Rock Racing is one of the sponsors for the upcoming Harlem Cycling Classic, we were able to talk with Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball, here is the interview.
schmalz How did you get involved with the Harlem Race?
Ball I hadn’t known about the race until this year and John Eustice suggested I look into the race and for me it was a perfect fit being part of a storied race such as the Harlem Crit and to bring more attention to it and a little bit more, if you will, style in a sense. We want to turn this into a national type exposure if not international exposure to this race. We would like to see this race continue to grow, actually, It’s perfect.
schmalz It’s always been a pretty well-known race in the New York City area, but I think it’s always had an underground feel to it — as far as the rest of the country goes. It’s great you are involved and people in the area are happy to see the race grow and evolve.
Ball The race is just fantastic, and I love the format. I think it’s most exciting when it’s quick like that and that fact that it’s set in an urban area is just fantastic.
schmalz Which team members do you plan on bringing to the race?
Ball We’re going to bring Freddie (Rodriguez) and you’ll see (Rahsaan) Bahati for sure, Justin Williams… Because we have Nature Valley that weekend too, I’m not sure if you’re going to see Tyler, Sevilla or Pena. They will probably go out and do the stage race. But you’re going to see our fast guys, you’re going to see Kayle (Leogrande); you’re going to see some of the bigger engines that we have like (Sterling) Magnell and the like. But certainly fast Freddie will be there and Bahati and Justin Williams.
schmalz It sounds like you’ll have strong presence at the race.
Ball Yeah, in addition to that I’m trying to get Toyota too. I’m not sure if Toyota is going, but I want to make sure (Ivan) Domingez is there. I want to make sure that all the top fast guys in the country are going to be there competing, so that will make this race really, really cool.
schmalz I don’t know if any of your guys have done the Harlem race before, but you’re in New York all the time, have you ever done any riding here?
Ball I haven’t, you know – here’s the story. I’ve brought my bike out a couple of times and the weather hasn’t been great. Last summer my bike actually got damaged when we flew out there. So I wasn’t able to ride when I came out last year. But I intend to be riding the week that I am there, without a doubt.
schmalz Sounds good, it looks like it’ll be a good week.
Ball Oh, I can’t wait, man. We’ve got a lot of plans for the American cycling scene, and we’re putting a lot of effort into documenting and creating new types of camera angles and new feelings in the video that we capture.
schmalz In a very short time, you’ve become one of the most polarizing people in American cycling, and cycling in general.
Ball(laughs) That’s for sure.
schmalz It seems like the injection of both your enthusiasm and, let’s face it, you probably throw more money at races than most sponsors do…
Ball Without a doubt.
schmalz Many sponsors don’t sponsor races, let’s be honest…
Ball Well yeah, exactly – they don’t, they just throw their names up on there. My thing is that I believe that this sport had a huge upside from a business perspective. I’ve created products and will continue to create products to reflect that. For example, we launched our website the week of the Tour of California, and in that week we had over 6 million hits. Which really speaks to this fan base, this demographic, this market that no one is feeding — that no one is really playing to this world. And I think there’s a huge upside to what it is we’re doing and we’re starting to see that. We launched the retail side of the website mid-May and we have done numbers… We broke records, let’s just put it that way. The back end company that runs it for us also runs Diane Von Furstenberg, ourselves, and a lot of other brands; and this Rock Racing Brand, if you will, broke all records in terms of sales. And continues to do so. Which is exciting, and that speaks to this market that no one is really playing to and we will be the first to understand that a lifestyle goes along with this sport. And we’re going to capitalize on that and we hope that other like-minded individuals, corporations and brands get involved in this sport, because it is such an incredible sport.
schmalz Cycling sponsors in the past have been flooring companies and gas companies and postal services – not very exotic or, like your industry, glamourous industries, so it’s kind of a 180 from what most fans are used to seeing as far as sponsorship goes, and I think that’s put people on their back feet. They don’t know what to think of what you guys are doing. They’re not used to this sort of marketing attitude or blitz that’s going on.
Ball(laughs) Yeah, it basically freaks them out.
schmalz You didn’t freak out anyone at the Tour if Georgia, I hope.
Ball No, no, no, no, no no. And frankly, I didn’t freak anybody out at the Tour of California – it was just they weren’t used to someone coming in there and marketing and branding. That’s what really freaked them out at the end of the day. And you know, look, they banned three of my riders, what am I going to do? Sit there and go home or cry about it? No, I did the best that I could do with the circumstances, and frankly we made the Tour of California a side note. It really was about Rock Racing and the fact that the racers couldn’t be in the race. And that was fine.
schmalz What do you think is the justification for keeping your racers out of races? Especially the three that were banned from the Tour of California.
Ball You know, going through this whole process, it really came from the top of AEG (AEG was one of the main sponsors of the Tour of California – ed.) and that was just their personal politics, and there was absolutely no reason why; there was no legal reason. Frankly they did a disservice, they created the controversy that they were trying to avoid. Their whole story was that they didn’t want any drug issues or past drug issues in their race because they didn’t want any controversy. Whereas, in fact, what they did — they were manipulated by the powers that be to put this language into their organization as far as competing in their races — and, in fact, what it did was create a controversy that they were trying to avoid. Which was ridiculous, you know. Let the guys ride. They had every right to.
schmalz It seems like that same sort of thing is probably going to follow you if you try to get into the Pro Tour races though…
Ball Well, we’ll see.
schmalz The Pro Tour teams, they’ve never really put this down on paper – or maybe they have, but they want to add additional years to suspensions for Pro Tour team in addition to the suspension the rider’s get.
Ball Well, we’ll see. Look, at the end of the day, this sport is in a transition and I don’t think they can afford to continue to vilify and create this environment in pro cycling because, look, I’m the only guy coming in with money. There’s nobody new. No one’s lining up to get into the sport. On the contrary, there’s an exodus. These governing bodies, these individuals that continue to create an environment that the sponsors want nothing to do with… Ultimately the sport is going to suffer and continue to collapse if they don’t wise up and start protecting riders. And if there’s some issues, as I’ve said in the past, deal with it internally. Stop outing these individuals, stop creating this condition where sponsors are going “I don’t want to touch this with a ten foot pole.” Ten foot? Hundred foot pole – they just want to be as far away from it as they can. Because it’s just not good for business in their minds, especially these conservative companies.Â
We’re all about Rock and Roll. We’re all about going out there and kicking ass. So I don’t care what they say — what they do. If these riders have the ability and are clean, cleared, ready to race, then they should race. Period.
schmalz A lot of teams have gone on the offensive. Teams like Slipstream and High Road have implemented their own drug and doping testing procedures. Do you see yourselves going that route?
Ball We already have. We have from the beginning and, we do. (read the release here – ed.)
The thing is, I don’t hang my hat on that. I don’t need to. We’ll go out there and kick ass, and do it the right way. Not with this whole campaign about “if you’re not testing and you don’t have records of your racers, and you’re not keeping an eye on them, that you are winning by cheating.” It’s the wrong approach. And frankly, I think they’re going to have a backlash. Vaughters and his whole campaign are going to have a backlash. And I think the whole thing is basically a way of making excuses, you know, “If we don’t win, it’s because the other guys were doping.” That’s the way it’s felt in the things that I’ve read. It’s just stupid.
schmalz Do you feel that by implementing the plan that Slipstream has pointed the fingers at everyone else?
Ball Well, of course that’s exactly what they did, intentionally or unintentionally. We’ll see if they’re around in a year or two.
schmalz Well, no team is set in stone these days, if T-Mobile is going to get out of the sport then it seems that anyone would.
