Stefan Denifl
Denifl in 2009
Personal information
Full nameStefan Denifl
Born (1987-09-22) 22 September 1987
Fulpmes, Tyrol, Austria
Height1.79 m (5 ft 10+12 in)
Weight65 kg (143 lb; 10.2 st)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider type
  • Climber
  • Time trialist
Amateur team
2009Cervélo TestTeam (stagiaire)
Professional teams
2006Vorarlberger
2007–2009Elk Haus–Simplon
2010Cervélo TestTeam
2011Leopard Trek
2012Vacansoleil–DCM
2013–2016IAM Cycling
2017–2018Aqua Blue Sport[1]
Major wins
One-day races and Classics
National Time Trial Championships (2008)

Stefan Denifl (born 22 September 1987) is an Austrian former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2018 for seven different professional teams. In 2019, Denifl confessed to doping during a five-year period in his career, and was given a four-year ban from the sport; as a consequence of this, Denifl received a two-year sentence in 2021 for serious commercial fraud.

Career

Born in Fulpmes, Denifl began racing in 2001 with "Team Bike Denifl" as a mountain biker. In 2003, he moved to the road, riding for "Team ÖAMTC Recheis Lattella". From 2004, he focused on road cycling. In 2005, he was signed by Heiko Salzwedel for the T-Mobile Development Programme and included his first experience with the professional cyclists. In 2006, he signed with his first UCI Continental team Vorarlberger, and from 2007 to 2009 he was part of Elk Haus–Simplon. In 2009, he rode as a trainee for Cervélo TestTeam,[2] and rode with them as a full professional the next year. In 2012, he rode for a year with Vacansoleil–DCM[3] before joining IAM Cycling the following year.[4] In October 2016, Aqua Blue Sport announced that Denifl, alongside IAM team-mate Leigh Howard, would be part of their inaugural squad for the 2017 season.[5] After Aqua Blue disbanded in the later summer of 2018, in October of that year Denifl was initially announced as a member of the CCC Team for the following season. However, in December 2018 the team announced that they and Denifl had mutually agreed to cancel his contract due to personal reasons, which were not specified at the time.[6]

Blood doping

In February 2019, Kronen Zeitung broke news that a number of professional cyclists had been implicated in the doping scandal uncovered at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Later, Denifl confessed to blood doping in a police interview[7] with CCC Team general manager Jim Ochowicz confirming that team's medical assessment of Denifl's biological passport showed no warning signs of blood doping.[8][9] Denifl was handed a four-year ban on 27 June 2019.[10] On 12 January 2021, it was announced that Denifl would receive a two-year prison sentence for fraud.[11] The following year, the original judgement was overturned and went to a retrial.[12]

Major results

2004
3rd Road race, National Junior Road Championships
2005
National Junior Road Championships
1st Road race
2nd Time trial
2nd Overall Trofeo Karlsberg
6th Road race, UEC European Under-23 Road Championships
2007
9th Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop U23
2008
National Road Championships
1st Time trial
1st Under-23 time trial
1st Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop U23
5th Overall Giro della Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia
2009
1st Overall Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23
7th Overall Bayern–Rundfahrt
8th Overall Tour of Austria
2010
7th Overall Tour of Austria
7th Overall Bayern–Rundfahrt
8th Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León
2011
5th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
9th Overall Grand Prix de Wallonie
2012
5th Overall Tour du Limousin
2013
1st Mountains classification, Bayern–Rundfahrt
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
5th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe
2014
7th Overall Paris–Nice
2015
1st Mountains classification, Tour de Suisse
10th Overall Tour of Austria
1st Austrian rider classification
2017
1st Overall Tour of Austria
1st Stage 17 Vuelta a España

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
A pink jersey Giro d'Italia 75 52
A yellow jersey Tour de France Did not contest during his career
A red jersey Vuelta a España DNF 58
Legend
Did not compete
DNF Did not finish

References

  1. "2018 rider roster and first races confirmed". Aqua Blue Sport. Aqua Blue Sport Limited. 1 January 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  2. "Cervelo TestTeam Signs Stefan Denifl | RoadCycling.com". roadcycling.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  3. "Denifl and Mortensen to Vacansoleil". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 14 October 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  4. "IAM Cycling announces 2013 roster". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 20 September 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  5. "Howard and Denifl headline second round of signings for Aqua Blue Sport". cyclingnews.com. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  6. Hood, Andrew (24 December 2018). "Zoidl in, Denifl out in late-hour moves at CCC". VeloNews. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  7. "Denifl confesses to blood doping in police interview". 3 March 2019.
  8. "Ochowicz: No red flags in Denifl's biological passport". 3 March 2019.
  9. "Austrian cyclist Stefan Denifl 'confesses to blood doping in police interview'".
  10. "Denifl and Preidler handed four-year bans after blood doping confessions". cyclingnews.com. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  11. "Stefan Denifl receives a prison sentence". CyclingTips. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  12. Stoiber, Gerald (27 January 2022). "Ex-Radprofi Denifl erhält neuen Dopingprozess" [Ex-cyclist Denifl receives new doping process]. Salzburger Nachrichten (in German). Maximilian Dasch Jr., Salzburger Nachrichten Verlag. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
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