Q&A with Rocky “Rock” Robert Reifenstuhl
GU ATHLETE: Rocky “Rock” Robert Reifenstuhl
SPORT: Ultra distance cycling
BIRTHPLACE: Washington, DC, 1952
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Fairbanks, Alaska
WEBSITE: www.arcticrecreation.com
Proudest athletic accomplishment?
Competing in 25 Iditarod Trail races with 7 wins.
Superstitions for training or competition?
No sex 15 minutes before a race.
Funny racing/training story?
One night on the Iditarod Trail, at 10 degrees below zero, I was wasted and laid down on top of my bike for a 5 minute “nap”. I woke up, jumped on the bike and rode a half mile the wrong way down the trail before I caught on… Idiot!!
What’s the most helpful thing a spectator has ever done while you were racing?
While leading the 1997 USCF Vet National Championships, a stick caught and ripped off my rear derailleur. I yelled, fumed and picked up my bike and chucked it in the brush. Realizing that cyclocross allows bike changes, I pleaded with the spectators for a bike as my 1st place evaporated to 2nd. Someone actually gave me his bike! I nearly got back into 1st place. Afterward I gave the owner a big hug and $20. I would never give ME a bike!!!
What characteristics do you most respect in your competitors?
Honesty, tenacity, dedication, love of the sport and willingness to give back by volunteering, putting on races and clinics and promoting cycling as real transportation.
If you were not a pro athlete, what would you do professionally?
I’d be a field geologist.
When you were a kid, what did you dream of becoming when you grew up?
A bike racer.
Song title that best fits your personality/spirit?
Ride of the Valkyries, by Richard Wagner.
How do you reward yourself when you reach a key goal?
I tell myself that I’ve achieved one more step up the mountain, how great the human body is and how lucky I am to have good health.
If you were a flavor of GU, which would you be?
Burnt coffee.
What’s the most creative way you’ve ever carried your GU?
As a layer in my butter-GU sandwich. Try it!
Personal causes you’re involved in?
I’m a founding member of the Fairbanks area Interior Trails Preservation Coalition: we recently won a public access case in the Alaska Supreme Court. Yeah!! I put on a 5-stage mountain bike race for the Fairbanks Cycle Club <www.fairbankscycleclub.org>, I organize the trail clean up for the Equinox Trail Marathon Race <www.runningclubnorth.org> and my wife and I are involved in energy and resource conservation. Finally, we donate a fair amount to local, national, and international charities.
Three things people don’t know about you?
I’ve been racing for 27 years in the Alaska outdoors. I’m old as dirt. In the course of 30 years of Alaska wilderness treks, both a black and a brown bear have gotten as close as 13 feet before I successfully convinced them to reconsider.