Ball Well, I can tell you I’m going to be in here for along time. I’m creating things that are going to change this sport, whether they like it or not. And if the big tours allow me to get in or not, it doesn’t matter, because I have plans for this sport domestically and internationally. In the sense that — let’s start making some money — and this sport can. And start protecting these athletes, stop outing them. Stop creating this environment where younger athletes are going to start looking towards other sports rather than cycling. What are we going to do? Are we going to keep eating our young? If you continue to do so, we’re not going to have a future.
schmalz The traditional route to make the most and get the most exposure is to get into the Tour, do you think they’re going to try and keep you out by any means possible?
Ball I hope not, but it doesn’t matter because it’s not going to affect my bottom line. We’re going to continue to market and sell product whether we’re in the Tour or not.
schmalz Because right now you’re doing fine without the Tour?
Ball Oh, absolutely! Are you kidding? There’s not another team out there that has my business model. Nobody. It’s just a bunch of team owners that are looking for hand outs, frankly. And in some cases, begging. I don’t see that as being beneficial to the sport or to myself as a human being. I’ll do it myself.
schmalz Are you absolutely sure that cyclists can pull off trucker hats?
Without a doubt (laughs). You know what the cool thing is? When you go to a trackside environment, you see a lot of the opposing team members buying up stuff – it’s awesome.
schmalz So everyone else is getting on the trucker hat bandwagon?
Ball Yes, absolutely (laughs), and it’s good for the sport. The Harlem Crit is good for the sport, and us getting involved is good for the sport. And it’s good for the direction where domestic racing is going to go, and that’s going to be television friendly. You’ll see — in the next couple of years that this sport is going to become one of the major players on weekend television, guaranteed.
schmalz You are right about domestic racing. It needs to be a television sport, because there’s no excitement without it.
Ball Of course not, nobody cares. But wait until you see what we’ve created and what’s going to be happening. We’ve got huge players, I mean big money getting behind this, and a network getting behind this. So we’re really excited about that. Some of the most talented producers and cameramen are so excited about getting involved in this. Think of NASCAR and bicycles, if you will. It’s going to be unbelievable!
schmalz There seems to be a lack in the professional cycling world of a strong cyclist’s union, other sports, for instance the NFL or Major League Baseball have very strong unions. Major League Baseball’s union was so strong that they could actually resist any drug testing at all for years. But pro cyclists have no equivalent of that. I really wonder why that is, whether it’s because riders are from so many different countries and they can’t get something together, but it seems that cyclists themselves don’t have a voice.
Ball They don’t and there’s a lot of reasons for that, and we could probably go through a cadre of different scenarios in terms of: why, what, where. But at the end of the day, if these athletes do not come together, this sport will continue on with them having no voice and at any given moment, these guys will be outed and their career will be done, or at best, put on hold.
schmalz It’s always seemed unfair that information is leaked against the protocols of the World Anti-Doping Agency
Ball Yes, absolutely. That being said, it’s really an individual’s agenda, based on what their organization wants and not the benefit of the sport or the athlete. For me, it’s just hypocrisy at its highest level, and it’s just bullshit. And I won’t stand for it. So any athlete that I’m involved with; I will be their advocate and I will speak for them and I will stand up for all athletes, frankly.
schmalz What’s the protocol with your team if one of your athlete’s tests positive?
Ball If one of my athlete’s test positive? I will sit him down and say “What the F were you thinking? Why are you doing this? Why have you done this? And I’ll get to the bottom of this, and I won’t leak this.” I will not fire them. I will make sure this individual has support, in terms of where they’re at and why they did what they did, and we’ll get to the bottom of it and try alternatives to them doing what they did.
schmalz Would you suspend them from the team?
Ball Absolutely not.
schmalz But no racing if you were to find out?
Ball Of course not, of course no racing. But training? Absolutely, and training harder than they ever trained in their lives now. And that will be, if you will, their suspension. You are no going to, instead of having to do that, you are going to train harder than you’ve even trained, more specifically, more intelligently than you ever have. I will not fire my athletes.
schmalz You’re not going to go easy on them?
Ball No, of course not, absolutely not. This isn’t a slap on the hand. It’s not about a slap on the hand and it’s not about throwing them out with the garbage. It is not about that. These are humans being, these are individuals that have relationships, and if they have done something that they felt they have needed to do for whatever reason, I want to know why. And I want to fix that. And that’s what this sport needs. It needs more advocacy, more clarity, more support; and not this antagonistic attitude towards these athletes. I guarantee if you take that approach these athletes will understand quicker, and do the right thing. And I truly believe that this sport, because of where it’s at today, is cleaner than it ever has been, frankly.
But I think you just have to take a different approach towards them as well. I mean, c’mon, these guys are human beings. If there’s a person on this planet that hasn’t made a mistake and it hasn’t come back and bit them on the ass, then I’d like to meet them.
schmalz So you’re not really of the “zero tolerance” anti-doping stance then?
Ball Well, of course we have zero tolerance, but what does that mean? Does that mean that you execute them? For making a mistake?
schmalz Do you have to do the UCI’s “reporting where you are every minute of every day”?
Ball No, of course not, and here’s the thing for me, dude, this is America, OK? This is not a Gestapo state. We are free to do what we will when we will. I don’t want to know what you were doing this last weekend — I could care less. It’s your world. I use the example of Rock and Republic. We do random drug testing at my company as well. If we find someone who, over the weekend, smoked too much pot and it’s showing up on Monday. I don’t particularly what they do on their weekend, or drink too much or whatever the case may be, but if it shows up in a sample, I have to address it. But I’m not going to fire them. I’m not going to “out” them to the labor board or to the industry saying, “This guy smokes a lot of pot, or this girl does a,b,c…”. No, it’s not my job, my job is to get the best out of this particular individual. And if that means I have to sit down and ask, “Why are you smoking this pot? Why are you doing this, and why are you doing that?”, then that’s what it takes. But that’s not to say that if it continues to happen, they’re not going to be fired. There’s only so many chances one gets. But, that being said, I’m not going to do those things because of this individual’s choice over the weekend.
schmalz Well, it’s a little different situation…
Ball It certainly is a different situation. It’s a little bit more extreme, obviously. But I’m using that as an example of how I won’t get rid of people because of a mistake, and/or a lifestyle. I can’t have someone smoking pot on the weekend and coming in and only being able to give 30% or 60% of their ability.
schmalz If someone is smoking pot, that’s going to affect their job performance, but if they’re doping, that’s actually going to make their job performance better…
Ball It certainly isn’t going to make their job performance better. Let’s get this clear, doping doesn’t necessarily make job performance better either. There’s adverse reactions to this stuff, too.Â
schmalz Yes, but it does work sometimes. You have to concede that fact.
Ball(laughs) Well, obviously it’s worked. But I bet you if one were to focus on the problem. and not just on the results. I guarantee you would probably find more racers suffering and not getting the benefit out of it because… for whatever reason. Whether that be they didn’t know what they were doing; they got bad advice; or they’re just stupid.
schmalz Well a lot of them (racers) are probably getting stuff over the internet and trying it themselves, which is not safe whatsoever…
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Good interview, thank you for doing it. I am very glad that he is in this sport.
Great piece Dan. Say what you want but Ball shoots from the hip – I like it. Pleasant change from most sports personalities robot speak: “I just want to thank god…”, “our boys just went out there and rode their hearts out…” snooze…
Hey, Ball, you want fans for life? Grassroots at its finest — have the bus roll up to Prospect Park early on the Saturday before:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=5985
If your guys want more miles, you’ll have more than enough volunteers to take them over the GWB.
well, I guess Kiss is considered Rock and Roll by some.
i love michael ball
I think this is what cycling needs. Cyclists will remain the same and what drove them to greatness yesterday will drive them to greatness tomorrow but if the general public can get involved, that’s when things will change for the good and that is what will take cycling from the fringes to prime time.
