We recently interviewed the talented young Rodolphe "Rudy" von Berg but his father Rodolphe von Berg has quite an impressive resume and story on his own, and we had a few words with him.

Slowtwitch: Thank you for your time Rodolphe.

Rodolphe von Berg: Glad to see that you remembered me

ST: After a very busy summer of racing, do you have time now to relax and enjoy the holidays?

Rodolphe: As you said, it was a very busy season, my busiest in 4 years, since my bike crash, which caused a fracture of the acetabulum. After the ETU European Championships in Mallorca mid-October, my wife Angela and I toured the island and spent a few days in a gorgeous place at Deia. Since the return, I kept riding and running but without intensity, and stopped swimming. Thus, I lost a good deal of my fitness. But I don’t really care because this rich 2014 season, left me in a state of serenity. And, I am now ready to welcome the kids and enjoy the holidays.

ST: What to you is actually a relaxing weekend?

Rodolphe: A 2.5 hour bike ride on Saturday with my Czech training partner, 45 year old Vladimir Polivka, one of the top cyclists in the area, and 50 minutes running on Sunday. Then, work outside in the garden pruning, trimming, cutting wood, burning garden waste. Both afternoons, we have a huge afternoon tea with fruits, cakes, warm chestnuts, yoghurts, homemade bread and jams with peanut butter.

ST: Are you careful with your diet?

Rodolphe: Extremely careful. I consider it a very important part of success. It is an integral part of training. There are certain foods like fast sugars, salt and saturated fats that I will avoid during the great majority of the year. I will indulge in forbidden foods that I like such as croissants, muffins, cakes, desserts during the 2 days after a race and during special celebrations such as birthdays and year end holidays. Those are the only time I allow myself glasses of champagne, which I love. I try to be on the starting line with no or very little visible fat on the body.

ST: But is that also a bit of vanity?

Rodolphe: Oh, I never thought about it that way. It's about being thorough and in the best shape possible and diet is an important part of it. Psychologically, it helps me to know that I have done my best nutrition wise. To attain that level, the sacrifices involved are such (I have a very sweet tooth) that vanity would not be sufficient to motivate me. To win motivates me.

ST: Your son is currently more so in the limelight. Did he discover triathlon because he saw you doing it, or is that something you encouraged him to do?

Rodolphe: We brought him to Kona for the first time in 1998, at age 5. He saw me winning the M40-44 age group and it left a very strong mark on him. He always mentions that event as the trigger for his triathlon passion.

ST: You were actually a very accomplished athlete at Babson College and competed in tennis, soccer and skiing. Of those 3 sports which one did you enjoy the most?

Rodolphe: Definitely soccer, because it is a team sport and I always felt that the joys you get from team sports are more profound and enriching than the ones you get from individual sports. In fact, I would rephrase that: it is a different kind of joy, perhaps more enriching because you see happiness in so many others eyes and because you can talk about it with other people in the future. The individual joy is perhaps more fulfilling because it invades every single part of your body and soul since you basically did it alone. It is silent but stronger. My greatest joy in sports was the joy I shared with my Babson teammates when we won the 1980 NCAA DIV III Soccer National Championships.

ST: Do you still talk to some of those guys from that team?

Rodolphe: That title was won during my freshman year. I played on the team two more years since I graduated in three years. During those two years, we often reminisced about that great victory. Later, during homecomings, and the last one I attended was ten years ago, we again shared these memories.

ST: With Facebook it would seem you might have found each other again more recently.

Rodolphe: I have only been active on FB since last summer where I have contacted some fellow triathletes from old times. I still have not gotten around to trace my old soccer buddies. It is planned.

ST: I believe you got your start in triathlon in 1983, or at the very least I think that was the year you were inspired by a triathlon poster in NY.

Rodolphe: You are correct. My first day in triathlon was November 1st, 1983. On October 31st, walking back from the office, I came across a Big Apple Triathlon Club flyer in a shop window. I called the phone number and talked for more than an hour with its president, Dan Honig. The club was organizing a trip to the Bahamas Diamond Triathlon of the Stars in March 1984, a sort of a half Ironman. Well, lets give it a try I thought.

ST: Was triathlon exciting to you mostly as a new challenge?

