Rock Racing, Part ∞
by Jen See on Jan 14, 2009 11:35 AM EST
in News
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PrintRock Racing is again in the news this week. Podium In Sight has a nice summary of this round of news, so I won't reinvent the wheel here. The main points:
• Contrary to speculation that the team would dissolve, Michael Ball has confirmed that he will support the team out of pocket until July.
• No word on bike sponsors, though it's clear that neither De Rosa or Fuji will sponsor the team.
• Baden Cooke will take the team to court for breach of contract. Ball says he never signed the contract Cooke received, so he is not legally bound to its terms. The court will now decide.
• Ball has tentatively picked Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla, Victor Hugo Peña, and Chris Baldwin to ride the Tour of California.
Head over to Podium In Sight for more deets and links.
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Thanks for the notes Gav and Lyne!
Hey Lyne… have you read up on Alex? Hurt his knee going to the grocery store. I offered him up home baked cookies to help in recovery but he’s working on his racing weight! All like 100lbs of him! Hoping he recovers fully and quickly!
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
Ok, if I were the organizers of the TOC...
I’d be thinking about inviting one of the other strong US teams that is stable and well managed, both because of the image I wanted to project of my event and because I’d want some assurance that the teams I invited would actually exist and show up an month from now.
From the news, it sure looks like Rock is and has been playing games with everyone and everything including the UCI regulations for months now. How long before everyone decides they’re simply not trustworthy and shuts them out?
I agree with that but...
There’s still part of me that feel awful for the riders there. If those guys could ride, it might help them find another team to go to. Harder to do if you’re not racing. I’ve never been a fan of Ball’s and I hate that his actions ultimately hurt the riders. It’s be nice if Ball could get slapped with out extending the slap to the guys trying to stay employed.
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
I totally agree.
I especially appreciate the way he’s supported riders like Bahti, and others who are traditionally marginalized. And I don’t even mind RR’s marketing angle. In fact, there is a lot about the concept (minus the sport-utes as team cars) that I do like, which is why the smarminess, managerial incompetence, and general scumbag behavior we keep hearing about annoys me so much.
As an idea it has a lot going for it, which is why screwing it up so royally really sucks — aside, of course, from the damage its doing to the riders, which is completely unconscionable.
Many of you at PdC said all along that Ball's presence in pro cycling
would end badly and hurt others. Looks like your predictions are coming true. I remember Ball’s loud proclamations of how he would do good for the sport, etc. and now he can’t even get a bike sponsor? I get the feeling he lost interest and the team is not a priority any longer.
Maybe he realized there's a whole lot more to running a team?
I had the impression that he just had that attitude that he could walk in with all this money and do what ever he wanted. Reality started to show it’s head that running a team isn’t the same as selling jeans. I think they could’ve been really successful and “here to stay” if Ball himself had learned how things worked “with” sponsors and worked “with” organizers and such instead of walking in and expecting to be this god that everyone else adjusted to. Little respect for his riders, basically using money as buy in to races, he just never seemed to really “get” what this sport has to offer and how to work with others to make his team a great team. I feel for the riders, with keeping in mind that it was their decision to go there but also that some went with encouragement from friends. With so many positions in the States eliminated last year with changes, the riders that signed with him, thought they had a job for the year.
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
I think if the luxury denim market weren't also going south right now,
it might be a different situation. Seems like he needs to refocus on the cash cow…
What the heck happened to "I don't need any co-sponsors, I can hire any rider I want"?
Has the recession hit Rock & Republic that hard?
Carlos Sastre - Tour de France winner - Born From Jets
Hit them like a jackhammer
Look at the U.S. retail number reports that just came out. They sell really, really expensive jeans, which are the epitome of discretionary spending, IMHO. I actually think the guy does love the sport, that much is clear, but he is losing his ass and he cannot spend money he no longer has. It’s too bad really.
Are those that bought the product line before, as likely to not spend it now?
I see the recession so I’m not trying to argue it didn’t hit them but it seems if you’re dropping hundreds on jeans to start, that “spending wisely” would take a long time to hit the thought process. I’m not anywhere near the bracket that can do those things so I’m just asking if it’s the same.
And I too still think Ball loves cycling, I just don’t think he respects the “processes” of cycling.
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
You're forgetting teenage kids whose allowances just got slashed
Seriously, half the people who buy stuff like this are doing so on mommy and daddy’s money. He got slammed, no doubt. I will say that.
But at the same time. Your earlier point about him just thinking he could walk in with his money and people would adjust to him, and that if he could sell jeans he could do anything, all pretty much is the epitome of the entire corporate attitude that, at least in the US, has been typical of the recent past. Thing is, its that entire approach to things that’s crashing and burning now, spectacularly, and there really is something symbolic of the culture at large in all of this.
Yes and no...
There were and are people who can spend that kind of cash on jeans and not really notice it. But I would guess that was a relatively small percentage of Rock’s customers. Expensive jeans, like a lot of other lux stuff, were/are “aspirational.” People buy them to feel like they’re the kind of people who can pay 300 USD for jeans. Rising property values and easy credit helped enable that mentality. Those people can no longer throw down the Citibank card for expensive jeans or designer handbags. So yes, lux brands are suffering as much if not more than lower tier brands.