It’s funny how the reaction to Ball is evolving — it began with cycling’s old guard being completely horrified by the guy, but slowly, as the old guard reveals itself to be pretty outmoded (and in some cases utterly corrupt) Ball is looking like a badly needed alternative. It’s almost the same thing that happened with Mark Cuban in the NBA – everyone thought he was a total assclown and now he’s the model for an NBA owner. I wish Ball didn’t delight in signing so many sketchballs, and the uniforms look designed by Roger Corman, but the very fact that there’s new media-generating energy in the professional domestic scene is terrific.
Just look the NY Times guys — they do prissy stuff like that Tour d’Etape blog because it appeals to rich white guys who wanna max their Amexes, but this year the world paper of record completely blew off covering the Giro d’Italia. No coverage, no mention — not even results! — of the second biggest bike race in the world. And the Times was one of the last papers in the US that gave a crap about international bike racing.
Rec cycling will always prosper but the pro world needs all the chest-thumbing attention grabbers it can get. It’s too desperate right now to ignore Ball.
this interview completely chaged my opinion of him. i think what he’s doing may be good for the sport. although i dont want to see it turn into nascar in terms of attitude…
i just wish he’d lay off some of the other teams, like slipstream, who are taking a different approach to solving the problems in pro cycling. if he wants to be the bad boy of cycling, there needs to be some over-achieving goody-goody as a counterpoint. i like burritos more than $300 jeans, anyway. i do commend ball for trying to make cycling better (as he sees it).
is it just me, or do those kits look like the ninja turtles meets a bag of spicy-sweet dorritos?
hey also if you guys are serious about supporting pro cycling, show up at that slipstream / chipotle event tommorow, stuff your face and ask for an autograph. you may think that showing up or not showing up makes no difference but it does — as ball indicates in this interview, slipstream’s future is very dependent on finding some more sponsors and hanging on to its current ones, like chipotle. The chipotle suits will be at this event and if it’s just magnus standing around in an empty store with a cheese enchilada its bad for the team….this is a real case of putting your mouth where your mouth is….also they sell margaritas there
I believe JV is no fool — the Slipstream message will evolve as the sport develops. You can see it already with the veterans the team took on this season. And at least in the media, that is one happy-ass team. The puritanical angle was necessary to get his team off the ground because of where the sport found itself at that moment.
Did you tell him that you are gong to try a solo at Harlem Crit so that may be, just may be, he may ask invite you to carry water bottles or get those trucker’s hat out of the boxes on shelves….? Enjoyed the interview
2nd win of the week for you, Dan…best Ball interview I’ve ever seen.
I’m not evolved enough to get, or like, anything that has anything to do with Michael Ball.
Great interview. I applaud his enthusiasm for the sport. The kits and brand image are unfortunate, just plain corny. A total lack of cool.
You’re raising the bar. Nice interview. Ball has some very spot on points about the attitudes of the cycling governing bodies and the sponsorship situation within the sport. I dont agree with some of his choices of rider staff, but on the other side – Freddy R. is the man.
The kits – complete horror show. Seriously who makes up that stuff. The graphic concept is there but the color scheme is waaaaaay over the top!
As Rodney Dangerfield said in Caddyshack ” hey when you buy that outfit you must get a free bowl of soup…but it looks good on you though”
nice caddyshack reference!
no questions for ball about sexual harassment of his employees?
Just saw the pics from the Allentown, PA. June 3, 2008 race. That color scheme is much better than what I see represented here. Go back to it – quick.
I was posting last week talking about how I was fired up for this, Harlem name has cache….and then all the haters told me not to get my panites in a ruffle and that internet TV is not TV and it will be same old thing……HUMMM….same old thing hun. Fast freddie and Bahati.
This is what I thought….total new ball game, great for NYC racing, fired up to race and get my ass kicked.
That is the hottest kit and you’ve got to have the balls to were it!!!! These guys are hot
Dan, great interview. I never thought I would consder Mr Ball… dare I say… reasonable. Here you go presenting interesting and engaging questions for a guy who has–up to this point–not gotten a fair shake in the cycling press. Thanks for the interview and the fresh perspective.
Schmalz, you’re becoming, dare we say… a real journalist, not just Andy’s little puppet.
Schmalz this interview as always way cool!!! Thanks!
I wish you had probed a little more with what he has in the pipeline as ideas for coverage and less on the doping issue….is he going to have real time splits, little pop ups near riders with their bios, videos cameras in the pit lanes, miked riders….there are a lot of things that you could do that would make it really good television. A crit full with breaks, crashes, sprints, etc. if televised creatively and correctly could be fantastic TV….I mean people are watching dudes catch King Crab, certainly someone should be able to market a crit if done right. The current VS tV angles really don’t do the sport justice.
It is very hard to justify the sponsorship model….big brands have the power to see upticks in markets based on new marketing and sponsorship, and big brands probably benefit from teh tour….that said, Ball’s model of creating a brand, product, buzz, business around a sport has a much more viable profit stream and potential then straight he is 100K put my logo on your jersey.
agreed…good point. A refreshing look at the sport in the media is in dire need. If the NHL can do it….
I couldnt think of watching a hockey game until this past week.
Bike racing can be handled the same way. So sick of the personal journey footage of the “chosen athlete” and all the crap shoved down our throats about how they overcame this and that. Whatever….lets get to business of entertainment in cycling. The way it should be.
6pm A race 7pm 4/5’s. 20 miles from CP.
All the racing without the dope.
LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!
as long as they spell the name right, or something like that. Like the kit or hate it, your talking about it. I liked the green, not so much on the orange. Ball obviously knows his shi*t, he has america wearing $300 jeans, and when I saw the podioum girls in them at the ToC, I realized they are worth every penny. I wanted to buy my girlfriend some.
orange was for peaches in Georgia, guys with a monotone stripes and logos on their jerseys take themselves way to seriously, it’s only clothes! have some fun with your kits! Nothing wrong with looking like a superhero especially if you can ride well!
seems like ball likes to hear himself talk. How are you gonna make someone train harder than they ever have before? You gonna go on every training ride? garbage. cheating has consequences, not more training.
This is NYC, you don’t have to buy drugs on the internet either.
I’m not wearing 300 dollar jeans.
he also charges 230 bucks for bib shorts. Thats a whole higher level of assyness than world cycling productions.
assos aint cheap either and way more flash than those. The assos chamy is pretty top notch though. Wouldnt want to spend big dollars on a chump chamois.
Michael Ball sounds like another in a long line of guys who think they have the answer to making bike racing more palatable to American tastes. (Here is a short discussion about the last incarnation: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-87543.html
I don’t think cycling particularly lends itself to live tv coverage. I like my tours via the Internet, where anticipating the next 3-minute update adds to the excitement, more akin to the days of radio. For the visuals, I’ll wait for the edited dvd.
And anybody who thinks sitting a doping rider down and asking him why why did you do this, and not “outing” him, is not playing with a full deck. Like it or not, there is a little more at stake here that requires more intervention than Mikey Knows Best. Sheesh.
P.S. Shmaltz, can you post a photo of your back feet? Thanks!
Indeed. One guy in a long line of folks (across multiple sports) who thought they had figured out how to take an elitist endurance sport and make it palatable to the general public.
Will not happen. Sorry. Most people can’t relate. They can fish in the lake near their house, play golf at the country club, play tennis, skateboard, shoot hoops, etc. But they sure as hell aren’t going to dress up in a skin tight suit and race around in circles. Especially when they are racing with folks who spend the work week criticizing new racers and moaning about the sport on NY Velocity.
