Mike Creed of Rock Racing is one of our favorite bike racers, because: A – he talks to us, and B – he’s funny – or he thinks he is. We are asking him more questions, and trying to avoid questions that may get him fired – because we would have no one to talk to.

schmalz First of all, where have you been? Are you still a pro cyclist? Can you tell us anything about your current job status without getting fired? And in keeping with our obligation to constantly mention Lance, I ask: what do you think about Lance’s comeback?

Creed I’ve been around. Going to Redlands today, the form isn’t good, but I’ll do what I can and get some fitness. I’m a bike racer, a pro bike racer-not so much. But I’m confident I will be soon.

Lance? I mean, sure, why not? It’s a big risk for him, because I think a lot of people are going to take shots at him. And use his name to promote whatever views/agenda they have. But, hell, free country. Seems to bring the crowds out too, can’t argue with that.

schmalz Now who would take shots at Lance? Hmm, I wonder…

What races are you allowed to do exactly?

Creed I don’t know if cartoons count. Zing! I’ll be racing a bit in the States, then in June I should be added to the pro roster, so we’ll see after that.

schmalz So you’ll be off the JV squad? Do you get a cool letterman’s jacket after that?

Creed You know what’s funny, I saw JV and was wondering why you thought I was on Garmin. A letterman’s jacket would rule. Maybe we could get pins too.

schmalz No, junior varsity, not Jonathan Vaugthers, aka, Mr. Fancy Clothes. You’ve been on the same team as Lance before, how did they make the tough decision to name him team leader instead of you? And who would you pick, Alberto or Lance?

Creed It was a late night conversation. Many many hours of debate. So, if Lance won out over me, I think he’ll storm over Alberto. 

Honestly, if Alberto is winning the race why wouldn’t Lance help? I think he’d be ok with that. And if you’re Alberto, who better to show you how to win the Tour? At the same time, I don’t think Lance is going into the Tour with soft legs.

schmalz Well, Alberto does know how to win the Tour, he has done it after all. Do you think Lance will have soft legs with this collarbone set back? How do you know when you personally have soft legs? Is there a sign other than, you know, going slow?

Creed Yeah he won it. But he was never really attacked. That was the Tour where Rassmussen and Vinki got bounced? Nah, Lance will come out all guns blazing. Anyway, if I was the Mr. Contador I would want Lance on the team. How do you know if you have soft legs? Look at em’. I betcha you got softies.

schmalz Softies – how dare you! Lance calls Horner “Redneck” – did he ever give you a nickname?

Creed Ha, if he did, I didn’t hear it. Anyway, I was around just long enough to get a cup of coffee. Doubt he had time.

schmalz How did Redlands go for you? (we picked up our conversation a few days later after Mr. Creed’s return from Redlands)

Creed Not good, I was battling a back problem for a few weeks and didn’t ride for a week. So I got about 4 days of training in before Redlands. Anyway, it didn’t go that bad. The final day I was still there when the group was more or less 30 riders, so I’ll take that. It’s good to get the first race of the year out of the way. It was tough racing against guys who have ToC and Mexico in thier legs. I wish I could have helped Chris Baldwin more, I was pretty much useless. 

schmalz Does that make you anxious about the upcoming races, or do you think you’ll race into form?

Creed Hmm, nah. I mean, I know what my score is and I know I need to work hard. But nah, I’m not freaking out too much. What do you think about cycling journalists using Twitter as a source? Seems funny, eh? 

schmalz Well, if you only want one side of the story or you want to see pictures of someone’s breakfast burrito, you go to Twitter, but it’s kind of useless for objective information. When are we going to see the Creed Twitter?

Creed No creed feed twitter. I mean, you try and say something funny, and people say you’re not professional. I mean, I guess I could just update what I’m eating and boring every day crap that everyone else has to do, but you pretend like it only happens to you. UPDATE “why is my flight canceled..grrrrr” “geez today was hard..OUCH” “traffic again!! why!!”

I guess it’s entertaining to some, but it’s boring as hell to me. I guess twitter is the way for people to connect to guys like Lance and CVV. So, I could see why people would want to look at them. I’m not good enough to just follow blindly. And there’s the rub. I’m not very entertaining to people if they don’t know me. People would rather read blogs or twitters from other riders about what wheels they have on their bikes or about how great their last training ride was.

I guess, my point was, if everyone has access to it, should a journo use it? I don’t have a opinion yet, it just seems weird to me. 

schmalz Oh c’mon, I’m sure your family will follow your twits. As far as journalists using them, if you know it’s from the rider (instead of, for example, one of the 9,000 Floyd Landis twits out there), then it’s no different than using a press release (which are usually boring also). It is from the rider, but you don’t get to ask a follow up questions, for instance, you don’t get to find out if there was hot sauce on their breakfast burrito. 

It’s hard to be funny sometimes because the team wants you to talk to the media, but they want you to toe the company line, which makes for a boring quote, which makes the media less likely to talk to you. But Creed quotes are gold, baby, because I’m not sure you always tow the team media line. 

Creed Funny is subjective. I don’t claim to know what funny is more than anyone else, because I don’t think anyone owns the patent on funny. Which is why I don’t post under fake names on other people’s blogs or post about how stupid/boring or unpro someone is. Others feel like they need to. Maybe I’m thin skinned, but I just don’t have time for that shit anymore.

