Not too sure how many Brits have heard of Rock racing and their outspoken owner Michael Ball who runs the fashion label Rock and Republic, but I think by the time the 2008 Tour of Britain finishes on Sunday 14th September there’ll be quite a mixed opinion on the team from UK riders.
To start with there’s no denying that Michael Ball and his team have done a lot right when it comes to promoting themselves and making the team stand out from the crowd, you only have to watch their promotional video below to see that they’re really putting the job of promoting cycling teams and cycling onto a whole new level and have also added some extra colour to the sport, even the team cars stand out from the regular run of the mill estates that the other teams use, not to mention their Rock Racing Girls and tattooed rider Kayle Leogrande.
Although being in the marketing business I can’t help but wonder about a couple of their signings. To start with Tyler Hamilton, who has served a two-year ban for blood doping, as well as Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero who have both been caught up in an investigation on a alleged blood doping ring in Spain, then the rumour mill starts off again that Michael Ball is looking to now sign Floyd Landis. To me this either means one of two things, firstly Mr Ball does genuinely want to give these riders a second chance or he’s using them for extra publicity, any stories like this and the regular tabloids have a field day, not to mention the masses of cycling blogs and sites writing about the team (guilty as charged), could you really see a regular euro team sponsored by an electronics company making such a stir, you only have to do a bit of digging on Google to see exactly who’s been writing about Rock Racing.
I really do hope the team get past the whole negative publicity circus otherwise it would be a shame not only for their core of US riders but also the way (excluding the controversial signings) that they’ve promoted themselves and cycling in general. You only have to see the way US fans mill around the team bus waiting for autographs to know it’s good for bringing new blood into the sport, add to that the passion Michael Ball has for drowning out the voices of the ‘old school’ and adding some colour and vibrancy to cycling, not to say cycling is standing still at the moment but sometimes the boundaries need to be pushed to see what works.
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