If Ball can somehow make the sport more accessible, then he might be on to something. But take marathons. They are accessible as all hell, but you wont see one on TV.
Sadly, Bass Fishing and Bowling will have cycling beat any weekend.
assos is also a waste of money.
I can script that rider sit-down with ball for him.
Why’d you do it?
I wanted to win?
But why?
Cause i wasn’t fast enough otherwise.
Really?
Well everyone else is doing it!
OK, well, go train really hard now, and learn your lesson.
look at soccer
flames? skulls? barbewires??
what is this? 1993?
Papp used to race Rockleigh
pulla races rockleigh
their kit is the equivalent of 80’s big hair or yeah, Kiss, and not in an ironic way.
my vitaimin C and Iron? I recently started my own “Blood and C-men” passport and want to make sure I have all my precursors and cascading hormones sequenced correctly.
What kind of ego is this? What the sport needs is more Ed Beamon’s and Ray Cipollini’s, Frank and Mark McCormack’s…c’mon…stop fueling this gasoline approach to bike racing. Where is the basic philosophy of fair play and integrity? The sport of cycling should never be about making money. That’s what Wall Street is for.
Rock Racing is the cream pie of cycling, instead of divine intervention he thinks he is…
http://www.velonews.com/article/77142/johan-bruyneel-releases-book-launches-web-site-re-design
Great interview. Harlem will rock! Imagine if Ball puts little nascar style cameras (front and back) on his riders’ bikes!
good job shmlaz, you are having a good week
Whatever one might think of Ball. The controversy here is Schmalz and NYvelocity doing good/classy/smart interviews one after the other.
wuwt!
The bike-camera thing was done in the downtown criteriums 2001-2004 — shown in NBC. They should totally do it in Harlem too!
I agree that the interview was handled very well, if only for diff reasons. I think Ball essentially reveals what he is really bringing to this sport: seedy spectacle. He comes off slimy, greedy, and small minded.
I mean shit, he goes so far as to intone that he’d look the other way if there were any cheaters on the team.
And by criticizing J.V, he really throws all credibility out the window. High Road and Slipstream are on the right track: they are trying to bridge the huge credibility gap between riders and the public. As the “Cuban” commenter noted, fair play and integrity do indeed fall by the wayside here. Ball essentially says that even positive doping cases are good because if not caught, the racers win and get publicity, and if caught, well, at least there is still publicity.
This makes me sick.
Everything about this guy is lame, tacky and ugly. His clothes, his uniforms and his ideas.
But he raises a good point: let’s see who is still around in three years: Ball of Vaughters.
I’d put my money on the former.
I’d like to see a Ball of Vaughters…..
This might be cool if you’re a white male over 40 and still think Aerosmith is hip.
pleez ehlou meh to intr’doose meself, laid many to waste…
sign me up cause NASBUYRPL is here!!!
(North American Stock Bicycle Up Yours Racing Professional League)
Why not disco-Balls mirrored skinsuits!?!?!
it really bothers me when people like Cuban mixed with Trump say this sport shouldn’t be about making money. I race because i love to race. I also race to make a honest living and to support my family. Would you say the same about any other sport such as European soccer or American football? MB is trying to turn the athletes into the house hold names that could not only benefit himself but the sport and the individual. I can almost bet you that most of the things you purchase are because of product placement or some type of advertisement. Whats wrong with doing that with cycling? Give me a break….
What pro sport asks its athletes to foot the bill? If Ball/promoters want to expand the sport and make a million or 2, make it arena or at least closed circuit-spectator paying…until then they profit off the effort of the participants, and that is called “amateur” in my book.
Where is COAST when they shoulda won the tour?
Mercury? Linda McCartney? This sport is littered with fly by night profiteers just like Ball. How will the sport or the community he claims to support be come Hangover Monday?
I hope you win next week Bahati, really, I remember your Saturn days…but don’t look to Ball when the wall tumbles. Look for real Team Managers that pay on time, year after year, not race to race…Wake up, only Horner seemed to. Even Cipo got burned!
some of what you said said is right, however dont believe what other people are saying about US. If you want to know the real story, ask a rider thats in it…I have yet to get a late pay check and this is going on two years with the team. Don’t mislead the public with other peoples insane comments about rock.
Thanks for writing in, are you guys going to be racing in New York the week before the race? Any chance you return to race at Floyd Bennett Field on Tuesday night?
I totally respect you and your professionalism. I question some of how Ball approaches the sport, publicity, Daddy Warbucks/GGW style, I hope it is sustainable, and the greater cycling community benefits with development programs especailly in urban neighborhoods, like Harlem.
Good Luck to you, your team, and the Harlem Crit! Here’s to another 40 years of racing on Father’s Day!
wow! designer racing! alas, those outfits scream for capes!
No riding around NY prior to Harlem…it would be sweet if we did. I did Bike NY a few times and I had a blast.
take care
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Tyler Hamilton in an early break. Oscar Sevilla leading the peloton in the last couple of laps. Fred Rodriquez with a third place sprint finish. Well done Rock Racing!
Fast FREDDIE…..anyone, and I mean anyone, who is in the most minute way bashing what Rock Racing is doing for the sport and more specifically the Hralem crit…is smoking hoo-haa…it is going to be a great event thanks to the fact that this team is brining a pretty all start line up. 3 time national champion…nuff said.
no doubt.
I like his attitude on treating riders like human beings, not just like a tool that you toss when it is broken. I like that he wants to get to the root of a problem and then fix the problem, not just the symptom. I also agree that if a rider is caught doping and pays his penalty, they shouldn’t be barred from competing. That’s totally bogus!
The riders definitely need to build a strong union to represent their interests. Otherwise they will continue to get treated simply like moving billboards and not like human beings.
He is also very smart in wanting to make his team self supported by selling their own product. Not depending an outside sponsor means they can be around for a long time. This is a model others should try to follow. The question is can they make it work.
I like that this interview touched on subjects not covered by others. Nice job Schmalz.
I’d love to go.
Definitely a compelling individual. Let’s see if he’s still around in a few years. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt
Mr. Ball-
He’s definitely consistent about regurgitating the same lines over and over. But, he needs to come up with something fresh as his old lines are not very credible. I like the stat he keeps putting out about 6 million hits during the ToC.
All those clamoring fans, yet Rock Racing’s website forum doesn’t even have a pulse-Its a morgue. The least Mr. Ball could do is have some employees put some hours into posting some phony rah rah postings. He’s already paying them anyhow.
You go Mike 🙁
Mr. Ball-
He’s definitely consistent about regurgitating the same lines over and over. But, he needs to come up with something fresh as his old lines are not very credible. I like the stat he keeps putting out about 6 million hits during the ToC.
All those clamoring fans, yet Rock Racing’s website forum doesn’t even have a pulse-Its a morgue. The least Mr. Ball could do is have some employees put some hours into posting some phony rah rah postings. He’s already paying them anyhow.
You go Mike 🙁
From USCF Road Racing Rulebook:
1O11. Non-Competitor on Course. A rider may not be on
the track or course during a race for which he or she has not
entered and registered, or from which he or she has
withdrawn or been directed to withdraw [relegation or
disqualification if entered in another race in the event for
which the results are not yet final; 10 days suspension if
flagrant].
Good interview, thank you for doing it. I am very glad that he is in this sport.