You might be on to something
I love the explanation of R&R sales of pricey jeans as “aspirational behavior”. A lot of the teams’ behavior could be described the same way! In his heart, MB may be sincere, but it was the blowhard douchebaggery that went with the LA Fashionista/ baller / marketing icon that we could do without.
I would guess that he only owns ten percent of R&R. The board of directors read the writing on the wall and pulled the plug on the Racing Team. His ego/commitment leave him personally trying to carry the team.
And that seems laudable.
BTW, does “aspirational behavior” explain the many Republican votes in past elections?
discretionary spending?
…but you can buy a couple of pairs of Rock & Republic jeans for the price of the top-of-the-line Pearl Izumi bib shorts! Ha!
-Greg
Rock & Republic Hotshot Blue @US$228:
Pearl Izumi MicroSensor MP3 Bib Short @US$500:
A dumb question
but doesn’t that make them a bit unwashable?
Has anyone read anything in the past month or so from guys
who seemed to talk a little more highly of Ball last Fall? Most things I’ve read are from those that just got screwed and I’d expect to read harsher comments as they just got burned. Have any of the guys like Freddie, Tyler, or Creed who had been talking pretty positvely about Ball and the team made any comments on things recently? I’m curious to know what they think right now. Maybe they are being kept better informed of things? I honestly wouldn’t expect to hear much as they would more than likely lay low to keep things okay for themselves. Just curious.
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
Both of these are really good points.
And no, not a peep from Tyler, or anyone. I almost hadn’t noticed.
I doubt any of the current memebers will say anything
for the time being they are still getting paid, and if the big names start to talk negatively about RR then there is a good likely hood that sponsors wont be jumping to RR and then they wont be getting paid anymore after July.
"If you go (with a break), you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win."
~ Jens Voigt
Sterling Magnell has a posting on the situation on his blog
Two Months and a few entries ago, I announced that I had re-signed with my team. I was happy motivated and finally making enough coin to pay the bill. I’m not going to go into every detail about what has happened with my team or my contract since then. You probably know more than I do about it actually. What it boiled down to was a month of questions and not many answers. My head was so tied in knots I would get on my bike to go train and have to turn around after an hour. After suffering the financial fallout of riding for free for a year and not having aother major vocation to turn to, I was wondering if I had a job and wonding if I was going to have to crawl back to my Father’s house and start all over again. They say when it rains it pours.. but it was like it was raining… and it came with a posse of every rain that ever was. Like I told my Dad when it all hit. I was Shattered.
All that ended today. After a shit ton of phone calls, emails and sweating bullets, I signed a somewhat dumbed down contract today, for half the money. The good news… I’m going to be making a living racing my bike. The bad news, I’m going to be broke at the end of every month still. No music equipment, keeping the day job, drinking the cheap shit, not buying you dinner, sleeping in old worn out stained sheets and if you are a bum asking me for spare change… the answer is “HELLLLLL no…”
Blog is here
Also, below that journal entry looks to be a picture of a Rock trailer that over -turned on the side of the road.
Francisco Mancebo
debutará en febrero con el Rock&Racing en el Tour de California
http://www.esciclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=9306
If
that is the real story. If they don’t show up at San Luis, I am not convinced they’ll be at ToC….
It's at CN too
here
(about Rock not starting in Argentina because of problems with the team’s racing license)
OK
I’m slowing up in my old age. ‘Not bad for an old man’, but not good enough….
Rock Racing's start delayed
With reporting from Kirsten Robbins in San Luis, Argentina
Rock Racing, here to stay?
Photo ©: Jon Devich
The Rock Racing team will not start its first UCI race of the season this week after encountering troubles with its racing license. The team was scheduled to contest the Tour de San Luis in Argentina beginning on January 19. USA Cycling’s technical director Shawn Ferrell confirmed to Cyclingnews that the team’s license has not been finalized, and would say only that he believes there will be a “final resolution” on Friday.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/jan09/jan15news3
the plot thickens
Hmm, I wonder if there is a problem with the bank guarantee? That would lead the UCI to with-hold or delay the license.
yep, saw that at CN
i really feel sorry for all the riders affected by all this chaos and confusion …
damn
i didn’t really want to be right, but i’m not surprised. usually when the uci holds up the license it’s about the money.
TBH I wouldn't be surprised if...
…they’re also asking some serious questions about all the jiggering of rosters that he’s pretty much announced he’s gonna do. I don’t know about the rules that govern these things, but aren’t there some kind of limits on how much you can switch back and forth between amateur / developmental teams and professional ones, not to mention who can be on both.
I can imagine so many reasons why the UCI would be looking into them in a serious way. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the rider’s union weren’t raising a bit of a stink. Some of what he’s trying to do, while in this case apparently for the sake of trying to give the guys he hired something rather than cutting them loose, also has terrible labor practices written all over it. If I were the union, I’d be very leery of the precedents some of these maneuvers might set if they’re allowed to happen.
Got License now back to Sponsor hunting
I imagine that MB was waiting til the last minute to post the guarantee because it was his money!
If he had been able to land a sponsor, it would be theirs. He had a good hook, the Amgen Tour of California will be huge this year. With the LA media circus, (no, not the city of angels), it is a marketing opportunity not to miss. Oh well, doesn’t look good so far.
And as to Baldwin racing the ToC, wasn’t he relegated to the amateur team?
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