A conversation with Reto Hollenstein
A short bio of who you are and your career so far
I am Reto Hollenstein, a Swiss rider, 36 Years old, and 1.97m tall. I started my Pro Career in 2009 in Austria from (2009-2011), Team Netapp (2012) Team IAM Cycling (2013-2016) Team Katusha-Alpecin (2017-2019), Israel-StartUp Nation (2020-2021), Israel-Premier Tech 2022. I am a domestique, helping the team to have success.
Three greatest achievements of his career
2. GC at Blaise Belgium Tour 2016
2. TT Nationals 2015 an 2016
9. World CHampionships Doha TT, 2016
To know more about Reto Hollenstein:
How did you start cycling?: Through friends in the school
What was the most important race you’ve done to date?: Tour de France, but also all 3 Grand Tours (Giro d`Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espagne). All 5 Monuments, Milan-SanRemo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Il Lombardia.
What is your pre-race ritual?: No, I don’t have one;)
What do you think about while cycling?: Everything, about training, racing, family, friends, dreams over the world, dreams of my life, just enjoy the beautiful nature and silence and freedom
What is your go-to training meal?: Porridge with friuits like Banana
How do you recover after a tough race or training ride?: Good meal, a nap and finally a good massage
What is your go-to song while riding?: I don’t listen to music in training
Apart from endurance sports, what is your passion?: Sport in general. I like different sports. In winter cross-country skiing, skimo or icehockey
What was the best piece of cycling advice you ever received?: That you always need to give your maximum and if you miss nice things like parties, good dinners, eat what you want and not always try to look after your food. The life after the cycling carreer is still long enough to enjoy all this moments. Your carreer is short so just enjoy every single day of it.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?: Live your dream to 100% and never give up!!
What’s your favorite ROTOR component and why?: Until now I never used rotor. But so far happy with the powemeter. I like the big rings but also most used chainring for me is 54/39.
If you were not a cyclist, what would you have been?: Good question, I don’t know.