Great piece Dan. Say what you want but Ball shoots from the hip – I like it. Pleasant change from most sports personalities robot speak: “I just want to thank god…”, “our boys just went out there and rode their hearts out…” snooze…
Hey, Ball, you want fans for life? Grassroots at its finest — have the bus roll up to Prospect Park early on the Saturday before:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=5985
If your guys want more miles, you’ll have more than enough volunteers to take them over the GWB.
well, I guess Kiss is considered Rock and Roll by some.
i love michael ball
I think this is what cycling needs. Cyclists will remain the same and what drove them to greatness yesterday will drive them to greatness tomorrow but if the general public can get involved, that’s when things will change for the good and that is what will take cycling from the fringes to prime time.
It’s funny how the reaction to Ball is evolving — it began with cycling’s old guard being completely horrified by the guy, but slowly, as the old guard reveals itself to be pretty outmoded (and in some cases utterly corrupt) Ball is looking like a badly needed alternative. It’s almost the same thing that happened with Mark Cuban in the NBA – everyone thought he was a total assclown and now he’s the model for an NBA owner. I wish Ball didn’t delight in signing so many sketchballs, and the uniforms look designed by Roger Corman, but the very fact that there’s new media-generating energy in the professional domestic scene is terrific.
Just look the NY Times guys — they do prissy stuff like that Tour d’Etape blog because it appeals to rich white guys who wanna max their Amexes, but this year the world paper of record completely blew off covering the Giro d’Italia. No coverage, no mention — not even results! — of the second biggest bike race in the world. And the Times was one of the last papers in the US that gave a crap about international bike racing.
Rec cycling will always prosper but the pro world needs all the chest-thumbing attention grabbers it can get. It’s too desperate right now to ignore Ball.
this interview completely chaged my opinion of him. i think what he’s doing may be good for the sport. although i dont want to see it turn into nascar in terms of attitude…
i just wish he’d lay off some of the other teams, like slipstream, who are taking a different approach to solving the problems in pro cycling. if he wants to be the bad boy of cycling, there needs to be some over-achieving goody-goody as a counterpoint. i like burritos more than $300 jeans, anyway. i do commend ball for trying to make cycling better (as he sees it).
is it just me, or do those kits look like the ninja turtles meets a bag of spicy-sweet dorritos?
hey also if you guys are serious about supporting pro cycling, show up at that slipstream / chipotle event tommorow, stuff your face and ask for an autograph. you may think that showing up or not showing up makes no difference but it does — as ball indicates in this interview, slipstream’s future is very dependent on finding some more sponsors and hanging on to its current ones, like chipotle. The chipotle suits will be at this event and if it’s just magnus standing around in an empty store with a cheese enchilada its bad for the team….this is a real case of putting your mouth where your mouth is….also they sell margaritas there
I believe JV is no fool — the Slipstream message will evolve as the sport develops. You can see it already with the veterans the team took on this season. And at least in the media, that is one happy-ass team. The puritanical angle was necessary to get his team off the ground because of where the sport found itself at that moment.
Did you tell him that you are gong to try a solo at Harlem Crit so that may be, just may be, he may ask invite you to carry water bottles or get those trucker’s hat out of the boxes on shelves….? Enjoyed the interview
2nd win of the week for you, Dan…best Ball interview I’ve ever seen.
I’m not evolved enough to get, or like, anything that has anything to do with Michael Ball.
Great interview. I applaud his enthusiasm for the sport. The kits and brand image are unfortunate, just plain corny. A total lack of cool.
You’re raising the bar. Nice interview. Ball has some very spot on points about the attitudes of the cycling governing bodies and the sponsorship situation within the sport. I dont agree with some of his choices of rider staff, but on the other side – Freddy R. is the man.
The kits – complete horror show. Seriously who makes up that stuff. The graphic concept is there but the color scheme is waaaaaay over the top!
As Rodney Dangerfield said in Caddyshack ” hey when you buy that outfit you must get a free bowl of soup…but it looks good on you though”
nice caddyshack reference!
no questions for ball about sexual harassment of his employees?
Just saw the pics from the Allentown, PA. June 3, 2008 race. That color scheme is much better than what I see represented here. Go back to it – quick.
I was posting last week talking about how I was fired up for this, Harlem name has cache….and then all the haters told me not to get my panites in a ruffle and that internet TV is not TV and it will be same old thing……HUMMM….same old thing hun. Fast freddie and Bahati.
This is what I thought….total new ball game, great for NYC racing, fired up to race and get my ass kicked.
That is the hottest kit and you’ve got to have the balls to were it!!!! These guys are hot
Dan, great interview. I never thought I would consder Mr Ball… dare I say… reasonable. Here you go presenting interesting and engaging questions for a guy who has–up to this point–not gotten a fair shake in the cycling press. Thanks for the interview and the fresh perspective.
Schmalz, you’re becoming, dare we say… a real journalist, not just Andy’s little puppet.
Schmalz this interview as always way cool!!! Thanks!
I wish you had probed a little more with what he has in the pipeline as ideas for coverage and less on the doping issue….is he going to have real time splits, little pop ups near riders with their bios, videos cameras in the pit lanes, miked riders….there are a lot of things that you could do that would make it really good television. A crit full with breaks, crashes, sprints, etc. if televised creatively and correctly could be fantastic TV….I mean people are watching dudes catch King Crab, certainly someone should be able to market a crit if done right. The current VS tV angles really don’t do the sport justice.
It is very hard to justify the sponsorship model….big brands have the power to see upticks in markets based on new marketing and sponsorship, and big brands probably benefit from teh tour….that said, Ball’s model of creating a brand, product, buzz, business around a sport has a much more viable profit stream and potential then straight he is 100K put my logo on your jersey.
agreed…good point. A refreshing look at the sport in the media is in dire need. If the NHL can do it….
I couldnt think of watching a hockey game until this past week.
Bike racing can be handled the same way. So sick of the personal journey footage of the “chosen athlete” and all the crap shoved down our throats about how they overcame this and that. Whatever….lets get to business of entertainment in cycling. The way it should be.
6pm A race 7pm 4/5’s. 20 miles from CP.
All the racing without the dope.
LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!
as long as they spell the name right, or something like that. Like the kit or hate it, your talking about it. I liked the green, not so much on the orange. Ball obviously knows his shi*t, he has america wearing $300 jeans, and when I saw the podioum girls in them at the ToC, I realized they are worth every penny. I wanted to buy my girlfriend some.
orange was for peaches in Georgia, guys with a monotone stripes and logos on their jerseys take themselves way to seriously, it’s only clothes! have some fun with your kits! Nothing wrong with looking like a superhero especially if you can ride well!
seems like ball likes to hear himself talk. How are you gonna make someone train harder than they ever have before? You gonna go on every training ride? garbage. cheating has consequences, not more training.
This is NYC, you don’t have to buy drugs on the internet either.
I’m not wearing 300 dollar jeans.
he also charges 230 bucks for bib shorts. Thats a whole higher level of assyness than world cycling productions.
assos aint cheap either and way more flash than those. The assos chamy is pretty top notch though. Wouldnt want to spend big dollars on a chump chamois.
Michael Ball sounds like another in a long line of guys who think they have the answer to making bike racing more palatable to American tastes. (Here is a short discussion about the last incarnation: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-87543.html
I don’t think cycling particularly lends itself to live tv coverage. I like my tours via the Internet, where anticipating the next 3-minute update adds to the excitement, more akin to the days of radio. For the visuals, I’ll wait for the edited dvd.
And anybody who thinks sitting a doping rider down and asking him why why did you do this, and not “outing” him, is not playing with a full deck. Like it or not, there is a little more at stake here that requires more intervention than Mikey Knows Best. Sheesh.
P.S. Shmaltz, can you post a photo of your back feet? Thanks!
Indeed. One guy in a long line of folks (across multiple sports) who thought they had figured out how to take an elitist endurance sport and make it palatable to the general public.
