Yesterday Daryl Impey made his return to competition when he lined up for the Tour of Alberta prologue. Finishing the stage in 11th, the South African was part of a solid Orica-GreenEDGE showing that has set the team up for a solid GC campaign.

A trio of ORICA-GreenEDGE riders have recorded solid opening prologue performances at the Tour of Alberta, setting themselves in a strong position for overall contention as the race moves onto the road stages.

Canadian Christian Meier and returning South African Daryl Impey were the team’s top performers, stopping the clock 23seconds adrift of the winning time of five minutes 59seconds posted by Tom Domoulin (GIA).  

2014 Giro di Toscana winner Pieter Weening is just a further three seconds back, 26seconds off the pace.

Sport director Matt Wilson said the results, which placed them ninth, 11th and 17threspectively, was a good platform to launch the team's general classification ambitions throughout the coming days.

“The time trial went pretty well for us today,” Wilson said.

“We have a few guys there with Meier, Impey and Weening all up there on GC (general classification).

“There was a big gap to Dumoulin who won, he was by far the best guy on the day, but as far as the rest of them go our guys are around the mark.

“It puts us in a really good position going into the next few days, we have a few options there and we have some really windy, difficult conditions coming up so hopefully the boys can do a good job.”

Particularly positive was the ride by Impey in his first race hit out since the Criterium du Dauphine in June.

“Daryl had a great ride for his first day back,” Wilson said.

“He is right up there on GC and it’s the first time he has really gone hard in quite a while so he is going super well and hopefully it is a good race to come for him.”