I like to hold court for whoever my roommate is, poor bastard. Or maybe at the dinner table, I like making people laugh, but you have to be more cautious about who your audience is. Cycling fans are the fickle sort.

It’s strange, you know, because in some strange way you feel like you’re doing the fans a favor. Your not giving them some bland PR. Some personality. I did a video interview the other day, and I stayed in the lines. And when I was doing it, all I could think was, who would watch this? I could be all wrong and people could love that stuff. I mean, I guess they’re getting views, but is it because people love it? Or because their choices are really limited, and have nothing else to watch?

schmalz Why do I get the feeling your roommates at races run to the drug store to get sleeping pills? Since there’s a dearth of cycling video available, people will watch almost anything – even you! Kidding. Do you watch races that you don’t participate in? If so, who do you think will Flanders this weekend?

Creed Aww, come on. They love me. That being said, Chris Baldwin was using ear plugs, but I think he used those before me. At least I hope so. 

I’m not just saying video is lacking or bad, but a lot of stuff is bad or lacking. I guess what my question is: is it because cycling sponsors, and I would guess most sports teams or sponsors, are generally conservative and that goes down the ladder to the riders?

Or is that what the fans want? The old cliche is that cycling is a affluent sport, so is that what they like? But cycling is changing, and people from all areas of life are getting into the sport. So, if it is fan driven, should the media change? Velocitynation is something different; missingsaddle is different. Watch the video interviews Huff did at TOC, I loved them.

Yeah, I’m a fan of the sport, so if I can watch a race I will. I don’t have cable, so I have to find a website that has streaming video. I watched Milan San Remo. I was in my kit ready to go, but couldn’t leave until I saw who won. When they showed the back of the field go over the final climb and you could see Cav latched on the back, I knew it was game over. Seeing what he did to close the gap in the final 250, I was buzzing the whole ride. Like I said, I’m a fan of the spot, who is lucky enough to be able to compete on some level of it. Which I think makes it easier to appreciate some riders, because you see what they go through.

schmalz I am in agreement that Cav is looking great right now-and is probably ending McEwen’s career with every sprint. And as far the cycling media goes, I think that in years past, cycling media in America felt they always needed to be explain the sport as they aired a race. What we do at VCN is assume that people know what a peloton is, so we don’t bother with the remedial explanations, I mean, c’mon it’s been over 20 years since Lemond won the Tour. How do you feel about your ex-teammate Tom Boonen’s chances this weekend? Could he still pick you out of a lineup?

Creed Yeah, we had a funny moment at ToC a couple years ago. Where he basically asked where the hell I’ve been. I forget the exact words, but that was the point. And I just started laughing, once he realized what he said, he started laughing. It was a great awkward moment. His chances this weekend? As good as anyone’s, eh? Those races are so hard that if you have any bad luck you’re screwed, so there is always chance. He seems to be going well, so why not? Pozatto is going well, but I’m kinda interested to see if Hoste and Gilbert turn it around. I always like watching the underdog. 

schmalz I just want to see Hoste at the front to see him complain at the other riders – always good times. If Mike Creed got to put together a race broadcast, how would it go?

Creed I don’t know. I don’t think it would be much diffrent then now. I would like to do interviews with guys though. There are a lot of interesting guys out there. And not a lot of people get to see it. 

schmalz I would have a 3 man team covering the races and take calls from fans during the lulls in the race, but that’s me. I would be remiss if I didn’t ask how things were on the team right now – and how are they?

Creed I’m sure it would be a pain in the ass to figure out, but if you could figure out a way to tap into teams radio chatter during a race. That would be cool. Live calls would be great. What if one rider had a cell phone with hands free and you called during a lull in the race? Lots of good ideas.

Things are OK. I wish I had a pro card, but hey, wish in one hand and…well, I forget what you do in the other. It makes it hard to train, it makes it hard to leave home. It’s just draining with all the questions in your head. But hey, could be worse. 

It gives you time to think about what you will do after cycling. I’ve decided Chris Baldwin should bring back delivering milk door to door. He would look so cheek pinch-able in a little blue and white milk man outfit. Old grand ladies and house wives would love him. Hell, I might buy milk from him. 

schmalz It’s odd how isolated racers can be from their team management sometimes. I’ve heard of many racers finding out about team decisions by reading cycling news or through an interview of a team director. It’s an uncertain time in bike team sponsorship. Do you think that Rock Racing’s independent attitude has kept potential co-sponsors away?

Creed I have no idea on that. To say yes or no would just be a guess.

Riders can be very removed from management. Some teams are different than others, but I’ve found out I was going to a race by have a e-ticket receipt emailed to me. In defence of managers, they can have up to 28 guys to deal with. So, if your not a squeaky wheel or one of the star riders, you tend to get lost in the shuffle. It sucks when it happens, but it happens. I used to take it really personally. I’d form what I thought was a friendship with the director or whomever in the staff, then when things got stuffy and emails or phone calls weren’t returned, I was kind of hurt by it. And I might have worn it on my sleeve a bit too much.

But as you go through a few teams you realize business is business, and it’s best to keep it that way. You’re only as good to the team as what you can offer them and vice versa.

schmalz So it’s not always a warm fuzzy type relationship? No hugs!? I’d be headed for the door!

Creed At the end of the day, they’re paying me to race; no matter how funny and cute I think I am. Just like any other job. The lines just get blurry because you’re getting paid to do something you love and it’s what many consider a hobby.