Will not happen. Sorry. Most people can’t relate. They can fish in the lake near their house, play golf at the country club, play tennis, skateboard, shoot hoops, etc. But they sure as hell aren’t going to dress up in a skin tight suit and race around in circles. Especially when they are racing with folks who spend the work week criticizing new racers and moaning about the sport on NY Velocity.
If Ball can somehow make the sport more accessible, then he might be on to something. But take marathons. They are accessible as all hell, but you wont see one on TV.
Sadly, Bass Fishing and Bowling will have cycling beat any weekend.
assos is also a waste of money.
I can script that rider sit-down with ball for him.
Why’d you do it?
I wanted to win?
But why?
Cause i wasn’t fast enough otherwise.
Really?
Well everyone else is doing it!
OK, well, go train really hard now, and learn your lesson.
look at soccer
flames? skulls? barbewires??
what is this? 1993?
Papp used to race Rockleigh
pulla races rockleigh
their kit is the equivalent of 80’s big hair or yeah, Kiss, and not in an ironic way.
my vitaimin C and Iron? I recently started my own “Blood and C-men” passport and want to make sure I have all my precursors and cascading hormones sequenced correctly.
What kind of ego is this? What the sport needs is more Ed Beamon’s and Ray Cipollini’s, Frank and Mark McCormack’s…c’mon…stop fueling this gasoline approach to bike racing. Where is the basic philosophy of fair play and integrity? The sport of cycling should never be about making money. That’s what Wall Street is for.
Rock Racing is the cream pie of cycling, instead of divine intervention he thinks he is…
Great interview. Harlem will rock! Imagine if Ball puts little nascar style cameras (front and back) on his riders’ bikes!
good job shmlaz, you are having a good week
Whatever one might think of Ball. The controversy here is Schmalz and NYvelocity doing good/classy/smart interviews one after the other.
wuwt!
The bike-camera thing was done in the downtown criteriums 2001-2004 — shown in NBC. They should totally do it in Harlem too!
I agree that the interview was handled very well, if only for diff reasons. I think Ball essentially reveals what he is really bringing to this sport: seedy spectacle. He comes off slimy, greedy, and small minded.
I mean shit, he goes so far as to intone that he’d look the other way if there were any cheaters on the team.
And by criticizing J.V, he really throws all credibility out the window. High Road and Slipstream are on the right track: they are trying to bridge the huge credibility gap between riders and the public. As the “Cuban” commenter noted, fair play and integrity do indeed fall by the wayside here. Ball essentially says that even positive doping cases are good because if not caught, the racers win and get publicity, and if caught, well, at least there is still publicity.
This makes me sick.
Everything about this guy is lame, tacky and ugly. His clothes, his uniforms and his ideas.
But he raises a good point: let’s see who is still around in three years: Ball of Vaughters.
I’d put my money on the former.
I’d like to see a Ball of Vaughters…..
This might be cool if you’re a white male over 40 and still think Aerosmith is hip.
pleez ehlou meh to intr’doose meself, laid many to waste…
sign me up cause NASBUYRPL is here!!!
(North American Stock Bicycle Up Yours Racing Professional League)
Why not disco-Balls mirrored skinsuits!?!?!
it really bothers me when people like Cuban mixed with Trump say this sport shouldn’t be about making money. I race because i love to race. I also race to make a honest living and to support my family. Would you say the same about any other sport such as European soccer or American football? MB is trying to turn the athletes into the house hold names that could not only benefit himself but the sport and the individual. I can almost bet you that most of the things you purchase are because of product placement or some type of advertisement. Whats wrong with doing that with cycling? Give me a break….
What pro sport asks its athletes to foot the bill? If Ball/promoters want to expand the sport and make a million or 2, make it arena or at least closed circuit-spectator paying…until then they profit off the effort of the participants, and that is called “amateur” in my book.
Where is COAST when they shoulda won the tour?
Mercury? Linda McCartney? This sport is littered with fly by night profiteers just like Ball. How will the sport or the community he claims to support be come Hangover Monday?
I hope you win next week Bahati, really, I remember your Saturn days…but don’t look to Ball when the wall tumbles. Look for real Team Managers that pay on time, year after year, not race to race…Wake up, only Horner seemed to. Even Cipo got burned!
some of what you said said is right, however dont believe what other people are saying about US. If you want to know the real story, ask a rider thats in it…I have yet to get a late pay check and this is going on two years with the team. Don’t mislead the public with other peoples insane comments about rock.
Thanks for writing in, are you guys going to be racing in New York the week before the race? Any chance you return to race at Floyd Bennett Field on Tuesday night?
I totally respect you and your professionalism. I question some of how Ball approaches the sport, publicity, Daddy Warbucks/GGW style, I hope it is sustainable, and the greater cycling community benefits with development programs especailly in urban neighborhoods, like Harlem.
Good Luck to you, your team, and the Harlem Crit! Here’s to another 40 years of racing on Father’s Day!
wow! designer racing! alas, those outfits scream for capes!
No riding around NY prior to Harlem…it would be sweet if we did. I did Bike NY a few times and I had a blast.
take care
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Tyler Hamilton in an early break. Oscar Sevilla leading the peloton in the last couple of laps. Fred Rodriquez with a third place sprint finish. Well done Rock Racing!
Fast FREDDIE…..anyone, and I mean anyone, who is in the most minute way bashing what Rock Racing is doing for the sport and more specifically the Hralem crit…is smoking hoo-haa…it is going to be a great event thanks to the fact that this team is brining a pretty all start line up. 3 time national champion…nuff said.
no doubt.
I like his attitude on treating riders like human beings, not just like a tool that you toss when it is broken. I like that he wants to get to the root of a problem and then fix the problem, not just the symptom. I also agree that if a rider is caught doping and pays his penalty, they shouldn’t be barred from competing. That’s totally bogus!
The riders definitely need to build a strong union to represent their interests. Otherwise they will continue to get treated simply like moving billboards and not like human beings.
He is also very smart in wanting to make his team self supported by selling their own product. Not depending an outside sponsor means they can be around for a long time. This is a model others should try to follow. The question is can they make it work.
I like that this interview touched on subjects not covered by others. Nice job Schmalz.
I’d love to go.
Definitely a compelling individual. Let’s see if he’s still around in a few years. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt
Mr. Ball-
He’s definitely consistent about regurgitating the same lines over and over. But, he needs to come up with something fresh as his old lines are not very credible. I like the stat he keeps putting out about 6 million hits during the ToC.
All those clamoring fans, yet Rock Racing’s website forum doesn’t even have a pulse-Its a morgue. The least Mr. Ball could do is have some employees put some hours into posting some phony rah rah postings. He’s already paying them anyhow.
You go Mike 🙁
Mr. Ball-
He’s definitely consistent about regurgitating the same lines over and over. But, he needs to come up with something fresh as his old lines are not very credible. I like the stat he keeps putting out about 6 million hits during the ToC.
All those clamoring fans, yet Rock Racing’s website forum doesn’t even have a pulse-Its a morgue. The least Mr. Ball could do is have some employees put some hours into posting some phony rah rah postings. He’s already paying them anyhow.
You go Mike 🙁
From USCF Road Racing Rulebook:
1O11. Non-Competitor on Course. A rider may not be on
the track or course during a race for which he or she has not
entered and registered, or from which he or she has
withdrawn or been directed to withdraw [relegation or
disqualification if entered in another race in the event for
which the results are not yet final; 10 days suspension if
flagrant].
From USCF Road Racing Rulebook:
1O11. Non-Competitor on Course. A rider may not be on
the track or course during a race for which he or she has not
entered and registered, or from which he or she has
withdrawn or been directed to withdraw [relegation or
disqualification if entered in another race in the event for
which the results are not yet final; 10 days suspension if
flagrant].
