Deleted:Didi Senft
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Dieter "Didi" Senft (born February 7, 1952 in Reichenwalde, Germany) is known as the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia devil or El Diablo. Since 1993, he has been seen in the Tour and Giro's many stages wearing his red devil costume and painting trident symbols on the road some miles before he appears. Senft attributes the inspiration for the costume to German cycling announcer Herbert Watterot who called the last lap of local criterium races, "the Red Devil's Lap." [citation needed]
He is also an inventor who has created over 100 bicycles, including the largest in the world.[citation needed] He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for building the largest mobile guitar (taking the form of a bicycle).[1]
In 1996, Senft travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, USA to cheer on the athletes during the '96 Summer Olympic Games cycling road race on the streets of suburban Buckhead.
During the 2006 edition of Tour of Switzerland, Didi Senft painted his signature trident on the road the day before the competitors came by his door. But later that day Swiss police arrived and said it was illegal and that he must either pay a fine or go to jail. He was also forced to remove the painting from the road.[citation needed]
He was again in the spotlight at Euro 2008 when he rode through Klagenfurt in his specially created "Football Bike" prior to the Germany vs Croatia Match.[2]
He was seen at the Giro d'Italia 2011, 2012 and Cologne Marathon 2011 in pink Devil costume.[3]
In 2012, Senft confirmed he would miss the Tour de France for the first time since 1993 after undergoing surgery. "I just got back from having my head x-rayed, the third time in three weeks, I feel like a Chernobyl reactor," he told Cyclingnews.com. "Today the results were much better and I can start doing more things every day."[4] Following his enforced absence from events, Senft was present at the 2012 World Championships, and has been at the Tour de France in each edition since, as of 2017.
References
- ↑ "Biggest mobile guitar-world record set by Dieter Senft". http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/biggest/biggest_mobile_guitar_world_record_set_by_Dieter_Senft_80201.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-19.
- ↑ "'Football-Bike' wows Klagenfurt crowd". Archived from the original on April 13, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090413054630/http://www1.uefa.com/countries/cities/city=1957/fanzones/newsid=715571.html. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ↑ "'"El Diablo" Reuters photo – 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race from Spilimbergo to Glosslockner". http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/photos/bal-reu-cycling-giro-20110520150823,0,7897522.photo.
- ↑ "Injury update: Wynants and Terpstra improving". http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/injury-update-wynants-and-terpstra-improving?ns_campaign=news&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=cyclingnews&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
External links
- 16x16px Media related to {{#invoke:Commons link|getCategory||linktext=|lcfirst=|nowrap=|italic=|tracking=1|qid=}} at Wikimedia Commons
- Didi Senft in full action during the Tour in 2010
- The DEVIL: PEZ-Clusive Interview!
- The Tour-devil's Homepage
- The Devil jumps beside a pack of riders during the fifth stage of the 95th Tour de France cycling race between Cholet and Chateauroux, July 9, 2008. (REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel)
- Video of the Tour Devil's crazy bikes
- Didi Senft is one of the characters of the cycling film "The Last Kilometer"
