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Rock's not dead

Mar 10, 2009
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Its not dead but its definitely on life support, the price of their kit is now at regular team kit prices :D, I predict by late Summer they'll be 75 to 50 % of that price and most of the Spanish riders will announce their signature on Euro teams.

The boat is taking on water and the leak is now continuous, all abandon ship!:eek:
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Never even had a roster up

I found it pretty telling that there weren't ever any riders names on the website. I guess when you are firing people left and right, you don't want to be distracted by the added hassle of editing the webpage.

For them it's all about selling kits and trucker hats, I don't think I'd buy anything from a company that fires riders on a whim.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Why do people (some people) want this team to fail? I would hate to see any team fail out of cycling, as starved as we are for attention in the U.S.
 
A

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it couldnt happen to a nicer bunch... :D

as ive said before, they may be clean now, but would you trust a security company that employed ex-cons..? i think when they went down the road of employming mainly the desperate and needy they made a rod for there own backs..

no sympathy...
 
dimspace said:
it couldnt happen to a nicer bunch... :D

as ive said before, they may be clean now, but would you trust a security company that employed ex-cons..? i think when they went down the road of employming mainly the desperate and needy they made a rod for there own backs..

no sympathy...

Rock is no different than the other teams that hired Operation Puerto riders or continue to employ dirty riders. Bruyneel hired Contador and Basso and I forget the other one. Astana also has Kloden, and now Armstrong is riding for the team. Caisse has Valverde and Sanchez. CSC still has Frank Schleck employed. Columbia is built from T-Mobile. Garmin is made of of ex-dopers and riders who allude to their own doping but won't admit it straight up. It is hard to find any team that does not have a gaggle of dopers employed. Why are the other teams any better than Rock?
 
Mar 29, 2009
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that's disrespectful. You focus on some of the bad element but what about the riders on the team who have no skeletons and who have worked damn hard to get pro contracts? What about the staff on the team that rely on results and good PR and who have no association with anything wrong?

If a team goes under that's a lot of people out of jobs and a lot of people effected.
 
I don't think people specifically want RR to fail. I think they'd rather see the team managed properly. But when you look at the way someone like Michael Creed was fired - for "poor performance" after one race in the season - and now the guy has little hope of another pro team picking him up this year, you quickly realize that a team managed like this is no good for the sport.

I should note, I like that "watch this" video on RR's site. It's well shot and the graphics are cool. The music doesn't fit though. They chose rap, when the music should have been high-energy rock, or metal of some sort (as in "Rock" Racing). Recommend people watch it soon, as it's bound to be removed fairly soon.
 
Alpe d'Huez said:
I don't think people specifically want RR to fail. I think they'd rather see the team managed properly. But when you look at the way someone like Michael Creed was fired - for "poor performance" after one race in the season - and now the guy has little hope of another pro team picking him up this year, you quickly realize that a team managed like this is no good for the sport.

People were hatin' on Rock before they ever fired people. The yuppies don't like their urban attitude polluting their lily white sport.
 
Apr 10, 2009
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BroDeal said:
People were hatin' on Rock before they ever fired people. The yuppies don't like their urban attitude polluting their lily white sport.

Or maybe people think cycling deserves better than the hard guy image that comes with everything these days. Cycling is already extreme in effort no reason to make it "extreme" in other ways.
 
I think that most of the hate for RR is directed towards Michael Ball. The man is an ***. His ego and need dominate those around him is sad. At least that is how he comes off. I fell bad for the riders on a team that is driven on performance only. No room to be injured or overtrained, or anything that might be considered human. There are better ways to get results and build a team with "esprit de corps".
 
Mar 12, 2009
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BroDeal said:
People were hatin' on Rock before they ever fired people. The yuppies don't like their urban attitude polluting their lily white sport.
No, it's those who fancy themselves cycling purists/elitists if you will, that are adverse to new ideas. I hoping M Ball can pull his experiment together, pro cycling needs a kick in the rump.
 
BroDeal said:
Rock is no different than the other teams that hired Operation Puerto riders or continue to employ dirty riders. Bruyneel hired Contador and Basso and I forget the other one. Astana also has Kloden, and now Armstrong is riding for the team. Caisse has Valverde and Sanchez. CSC still has Frank Schleck employed. Columbia is built from T-Mobile. Garmin is made of of ex-dopers and riders who allude to their own doping but won't admit it straight up. It is hard to find any team that does not have a gaggle of dopers employed. Why are the other teams any better than Rock?

nice work chucking Armstrongs name in with a bunch of guys that have been caught when he hasn't...:rolleyes:
 
Apr 9, 2009
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Laurent said:
that's disrespectful. You focus on some of the bad element but what about the riders on the team who have no skeletons and who have worked damn hard to get pro contracts? What about the staff on the team that rely on results and good PR and who have no association with anything wrong?

If a team goes under that's a lot of people out of jobs and a lot of people effected.

Staff and good p.r.? D.S. Frankie Andreu quit out of disgust after bringing up Leogrande's doping confession to Ball. Suzanne Sonye also left because of the Leogrande circus.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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I want Rock Racing to fail... just because those who want them to succeed are oblivious to what a cycling team needs to succeed.

I want Rock Racing to succeed... just because those who want them to fail are oblivious to what a cycling team needs to succeed.

...riddle me this Batman...
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Today's cyclingnews news blurb has Rock not showing up at Gila due to not enough money to pay for Greyhound tickets.

Sounds like the boat is now half engulfed in water... :eek:, where's the bucket brigade?
 
Apr 22, 2009
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I'm not even sure they could field a team at this point unless they went with a truncated squad.

Really kind of sad to see them struggling, I liked the concept of the team and the flashy side of the approach. Management could have been different but you could say that in about 90% of all cases.

I would not be suprised if they suspended operations for the remainder of the season and waited for things to turn around a little, economy wise. They had a reallly good ToC, but I guess that wasn't enough in the end.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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The Titanic has taken on too much water. No lifeboats needed, as they ones leaving all wore life preservers and jumped (or maybe, just maybe, they were pushed?)...

Cycling is not a poor man's or poor business' sport. Tough economic times make cycling business ventures risky. I'd say it's a tough as opening a restaurant business!
 
WillieTheWaiter said:
nice work chucking Armstrongs name in with a bunch of guys that have been caught when he hasn't...:rolleyes:

Actually the only named rider who's been caught on this list is Basso. I guess you can count Millar, too, since he's mentioned obliquely.

The two under the most suspision that haven't gotten busted are Valverde and Armstrong (owing to those infamous '99 tests).

Swallow your biases and stick up for the other riders if you want to stick up for anyone. Schleck, Kloden, and Sanchez--as well as quite a few Garmins and Columbias--have less apparent evidence against them than Armstrong.

I'm not saying either way if I think Armstrong is guilty or not, I'm just saying that Armstrong isn't the only guy on that list who hasn't been officially sanctioned.

:rolleyes:
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
I don't think people specifically want RR to fail. I think they'd rather see the team managed properly. But when you look at the way someone like Michael Creed was fired - for "poor performance" after one race in the season - and now the guy has little hope of another pro team picking him up this year, you quickly realize that a team managed like this is no good for the sport.

I should note, I like that "watch this" video on RR's site. It's well shot and the graphics are cool. The music doesn't fit though. They chose rap, when the music should have been high-energy rock, or metal of some sort (as in "Rock" Racing). Recommend people watch it soon, as it's bound to be removed fairly soon.

Wrong. "People" have wanted Rock to fail from the beginning because they were too in-your-face and not wonder bread suburbia. It's better they are gone because the neighborhoods are safe