Mr. Ball-
He’s definitely consistent about regurgitating the same lines over and over. But, he needs to come up with something fresh as his old lines are not very credible. I like the stat he keeps putting out about 6 million hits during the ToC.
All those clamoring fans, yet Rock Racing’s website forum doesn’t even have a pulse-Its a morgue. The least Mr. Ball could do is have some employees put some hours into posting some phony rah rah postings. He’s already paying them anyhow.
You go Mike 🙁
Mr. Ball-
He’s definitely consistent about regurgitating the same lines over and over. But, he needs to come up with something fresh as his old lines are not very credible. I like the stat he keeps putting out about 6 million hits during the ToC.
All those clamoring fans, yet Rock Racing’s website forum doesn’t even have a pulse-Its a morgue. The least Mr. Ball could do is have some employees put some hours into posting some phony rah rah postings. He’s already paying them anyhow.
You go Mike 🙁
I’d love to go.
Definitely a compelling individual. Let’s see if he’s still around in a few years. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt
no doubt.
I like his attitude on treating riders like human beings, not just like a tool that you toss when it is broken. I like that he wants to get to the root of a problem and then fix the problem, not just the symptom. I also agree that if a rider is caught doping and pays his penalty, they shouldn’t be barred from competing. That’s totally bogus!
The riders definitely need to build a strong union to represent their interests. Otherwise they will continue to get treated simply like moving billboards and not like human beings.
He is also very smart in wanting to make his team self supported by selling their own product. Not depending an outside sponsor means they can be around for a long time. This is a model others should try to follow. The question is can they make it work.
I like that this interview touched on subjects not covered by others. Nice job Schmalz.
No riding around NY prior to Harlem…it would be sweet if we did. I did Bike NY a few times and I had a blast.
take care
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Tyler Hamilton in an early break. Oscar Sevilla leading the peloton in the last couple of laps. Fred Rodriquez with a third place sprint finish. Well done Rock Racing!
Fast FREDDIE…..anyone, and I mean anyone, who is in the most minute way bashing what Rock Racing is doing for the sport and more specifically the Hralem crit…is smoking hoo-haa…it is going to be a great event thanks to the fact that this team is brining a pretty all start line up. 3 time national champion…nuff said.
wow! designer racing! alas, those outfits scream for capes!
I totally respect you and your professionalism. I question some of how Ball approaches the sport, publicity, Daddy Warbucks/GGW style, I hope it is sustainable, and the greater cycling community benefits with development programs especailly in urban neighborhoods, like Harlem.
Good Luck to you, your team, and the Harlem Crit! Here’s to another 40 years of racing on Father’s Day!
Thanks for writing in, are you guys going to be racing in New York the week before the race? Any chance you return to race at Floyd Bennett Field on Tuesday night?
some of what you said said is right, however dont believe what other people are saying about US. If you want to know the real story, ask a rider thats in it…I have yet to get a late pay check and this is going on two years with the team. Don’t mislead the public with other peoples insane comments about rock.
What pro sport asks its athletes to foot the bill? If Ball/promoters want to expand the sport and make a million or 2, make it arena or at least closed circuit-spectator paying…until then they profit off the effort of the participants, and that is called “amateur” in my book.
Where is COAST when they shoulda won the tour?
Mercury? Linda McCartney? This sport is littered with fly by night profiteers just like Ball. How will the sport or the community he claims to support be come Hangover Monday?
I hope you win next week Bahati, really, I remember your Saturn days…but don’t look to Ball when the wall tumbles. Look for real Team Managers that pay on time, year after year, not race to race…Wake up, only Horner seemed to. Even Cipo got burned!
it really bothers me when people like Cuban mixed with Trump say this sport shouldn’t be about making money. I race because i love to race. I also race to make a honest living and to support my family. Would you say the same about any other sport such as European soccer or American football? MB is trying to turn the athletes into the house hold names that could not only benefit himself but the sport and the individual. I can almost bet you that most of the things you purchase are because of product placement or some type of advertisement. Whats wrong with doing that with cycling? Give me a break….
Why not disco-Balls mirrored skinsuits!?!?!
This might be cool if you’re a white male over 40 and still think Aerosmith is hip.
pleez ehlou meh to intr’doose meself, laid many to waste…
sign me up cause NASBUYRPL is here!!!
(North American Stock Bicycle Up Yours Racing Professional League)
I’d like to see a Ball of Vaughters…..
I agree that the interview was handled very well, if only for diff reasons. I think Ball essentially reveals what he is really bringing to this sport: seedy spectacle. He comes off slimy, greedy, and small minded.
I mean shit, he goes so far as to intone that he’d look the other way if there were any cheaters on the team.
And by criticizing J.V, he really throws all credibility out the window. High Road and Slipstream are on the right track: they are trying to bridge the huge credibility gap between riders and the public. As the “Cuban” commenter noted, fair play and integrity do indeed fall by the wayside here. Ball essentially says that even positive doping cases are good because if not caught, the racers win and get publicity, and if caught, well, at least there is still publicity.
This makes me sick.
Everything about this guy is lame, tacky and ugly. His clothes, his uniforms and his ideas.
But he raises a good point: let’s see who is still around in three years: Ball of Vaughters.
I’d put my money on the former.
The bike-camera thing was done in the downtown criteriums 2001-2004 — shown in NBC. They should totally do it in Harlem too!
Great interview. Harlem will rock! Imagine if Ball puts little nascar style cameras (front and back) on his riders’ bikes!
good job shmlaz, you are having a good week
Whatever one might think of Ball. The controversy here is Schmalz and NYvelocity doing good/classy/smart interviews one after the other.
wuwt!
http://www.velonews.com/article/77142/johan-bruyneel-releases-book-launches-web-site-re-design
my vitaimin C and Iron? I recently started my own “Blood and C-men” passport and want to make sure I have all my precursors and cascading hormones sequenced correctly.
What kind of ego is this? What the sport needs is more Ed Beamon’s and Ray Cipollini’s, Frank and Mark McCormack’s…c’mon…stop fueling this gasoline approach to bike racing. Where is the basic philosophy of fair play and integrity? The sport of cycling should never be about making money. That’s what Wall Street is for.
Rock Racing is the cream pie of cycling, instead of divine intervention he thinks he is…
pulla races rockleigh
their kit is the equivalent of 80’s big hair or yeah, Kiss, and not in an ironic way.
look at soccer
flames? skulls? barbewires??
what is this? 1993?
Papp used to race Rockleigh
assos is also a waste of money.
I can script that rider sit-down with ball for him.
Why’d you do it?
I wanted to win?
But why?
Cause i wasn’t fast enough otherwise.
Really?
Well everyone else is doing it!
OK, well, go train really hard now, and learn your lesson.
Indeed. One guy in a long line of folks (across multiple sports) who thought they had figured out how to take an elitist endurance sport and make it palatable to the general public.
Will not happen. Sorry. Most people can’t relate. They can fish in the lake near their house, play golf at the country club, play tennis, skateboard, shoot hoops, etc. But they sure as hell aren’t going to dress up in a skin tight suit and race around in circles. Especially when they are racing with folks who spend the work week criticizing new racers and moaning about the sport on NY Velocity.
If Ball can somehow make the sport more accessible, then he might be on to something. But take marathons. They are accessible as all hell, but you wont see one on TV.
Sadly, Bass Fishing and Bowling will have cycling beat any weekend.
Michael Ball sounds like another in a long line of guys who think they have the answer to making bike racing more palatable to American tastes. (Here is a short discussion about the last incarnation: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-87543.html
I don’t think cycling particularly lends itself to live tv coverage. I like my tours via the Internet, where anticipating the next 3-minute update adds to the excitement, more akin to the days of radio. For the visuals, I’ll wait for the edited dvd.
