Stefan Denifl

Stefan Denifl

Stefan Denifl at the Critérium du Dauphiné (2011)
To person
Date of birth	20th September 1987 (age 32)
nation	Austria
discipline	Street
doping
June 2014 to the end of 2018	Autologous blood doping (ban until March 4, 2023)
Societies)
	Team ÖAMTC Recheis Lattella
Team (s)
2007 2008–2009 2010 2011 2012 2013–2016 2017–2018	Team Vorarlberg Elk Haus-Simplon Cervélo TestTeam Leopard Trek Vacansoleil-DCM IAM Cycling Aqua Blue Sport
Last updated: February 4, 2020

Stefan Denifl (born September 20, 1987 in Fulpmes , Tyrol ) is an Austrian cyclist . In March 2019, Denifl confessed to blood doping and was suspended for four years. His greatest career successes as the overall winner of the Tour of Austria 2017 and stage winner of the Vuelta a España 2017 were withdrawn as a result.

Career

Denifl received his first contract with an international cycling team in 2006 with the Professional Continental Team Vorarlberg . From 2007 to 2009 he drove for the Elk Haus-Simplon and in 2008 was Austrian champion in the individual time trial . In 2010 Denifl switched to the Cervélo Test Team and was able to record some top positions in international races such as the Vuelta a Castilla y León , as well as the Bayern Tour and the Tour of Austria .

At the beginning of the 2011 season, Stefan Denifl moved to the Luxembourg team Leopard Trek and thus for the first time for a UCI ProTeam . His participation in the California Tour in May was overshadowed by a dramatic fall on the fifth stage from Seaside to Paso Robles, whereby Denifl, after being in a promising position together with ex-world champion Óscar Freire , was unlucky and almost fell would have collided with a following team vehicle. He showed his best performances in the Leopard Trek jersey at the tough UCI ProTour - one-day races Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal and at the Grand Prix de Wallonie , which he finished in fifth and ninth respectively.

In 2012 Denifl moved to the Dutch team Vacansoleil-DCM . For the new team he completed the Giro d'Italia for the first time in 2012 and achieved a top ten result at the Tour du Limousin . At the UCI Road World Championships in Valkenburg , he finished 22nd.

For the 2013 season Denifl became part of the newly founded IAM Cycling Team . His greatest successes for the Switzerland- based team were in 2013 when he finished fifth overall at the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe and won the mountain classification at the Bayern Tour . He finished the Austrian state championships on the road in second place behind Riccardo Zoidl .

In the spring 2014 season, Stefan Denifl finished seventh overall at Paris – Nice in March . In April he finished 20th in the classic Liège – Bastogne – Liège . Then knee problems forced him to take an injury break until 2015. Denifl celebrated his comeback on May 13, 2015, Stefan Denifl at the Bayern Rundfahrt . In the subsequent Tour de Suisse 2015 , he finished ninth on the royal stage with the destination Sölden / Rettenbachferner and won the mountain classification of the tour.

Stefan Denifl as the overall winner of the Tour of Austria at the award ceremony in Wels (July 2017)

Denifl represented his country at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro , but gave up the race after several defects. Since the Swiss IAM team was dissolved at the end of the 2016 season, Stefan Denifl switched to the newly founded Irish team Aqua Blue Sport together with his teammates Leigh Howard and Larry Warbasse for the 2017 season .

With the overall victory of the Tour of Austria 2017 , which was later revoked because of doping , Denifl achieved his greatest success to date. He took over the yellow jersey as the second stage of the fourth stage with the mountain arrival on the Kitzbüheler Horn just behind the Colombian climbing specialist Miguel Ángel López and defended the overall lead against his attacks on the fifth stage, which u. a. over the Felbertauern and the Großglockner .

At the Vuelta a España 2017 , Denifl won the 17th stage from Villadiego to the mountain arrival in Los Machucos as the last remaining rider from an early breakaway group. This success, which was later revoked because of doping, was the first stage victory of an Austrian in the Tour of Spain in 82 years. The last time this was achieved in 1935 was the two-time Austrian road champion Max Bulla . It was also the first stage win for the Irish team Aqua Blue Sport in one of the three big tours.

