Anchorage Daily News

SHEEP MOUNTAIN LODGE -- Not until Rocky Reifenstuhl got off his bike at the finish line here after 400 miles in the saddle did the extent of his pain from a recent car accident become clear.

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T.J. Morris battles a long hill while riding the Fireweed 50.

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As defending champion Reifenstuhl, 56, finished the Fireweed 400 endurance bike race Saturday in second place, he looked normal enough -- at least for someone who just rode a bike continuously for 24 hours along the hilly Glenn and Richardson Highways to Valdez and back.

But as Reifenstuhl pulled to a stop by the sunlit grass in front of Sheep Mountain Lodge, he couldn't lift his leg to dismount. Two race volunteers rushed over to grab a shoulder and help. Each baby step was agony as he walked away from the bike. He finally crashed onto the inviting grass, spread eagle, closing his eyes in the warming sun.

Reifenstuhl, the Fairbanks rider known for pushing himself to the utmost in endurance events, didn't defend his Fireweed 400 title -- 34-year-old Ben Popp of St. Paul, Minn., snatched it away, winning in 22 hours, 28 minutes, 42.17 seconds.

And Reifenstuhl's time of 24 hours, 46 minutes, 27 seconds this year was more than two hours slower than 12 months ago, despite better race conditions.

But in terms of personal satisfaction, it was hard to top this showing of mettle.

"I was going to finish if I had to walk," a groggy Reifenstuhl said. "That might have been faster. No, it wouldn't have -- I can't walk."

A week ago, Reifenstuhl was riding his bike in Fairbanks doing errands when a truck carrying lumber extending beyond the bed turned in front of him. The lumber clipped his arm, sending him crashing to the ground. The truck never stopped, Reifenstuhl said.

He injured his buttocks and hamstring; his back spasmed when he rode. He considered pulling out, but decided to start the race and see how it went.

"I don't like to pull out of races," said Reifenstuhl, a veteran of the ultra endurance races such as the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational in February.

"I've never really pulled out of a race. I've got people counting on me, sponsors counting on me.

"It's the participation part of it, not necessarily winning," he added.

But for more than 300 miles, Reifenstuhl was in line to win. He took the lead Friday, when the race started in an enveloping mist. He held it to Glennallen, where racers turned onto the Richardson Highway for the arduous climb up and over Thompson Pass. He led Popp, a former collegiate cycling coach who owns an endurance coaching business, by 20 minutes at the Valdez turnaround.

He held on during the most torturous climb, the return leg up Thompson Pass.

But on the return leg outside of Glennallen, Popp finally caught up.

Popp rode into the headwind, his head buried into the handlebars, his eyes trained on the white line. He glanced up to see the undulating Glenn Highway stretching ahead for miles. No sight of Reifenstuhl.

And then, there he was.

They barely acknowledged each other as Popp powered past.

"He must have been in kind of a hard place," Popp said.

Indeed he was.

"Before I even got to Glennallen, I was already throwing up," Reifenstuhl said. "I was trying to take a Tylenol every two hours and my stomach just wouldn't handle it. I threw up about eight times. I stopped in Eureka and got a soda. That lasted about five miles and I threw that up."

The pain in his back and hamstring was so great that he couldn't power the upstroke when he pedaled, only the downstroke.

"To pull up hard, you use the hamstrings and glutes. I do that, and it feels like my pelvis is being torn apart," he said. "It may be there's a crack in the pelvis.

"I used all quads this race," he said.

Reifenstuhl's finish was all the more impressive considering that at least five of the 11 riders who started dropped out, including Italian Alessandro Colo, winner of last year's Race Across America in the Solo Enduro division.

Afterward, both Reifenstuhl and Popp talked of the satisfaction gained from completing such a difficult task.

"For me, it's an amazing personal challenge," Popp said. "There are so many different components of it -- the nutrition and the training. For me, the training is what I love. I could almost do without the event, in all honesty. I just love training. It's what gets me out of bed in the morning."

"It's a challenge," Reifenstuhl said. "It uses all of your facilities. It takes all of your mental and physical facilities to do a race like this. It's a difficult, calculated challenge, and I find that kind of fascinating. And it's epic. It's something you'll never forget for the rest of your life."

This year's Fireweed 400 was the largest ever, with more than 730 riders signed up in various divisions. The race began in 2003 with 134 riders. It has since grown to become Alaska's largest cycling event, requiring hundreds of volunteers at several aid stations.

The 400 solo is the signature event, and it is one of about a half-dozen races in the U.S. that serve as a qualifier for the Race Across America.

The Fireweed 400 also included 50-, 100- and 200-mile events in various classes.

Find Ron Wilmot online at adn.com/contact/rwilmot or call 1-907-352-6712.

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