And anybody who thinks sitting a doping rider down and asking him why why did you do this, and not “outing” him, is not playing with a full deck. Like it or not, there is a little more at stake here that requires more intervention than Mikey Knows Best. Sheesh.
P.S. Shmaltz, can you post a photo of your back feet? Thanks!
seems like ball likes to hear himself talk. How are you gonna make someone train harder than they ever have before? You gonna go on every training ride? garbage. cheating has consequences, not more training.
This is NYC, you don’t have to buy drugs on the internet either.
I’m not wearing 300 dollar jeans.
he also charges 230 bucks for bib shorts. Thats a whole higher level of assyness than world cycling productions.
assos aint cheap either and way more flash than those. The assos chamy is pretty top notch though. Wouldnt want to spend big dollars on a chump chamois.
orange was for peaches in Georgia, guys with a monotone stripes and logos on their jerseys take themselves way to seriously, it’s only clothes! have some fun with your kits! Nothing wrong with looking like a superhero especially if you can ride well!
as long as they spell the name right, or something like that. Like the kit or hate it, your talking about it. I liked the green, not so much on the orange. Ball obviously knows his shi*t, he has america wearing $300 jeans, and when I saw the podioum girls in them at the ToC, I realized they are worth every penny. I wanted to buy my girlfriend some.
LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!
6pm A race 7pm 4/5’s. 20 miles from CP.
All the racing without the dope.
agreed…good point. A refreshing look at the sport in the media is in dire need. If the NHL can do it….
I couldnt think of watching a hockey game until this past week.
Bike racing can be handled the same way. So sick of the personal journey footage of the “chosen athlete” and all the crap shoved down our throats about how they overcame this and that. Whatever….lets get to business of entertainment in cycling. The way it should be.
It is very hard to justify the sponsorship model….big brands have the power to see upticks in markets based on new marketing and sponsorship, and big brands probably benefit from teh tour….that said, Ball’s model of creating a brand, product, buzz, business around a sport has a much more viable profit stream and potential then straight he is 100K put my logo on your jersey.
Schmalz this interview as always way cool!!! Thanks!
I wish you had probed a little more with what he has in the pipeline as ideas for coverage and less on the doping issue….is he going to have real time splits, little pop ups near riders with their bios, videos cameras in the pit lanes, miked riders….there are a lot of things that you could do that would make it really good television. A crit full with breaks, crashes, sprints, etc. if televised creatively and correctly could be fantastic TV….I mean people are watching dudes catch King Crab, certainly someone should be able to market a crit if done right. The current VS tV angles really don’t do the sport justice.
Dan, great interview. I never thought I would consder Mr Ball… dare I say… reasonable. Here you go presenting interesting and engaging questions for a guy who has–up to this point–not gotten a fair shake in the cycling press. Thanks for the interview and the fresh perspective.
Schmalz, you’re becoming, dare we say… a real journalist, not just Andy’s little puppet.
Did you tell him that you are gong to try a solo at Harlem Crit so that may be, just may be, he may ask invite you to carry water bottles or get those trucker’s hat out of the boxes on shelves….? Enjoyed the interview
2nd win of the week for you, Dan…best Ball interview I’ve ever seen.
I’m not evolved enough to get, or like, anything that has anything to do with Michael Ball.
Great interview. I applaud his enthusiasm for the sport. The kits and brand image are unfortunate, just plain corny. A total lack of cool.
You’re raising the bar. Nice interview. Ball has some very spot on points about the attitudes of the cycling governing bodies and the sponsorship situation within the sport. I dont agree with some of his choices of rider staff, but on the other side – Freddy R. is the man.
The kits – complete horror show. Seriously who makes up that stuff. The graphic concept is there but the color scheme is waaaaaay over the top!
As Rodney Dangerfield said in Caddyshack ” hey when you buy that outfit you must get a free bowl of soup…but it looks good on you though”
nice caddyshack reference!
no questions for ball about sexual harassment of his employees?
Just saw the pics from the Allentown, PA. June 3, 2008 race. That color scheme is much better than what I see represented here. Go back to it – quick.
I was posting last week talking about how I was fired up for this, Harlem name has cache….and then all the haters told me not to get my panites in a ruffle and that internet TV is not TV and it will be same old thing……HUMMM….same old thing hun. Fast freddie and Bahati.
This is what I thought….total new ball game, great for NYC racing, fired up to race and get my ass kicked.
That is the hottest kit and you’ve got to have the balls to were it!!!! These guys are hot
I believe JV is no fool — the Slipstream message will evolve as the sport develops. You can see it already with the veterans the team took on this season. And at least in the media, that is one happy-ass team. The puritanical angle was necessary to get his team off the ground because of where the sport found itself at that moment.
is it just me, or do those kits look like the ninja turtles meets a bag of spicy-sweet dorritos?
hey also if you guys are serious about supporting pro cycling, show up at that slipstream / chipotle event tommorow, stuff your face and ask for an autograph. you may think that showing up or not showing up makes no difference but it does — as ball indicates in this interview, slipstream’s future is very dependent on finding some more sponsors and hanging on to its current ones, like chipotle. The chipotle suits will be at this event and if it’s just magnus standing around in an empty store with a cheese enchilada its bad for the team….this is a real case of putting your mouth where your mouth is….also they sell margaritas there
this interview completely chaged my opinion of him. i think what he’s doing may be good for the sport. although i dont want to see it turn into nascar in terms of attitude…
i just wish he’d lay off some of the other teams, like slipstream, who are taking a different approach to solving the problems in pro cycling. if he wants to be the bad boy of cycling, there needs to be some over-achieving goody-goody as a counterpoint. i like burritos more than $300 jeans, anyway. i do commend ball for trying to make cycling better (as he sees it).
It’s funny how the reaction to Ball is evolving — it began with cycling’s old guard being completely horrified by the guy, but slowly, as the old guard reveals itself to be pretty outmoded (and in some cases utterly corrupt) Ball is looking like a badly needed alternative. It’s almost the same thing that happened with Mark Cuban in the NBA – everyone thought he was a total assclown and now he’s the model for an NBA owner. I wish Ball didn’t delight in signing so many sketchballs, and the uniforms look designed by Roger Corman, but the very fact that there’s new media-generating energy in the professional domestic scene is terrific.
Just look the NY Times guys — they do prissy stuff like that Tour d’Etape blog because it appeals to rich white guys who wanna max their Amexes, but this year the world paper of record completely blew off covering the Giro d’Italia. No coverage, no mention — not even results! — of the second biggest bike race in the world. And the Times was one of the last papers in the US that gave a crap about international bike racing.
Rec cycling will always prosper but the pro world needs all the chest-thumbing attention grabbers it can get. It’s too desperate right now to ignore Ball.
i love michael ball
I think this is what cycling needs. Cyclists will remain the same and what drove them to greatness yesterday will drive them to greatness tomorrow but if the general public can get involved, that’s when things will change for the good and that is what will take cycling from the fringes to prime time.
well, I guess Kiss is considered Rock and Roll by some.
Hey, Ball, you want fans for life? Grassroots at its finest — have the bus roll up to Prospect Park early on the Saturday before:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=5985
If your guys want more miles, you’ll have more than enough volunteers to take them over the GWB.
Good interview, thank you for doing it. I am very glad that he is in this sport.
Great piece Dan. Say what you want but Ball shoots from the hip – I like it. Pleasant change from most sports personalities robot speak: “I just want to thank god…”, “our boys just went out there and rode their hearts out…” snooze…
Wow that’s loud