretched from 2008 to 2023 when he revealed he’s a firm believer that hard work beats talent.

“I don’t say I was the most talented rider out there, but I worked very hard,” he said. That’s why I believe hard work beats talent.

“There were athletes who were far more talented than I, and when I look back on my career I think if I’d had their talent I would have gone further, but then I also look at the opportunities they threw away.”

The two-time Olympian said his coaching philosophy was underpinned by taking the time and effort to understand his athletes.

“Coaching is not about simply prescribing a bunch of efforts and expecting the athletes to do it,” he said. “It’s about helping them to understand why they do certain efforts and for me, as their coach, it’s important to understand how they’re feeling.

“I learnt from my coaches it needs to be a two-way relationship. It was not a matter of being prescribed drills and that was it. There was a strong focus on communication and when you have that understanding you can work things out together.

“The reality is the gamechanger isn’t whether you prescribe 30 second sprints or 20 second sprints to a cyclist. The gamechanger is having the confidence in one another to both go in the same direction together.

“And athletes will only feel motivated if they think they have a coach who is invested in them, and, sure, there’ll be times when an athlete or coach disagrees on certain things or certain ways, but that’s also part of the way how you progress.”

Mr Impey will continue in his role as Director Sportif for Israel’s Premier Tech Pro Cycling team, saying it was advantageous for his NSWIS athletes for him to remain.

“You’re always learning . . . learning new tactics, you have coaching staff, riders, access to new technologies, making connections,” he said. “If I bring from what I learn from that side of the world and what I learn from this side and put them all together it is going to help NSWIS’s athletes.

NSWIS High Performance Manager Andy Burns said the appointment of Daryl Impey would provide the Institute’s endurance cyclists with world’s best coaching.

“NSWIS is very excited to welcome Daryl Impey to the NSWIS ‘family,’ and to bring his expertise to the Institute’s cycling program,” said Mr Burns.

“Our job is to provide the best coaching and daily training environments for our athletes, to support them progressing through the AusCycling pathway and to have the skills to thrive as they move through each stage.

“I fully believe that the experience, and expertise Daryl brings will help us achieve those outcomes and his vision for the NSWIS program is one we can all get behind.”

Daniel Lane, NSWIS