Rodolphe: At first, it was a way to get out of the boredom of my business life, as a commodities trader in NYC, not intellectually challenging enough. Thus, triathlon, this new sport, was perfect for me. Since childhood, I had been attracted by many sports where I rapidly reached varsity or national level: soccer, handball, basketball, alpine skiing, tennis, and various track and field disciplines as high jump, long jump, shot put, 100m, 400m, and 1000m. I was considered a natural, capable of mastering any sport very quickly. I had heard of triathlon upon starting college at Babson in the fall of 1980. In the Boston Globe, there was a small article on the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii with crazy distances. I thought it is only possible to achieve if you go to live for a year on the island and train for it. So, I forgot about it until I saw the flyer.

ST: Your day job in 1984 was not very forgiving. How did you arrange the training?

Rodolphe: My job’s mandatory hours were from 8.30-9.00am to 5.00-5.30pm, but sometimes I would stay until 7-8pm. In the winter, I would leave my tiny apartment in the dark at around 6am for a run around Central Park until a small pool where I would swim 102 laps to log 1mile. Then in the evening, I would bike again around Central Park for about 4 to 6 laps. Each lap is about 10 kilometers. In the spring and summer, I would bike in the morning before going to work for about 1 -1.5 hours. Then, in the evening, I would go to a different pool, the NY Athletic Club (NYAC) 25yds pool, swim 1 mile in various forms, and right after, run between 10 and 20km. On weekends, I would bike a 100 miler with a group of bikers and triathletes.

ST: You quickly turned Pro. Did you make money from it back then, or was it more so about competing with the best?

Rodolphe: I really turned Pro only after Hawaii 1985 when I decided to go to train in San Diego with the best, Scott Tinley, Scott Molina, Kenny Souza, and Mark Allen. Before that, in the US and during a few months in Europe, I would not make any money even though I would finish often on podiums. At that point, for a beginner in triathlon, since I took up the 3 sports at age 27, money was not the objective. My priority was to progress, to improve in the three sports in order to see if I had even a small chance to make it as a Pro. 1986 would be the key year.

ST: In 1986 you were 17th in Kona. 12 years later you were 41st, but finished quicker. Are these 2 events the most important races of your past?

Rodolphe: In terms of the Hawaii Ironman, they were. In terms of overall triathlon racing, I would mention the 1986 TriFed (now USAT) American National Ironman Championship in Austin where I prevailed in front of my old friend Kurt Madden. It was my first big victory after the 1985 NY State Championships.

ST: You had an incident with Ironman one year, and I believe it had to do with dinner tickets. When exactly was that and what happened?

Rodolphe: It was October 4, 1998, my younger son Rudy ‘s birthday. I had brought the whole family from Europe, including the children’s godfather. There were 6 of us and I was missing 1 ticket - one child came at the last minute. Thus, I was in the line, with my 8yr old daughter Olympia, to enter the Awards Banquet. When it was my turn, I told Diane Bertsch that I was missing one ticket. She told me there were no tickets left and to step out of the line. I explained the whole situation again (Europe, 6 of us, AG winner, family vacation etc..). She did not listen and did not seem to care. “No ticket, no entry, step out of the line.” I refused. She called security and I was handcuffed and put on the floor like a criminal in front of my daughter, and brought to the police station. The race director, Sharon Ackles, asked the police to let me out to come get my award and she also allowed my family in, which proves that a solution could have been found in the first place without bringing in the police. It made me realize that the Ironman’s advertising pitch “family experience etc..” was BS and that the WTC’s only concern was maximizing profits.

ST: Were you subsequently banned from racing there?

Rodolphe: On one hand, I had to appear in court to answer the police complaint a few months later. So, I had to hire a lawyer to represent me since I would be absent and was convicted of a misdemeanor. On the other hand, the WTC, represented by Lew Friedland, banned me. So, I had to hire another lawyer, in Florida, to fight the ban. It was settled out of court, but it cost me $50,000. The deal was that I was reinstated but in case anything happened again, a 3-person panel would decide on my fate. Each party had to give a name, and both parties would agree on the third one. I chose Dave Scott. But, of course, nothing ever happened! Anybody who could not afford the fight in court would have been banned for life from any WTC race. Is that fair? The power of the WTC was immense, too immense I feel.

ST: Is it much different today with the WTC?

