Didi Senft - The Devil of The Tour de France
Created | Updated Aug 14, 2002
Anyone who has regularly watched television coverage of The Tour de France cycle race will no doubt have seen a man dressed as a devil, and accompanied by a huge bicycle which looks far too big to ride.
The bicycle is not only rideable, but is also one of the largest bicycles in the world, and the owner is Didi Senft - a cycle racing fan from Germany, and builder of oversize cycles.
Why 'The Devil'?
Born in 1952, Didi has long been a fan of The Tour de France. He noticed that the German television commentators would call the final kilometre of each stage 'The Red Devil's Lap'...
They always called the final kilometre of a criterium [stage] the red devil's lap. I never saw a red devil, so I became one.
Since 1993, Didi has dressed in a red devil costume and followed The Tour de France around its entire course, hauling his huge bike around on a trailer and usually setting up at a point some 20km from the finish line of each stage. He says that he would prefer to be at the beginning of The Red Devil's lap - 1km from the finish, but the race authorities and French police won't allow him and his bicycle any closer than 20km because of the crowds.
Didi finances his travels with money from a small number of corporate sponsors, money from his wife's job, and from donations given by other Tour de France fans. He usually sleeps in his car between stages to keep expenditure at a minimum.
The world's largest bicycle
Didi's other passion is building enormous bicycles and other riding machines. At the time of writing he has had no fewer than ten entries in The Guinness Book of Records, including the world's largest and longest rideable bicycle - an astonishing 7.8m (25'7") long and 3.7m (12'2") high. He has also built a recumbent double-decker tandem, and a giant rickshaw 12.4m (42') long, upon which the passenger sits at a dizzying height of 6.65m (21'10") above the ground.
