19th May 2013 00:00
The Frenchman had already recorded a sharp 3:49:00 in March in the Slovakian spa town, and on Sunday took the race by the scruff of the neck to record a second European Cup Race Walking triumph to go with two gold-lined European Championships.
He was a sorry figure at last year's Olympics and World Championships, but on this particular stretch of road and with the Euro carrot dangling in front – Diniz consumed it whole.
Niggling injury worries behind him, once he took the lead just before 15k, the rest were playing catch-up.
Had he taken a little less time to high five fans on the last lap as well as an unscheduled pit-stop at 40k, he would have easily clawed back the 10 seconds that denied him the European Cup record held by Russia's Vladimir Kanaykin.
Early on, it took only four laps before the leading Russian pair was lapping the back markers.
Unsurprisingly, Alexey Bartsaykin and the little known Konstantin Maksimov were heading the charge joined at the 5k-mark by Diniz in 22:33.
Mikhail Ryzhov and Ivan Noskov shadowed 20 yards behind, and in their wake, two Poles and two from Ukraine were also biding their time.
But if there was ever a doubt about the task facing the recording table, nearly half the field of 49 had been lapped already.
By 10k (45:04), all four Russians crowded the Frenchman with the equally divided Poland/Ukraine quartet 31 seconds back.
However, the rest of the field were disparate ones and twos, except for the Portuguese team throng almost a minute behind at this point.
Diniz opted for breathing space and eased forward eight seconds at 15k. He increased it by five at 20k (1:20:48) with the Russians a minute plus ahead of everyone else.
Increasing the gap to almost a minute at 30k (2:14:05) the relentless pace set by Diniz as the sun rose took its toll on first Maksimov who drifted from his team-mates at this point, recovered, and then saw Bartsaykin lag as the Frenchman recorded a couple of quick laps at 4:24 each.
As he turned the screw, the Russians were done team bonding. It was every man for himself, with Ryzhov forcing the split and the other two also showing gaps between each other.
The first Russian held on for a seven-minute improvement, although he almost limped across the line in contrast to the sprightly Diniz who had time to kiss the mascot.
Noskov came through for bronze. Ihor Hlaven was on two disqualification cards for more than 30k, but the walker from Ukraine defied the odds for fourth, and Poland's Grzegorz Sudol used his experience to claim fifth.
Jesus Angel Garcia was a winner on this course an amazing 12 years ago.
Where the 43-year-old gets his enthusiasm from is anyone's guess, but in a last 100m sprint, the Spaniard held off team-mate Claudio Villanueva, nine years his junior, by two seconds to claim 11th, and only a little over eight minutes slower than 2001.
Diniz was delighted to have come back from a poor couple of years.
He said: 'It's true I seem to be inspired by European competition, and I don't know why.
'I like Dudince. It's a small town, but it has a big, big heart and it inspires me. The problems I had over the last two years are known, but I'm particularly pleased to have won here.
'Because it was very, very hot, I think it gives me even more hope for the World Championships later this year.'
Complete results.