After the Aqua Blue Sport team was dissolved at the end of the 2018 season, Denifl signed a contract with the Polish-American CCC team . However, as the team announced in December 2018, the contract was terminated amicably at the request of Denifl for private reasons.

On March 1, 2019, the then 31-year-old was arrested as part of the doping raid "Operation Aderlass" at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld in Tyrol and - after having confessed to extensive blood doping - released again. In the course of this doping raid, Denifl was subsequently deprived of the success of the Tour of Austria 2017 and the stage win at the Vuelta a España 2017

family

Stefan Denifl lives in Fulpmes and comes from a cycling family. His father Ernst represented Austria as a mountain biker at the XXVI. 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta .

Denifl became a father a good two weeks after his overall victory at the Tour of Austria 2017.

Awards

• Stefan Denifl was named Austria's cyclist of the year 2017 in January 2018 .

Sporting successes

2004

• Overall ranking Upper Austria Tour (Juniors)

2005

• Austrian Champion - Road Race (Juniors)
• Austrian Champion - Mountain (Juniors)
• Austrian Champion - Couple Time Trial (Juniors)
• Overall win Austria Cup (Juniors)

2006

• Austrian Champion - Individual Time Trial (U23)

2007

• Austrian Champion - Individual Time Trial (U23)
• Austrian Champion - Road (U23)

2008

• Thermenland Grand Prix (U23)
• Around the Henninger Tower (U23)
• Austrian national champion - individual time trial
• Austrian national champion - individual time trial (U23)

2009

• Overall ranking International Tour of Thuringia
• Young talent evaluation Bayern Rundfahrt

2013

• Mountain classification Bavaria Tour

2015

• Tour de Suisse mountain classification

Denied successes

• Overall ranking of the Tour of Austria 2017
• a stage Vuelta a España 2017

Grand Tours placements

Grand Tour	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Giro d'Italia	-	-	75	-	-	-	52	-	-
Tour de France	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Vuelta a España	DNF	-	-	-	-	-	-	58	-

Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

Web links

Commons : Stefan Denifl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Stefan Denifl in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Stefan Denifl in the ProCyclingStats.com database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cycling: Stefan Denifl becomes a helper for the Schleck brothers. diepresse.com, November 3, 2010, accessed December 19, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Denifl escapes with only cuts and bruises after dramatic crash on stage five. cyclingnews.com, May 21, 2011, accessed December 19, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Denifl and Brändle in the new Swiss team IAM. kurier.at, September 20, 2012, accessed on December 19, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Tiroler Tageszeitung Online: fighting spirit instead of end of career. In: tt.com. Retrieved March 12, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Gold for Belgium in a borderline road race. In: derstandard.at . August 6, 2016, accessed September 6, 2017 . 
6. ↑ laola1.at
7. ↑ Lopez wins solo on the Kitzbüheler Horn, Denifl in the yellow jersey. In: radsport-news.com. July 6, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017 . 
8. ↑ - Zoidl misses home coup, Denifl before overall victory. In: radsport-news.com. July 7, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Vuelta a España 2017: Denifl wins spectacular mountain stage ahead of Contador, Froome stays in red. In: eurosport.de. June 9, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017 . 
10. ^ Niall Kelly: Historic day for Irish cycling as Aqua Blue win stage at La Vuelta. In: the42.ie. September 6, 2017, accessed September 6, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Denifl and CCC agree to terminate the contract. In: radsport-news.com. December 24, 2018, accessed December 24, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Denifl admits blood doping. In: radsport-news.com. March 3, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Cycling: Ö-Tour winner Denifl under suspicion of doping. In: sport.orf.at. March 3, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
14. ↑ Denifl and Preidler blocked for four years. In: orf.at. June 27, 2019, accessed June 27, 2019 . 
15. ↑ Denifl admits doping - but nobody wants to have cheated (February 3, 2020)
16. ↑ Olympia remains in the Denifl family. tt.com, accessed March 12, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Denifl is finally on the sunny side of cycling. radsport-news.com, September 6, 2017, accessed September 9, 2017 . 
18. ↑ Rudolf Massak: Stefan Denifl is cyclist of the year 2017. In: radsportverband.at. January 25, 2018, accessed February 6, 2018 .