The picture of focus; Stefan Denifl heads to victory at the Vuelta with his baby son, aged 4 weeks, uppermost on his mind (All photos by Karen M Edwards)
Stefan Denifl dedicates Vuelta win to baby son
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Sailing over the finish line, both arms aloft in victory, all the hard work in Stefan Denifl’s career had crystallised in one moment.
All the sacrifice and all the suffering combined for one moment of magic that every bike riders dream of; a Grand Tour stage win.
But less visible at the end of stage 17 of La Vuelta yesterday were those things Aqua Blue Sport’s Denifl had given up to be there.
No sooner was he over the line than his thoughts turned to home and the four-week-old son he’s only seen for a short moment since his birth.
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The win, Denifl said, was for his team of course; the new outfit on the block now riding him. But mostly it was for his boy and his partner.
“I do not know too much about him as I have been on the road and I only saw him for one week,” he said of the boy.
“He is Xavier and he is four weeks old and he is a good boy. He has no idea I won a Vuelta stage. But maybe in a few years he will be proud of what his dad did.”
And then he outlined his journey to victory on arguably the hardest final of this year's race.
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“It all began 17 racing days ago and we all have been working towards today,” the delighted victor said having held off the chase of Alberto Contador.
The Spaniard hunted down Denifl on the slopes of the final climb looking for a win in his last every race.
But he couldn’t get up to him. Instead it was Denifl of Aqua Blue Sport how carved his name into the mountain.
“It has been a long journey. We have many guys and it is their first Grand Tour for them. I was hoping somehow to help them a little bit and let them know how hard it was going to be.
“I have been getting better day by day and already on the rest day on Monday I started to feel pretty good.
“My goal was to be on a level on the last week of the Vuelta where I can win a stage. It just happened today it is just amazing.”
And he paid tribute to his Irish team mate for making it happen early in the 180km stage from Villadiego to Los Machucos Monumento Vaca Pasiega.
“When the break went Conor Dunne helped me a bit to move up. I was there with three guys and the peloton didn’t leave us go.
“We had to really push hard for a long time to get clear. The peloton then sat up about 20 kilometres in.
“And that was a point where we were really not sure what we should do because we were only three guys in the front with a head wind.
“Good thing was two more riders came. We got a good time gap and soon Astana started chasing and some other teams.
“But I knew I had good legs and I really didn’t care what was happening behind.
“The last climb was a little like Kitzbüheler Horn,” he said of the climb in his homeland and that he conquered to win the Tour of Austria in July.
“I was just about pacing yourself and believing in yourself and it worked out.
“I didn’t know what was happening, I did not know Contador was coming for me.
“My radio was not working on the climb. It was amazing on that climb, there were so many people and I tried to enjoy it.
“You cannot enjoy it but I tried to get the energy of the people to get me going. Then like two kilometres to go I was looking back and I could see someone coming.
“And I said to myself ‘Stefan you have to put everything together in yourself to do this’. I fought to the last kilometre because I knew that I had a bit of downhill and you know it worked out.”
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