Rodolphe: Frankly, no idea. I would like to think that the present WTC owner would not, in such a situation, act in such a brutal and heavy-handed way, as the WTC did in 1998, so as not to betray the spirit and soul of the whole Ironman experience.

ST: And couldn’t Challenge or another big race group also do that to you?

Rodolphe: Hard to say. I find it unimaginable that any group, owner or race director would over-react over such an insignificant incident - one missing ticket and no insults, violence or threats from me.

ST: This year has been a good one for you. Would you agree?

Rodolphe: It has been a spectacular year indeed. My first one racing the whole year at a world level since my 2010 bike crash. During the 2011 and 2012 years, I never totally expected to be back at that level again. I had a slim hope but nonetheless a hope and it kept me going. Now, I can again start to envision going back to Hawaii.

ST: Any result you are particular proud of?

Rodolphe: Definitely, the 70.3 Worlds in Mt Tremblant was the pinnacle of the season. But, the thing I am most proud of is having been able to be racing ready from April to October.

ST: Why do you think this season went so well?

Rodolphe: No injuries is the obvious reason. After the 2010 bike crash, which left me in traction on my back for 2 months, I could not bend the right knee and barely bend the left knee. Both legs had lost all muscle. Then, for 9 weeks, 6 hours a day, I was in a rehabilitation program. It took me about 2 years to start to think about triathlon again. Then, in 2013, I [got] hit [by] a car that had gone through a stop sign, and destroyed my bike. I could not run for 8 weeks due to some kind of nerve flaring up on a hamstring. That was just before the ETU European half Ironman Championship in Callela, Spain where, with no run training I took a silver. After that, pain in one knee prevented me from running for another 3 weeks during the summer. Nonetheless, I qualified for the Worlds 70.3 by winning Aix 70.3. 2014 was, finally, crash and injury free. That allowed me to implement my usual training template to the fullest - bike racing, run racing (10k), several half Ironman [events] and my lowest weight and fat percentage in four years. But I am still not at the running level I was before the crash of 2010. There is still a margin for improvement.

ST: Do you train sometimes with your son Rodolphe Jr, and if so, are you competitive with each other?

Rodolphe: We used to bike together until he was 15. Then, he became so good that he was winning adult races. So we trained together when we were both doing endurance rides. Same thing with running: he would be in endurance and I would be at almost LT pace. Now, we still bike together because I usually can sustain a fast bike pace. However, when he does sprints, intervals or a hill at LT, he will wait for me at the top.

ST: What do you do for a living now?

Rodolphe: I am a private banker working from home.

ST: What is next for you?

Rodolphe: 2015 will be a transition year in the sense that I feel I need to recover psychologically, after a long and tough 2014, in order to be really fresh for 2016 where I will attempt my 8th trip to Hawaii at age 60. Also, Angela and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary next March so I know I will be a little less motivated this year. This said, I will still defend both my European ETU and 70.3 World titles.

ST: Is there anything else we should know?

Rodolphe: That I am extremely proud of my 3 children: Maximilien, 27, 2010 ITU World LD Champion AG 18-24, wants to change French politics; Olympia, 24, multiple South of France Triathlon Champion, is wise enough to pursue quality of life over career; Rodolphe “Rudy” Jr, 21, is 2014 USAT National Collegiate Champion and a professional triathlete whose goal is to win Hawaii. Certainly, Rudy Jr and I will be one day at the starting line with the objective of winning our respective categories. Since Maximilien and Olympia also share the idea of racing in Hawaii, it is possible that one day there will be 3 or 4 von Berg at the start.

ST: How realistic do you think Rodolphe Jr is about winning Kona, and how far out is that?

Rodolphe: Very realistic! It is fair to say that, as a father, I am probably unconsciously not very objective! Nonetheless, I would not mistake a donkey for a racehorse. I know he has the numbers - Vo2 max etc. He still lacks some watts on the bike, mainly due to his age and ITU racing. But the bike has always been his strength. In France, as a 16yr old rider, he was considered having the potential to turn pro one day, and that will take care of itself in due time. Character wise, he has a very strong personality, an iron will and a mental of steel, combined with humility and serenity. If there is such a thing, he has the ideal mind for a Hawaii winner. Now, he just needs a bit of luck and the proper coaching. I believe he will start to compete in Ironmen around age 27, after the Tokyo Olympics. And he should be ready to be a very serious contender by age 29.