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Didi Senft

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Name
  
Didi Senft


Role
  
Inventor

Didi Senft REUCYCLINGTOUR2jpg


Didi senft


Dieter "Didi" Senft (born February 7, 1952 in Reichenwalde, Germany) is a German cycling fan who is known as the Didi the Devil or El Diablo at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. 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."

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Didi Senft Didi Senft The Devil Zwift Support Hub

He is also an inventor who has created over 100 bicycles, including the largest in the world. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for building the largest mobile guitar (taking the form of a bicycle).

Didi Senft Didi Senft Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

During multi-day stage races he often travels ahead of the race itself in a custom-decorated camper vehicle, picking various locations for the race to pass by. He is also a regular attendee at important single day races, such as the spring classics and world championships.

Didi Senft Stage 8 tourdefrance Sport smhcomau

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.

Didi Senft Didi Senft Wikipedia den frie encyklopdi

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.

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.

He was seen at the Giro d'Italia 2011, 2012 and Cologne Marathon 2011 in pink Devil costume.

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." 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.

Meeting the devil el diablo tour de france 2013 didi senft the tour de france devil


References

Didi Senft Wikipedia