Obligatory “at-speed” blurry shot of T-Bird on the finishing climb of Stage 4 of the Tour of Utah.

Tyler Hamilton

Tyler Hamilton, a little closer.

I had to step back after this last shot, afraid of pulling a bonehead move like the guy who knocked down Giuspeppe Guerini on l’Alpe d’Huez several years ago. Funny thing, while the other riders in Tyler’s group followed the curve of the road right towards the finish line, Tyler just kept coming straight at me.

Maybe there was something about me that just screamed “Flahute”, and he was thinking “I’m gonna get that bastard that keeps knocking my team …”

I may have to change at least some of my feelings on the Rock Racing team … while I was wandering around the finish area after the race, the Rock Racing area was completely mobbed by people, and everyone seemed to be handling it with a lot of grace; posing for photos, signing autographs … the whole 9 yards.

Listening to Michael Ball talk to some of the people around, he came across as a lot more humble than he does in print.

And Tyler is still one of the nicest guys in cycling; and he’s certainly a human rider again … although those are some of the ugliest sunglasses I have ever seen. They’re even worse than the Oakleys that George Hincapie wore for the past few years.

T-Bird was in the middle of an interview … kicking back in a lawn chair and relaxing. Right now, he’s sitting in 4th place overall, about 1:07 behind Louder.

More of my photos of the Tour of Utah can be found on Flickr.

This crossed my email inbox today:

CONTENDER BICYCLES TO HOST IN-STORE SIGNING WITH CYCLING STARS TYLER HAMILTON AND FREDDIE RODRIGUEZ OF ROCK RACING

Contender Bicycles will be hosting an in-store signing with Tyler Hamilton and Fred Rodriguez of Rock Racing on Saturday, August 16 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. This is a great opportunity to meet and receive autographs from two of the most famous names in cycling today. There will also be official Rock Racing apparel for sale.

Founded by Rock & Republic fashion mogul Michael Ball in 2007, Rock Racing has made a name for themselves both from incredible success on the bike and from their flamboyant flair. The team has rapidly become a fan favorite after signing some of the sport’s most established names including 2004 Olympic gold time trial medalist and Tour de France stage winner Tyler Hamilton and three-time USPRO road race champion and Giro d’Italia stage winner Freddie Rodriguez. Rock Racing has redefined the look of the pro cycling team uniform and in April 2008, the squad was voted the most popular team in professional cycling in an on-line poll by Bicycling Magazine.

WHEN:

Saturday, August 16 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.

WHERE:

Contender Bicycles
875 East 900 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
801.364.0344

Come meet the riders, check out the cars and experience the flair!

1. It’s an event at a bike shop, during the Tour of Utah. Why the fuck would I want to “check out the cars?”
2. Shouldn’t Tyler and Freddie be resting up to prepare for the next day’s time trial, instead of schmoozing a bunch of fanboys?
3. What does it do for Contender’s image to associate themselves with a team that seems to have a lax (or at least very forgiving) view on doping?
4. Flair? Do they have all 15 pieces?

… what’s with all the fascination about pro cyclists’ personal lives?

Recent search strings leading people to my blog:

• Tyler Hamilton divorce
• Tyler Hamilton IRS
• Lance Armstrong divorce
• Will Frischkorn divorce
• Greg Lemond divorce
• Richard Sachs gay
• Michael Balls Floyd Landis
• Floyd Landis gay
• Tyler Hamilton gay

These are all Google search strings that have shown up recently in my SiteMeter stats, and you’ve got to dig pretty far in to Google results to hit my site from some of these …

VeloNews | Rock Racing launches fund to help injured bike racers.

Michael Ball, owner of the Rock Racing team, says he and his companies will contribute “hundreds of thousands” of dollars to launch a fund to help elite racers who seriously injured while racing.

“Let’s do the right thing for these guys,” Ball told VeloNews.

Ball urged other teams and bicycle industry members to contribute to the Professional Cycling Catastrophic Injury Fund, which will be managed by an independent board. The team will contribute 10 percent of the sales of Rock Racing merchandise to the fund. The entire proceeds from sales of several new items — to be sold on the team’s Web site and at events — will go to the fund.

Ball said he was inspired to launch the fund by the plight of Mexican racer Fausto Esparza, who was partially paralyzed after a downhill crash at New Mexico’s Tour of the Gila this spring.

“That’s what really made me think about this,” he said. “Here’s a perfect example of a guy who has dedicated his life to the sport and now he’s in a tough spot,” he said.

Esparza, who spent several weeks at the hospital in El Paso, Texas, following the crash, has been moved to a facility in Mexico City, according to a source familiar with his situation. A call to a family member on Sunday was not immediately returned.

Ball said his goal is to raise $20 million over the next two years. The initial donation will come from the team, his Rock & Republic clothing company and himself personally. He said the fund will make donations to elite amateurs and professionals who are injured during a race. The fund’s board of directors will decide on a case-by-case basis who qualifies and how much support should be given.

If he hopes to raise $20,000,000, I certainly hope that he and Rock & Republic will be contributing more than just “hundreds of thousands” … thousands of thousands would be better. And I really hope that this is not another case of Ball talking out of his ass, and that he actually does something this time.

Michael Ball just might not be a total dick … but I’m still going to reserve judgment until everything is in place, and the fund completely established (and independent).

VeloNews | Merckx: Happily retired and carefully weighing his options

[Axel] Merckx was close to rejoining the peloton in a much more active way after opening negotiations this spring to join Rock Racing as a sport director, but the deal fell through following differences with team owner, Michael Ball.

Merckx told the Belgian daily La Deniere Heure that a compromise couldn’t be reached on key issues as who would have control of the team.

“It was an interesting project and I saw it as a true challenge. It’s a big sponsor with a big budget. They have the money to do things in the right way. It’s the type of sponsor to bring a fresh view and an exciting image to cycling,” Merckx said of Rock Racing. “I didn’t have the feeling that I could really make my own decisions. I couldn’t have total control, especially in the recruitment of the riders. It was the patron who had the power to make that decision, but he didn’t know anything about cycling. I didn’t want to work like that.”

Merckx is hoping to return to cycling as a sport director at some point, adding that cycling “is really growing on the other side of the Atlantic,” but it won’t be with Rock Racing.

With the successes that Rock Racing have had thus far this season, I wonder how well they’d do if they actually had someone who knew how to direct a team behind the wheel …

VeloNews posted the following article after my earlier post today on Rock Racing and the Tour de Georgia.

Michael Ball: Georgia’s promoters had one condition, “Don’t freak us out.”

Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball said Friday that his team earned an invite to the Tour de Georgia based on just one simple condition.

“They said, ‘can you conduct yourselves in a way that doesn’t freak us out?’ ” Ball said in a conference call with reporters.

He said that at Georgia he will not be accompanied by the Hollywood-style entourage that followed him at the Amgen Tour of California. He also said the team would not bring podium girl models to Georgia, although he said that’s because the models were unavailable, not because of his promise to avoid freaking anyone out.

Rock Racing had filed suit against the race when it was not invited, but dropped the suit this week when the race announced that the Saunier Duval team was not going to attend and that Rock Racing would fill the spot.

At the same time, Rock Racing was named as a Founding Sponsor of the race. Ball said his company’s sponsorship of the race was not a condition of its invitation.

“I know it could appear that way,” Ball said. “My intention is to support cycling. This is another great American tour and from the get go we have tried to get involved.”

Somehow, I doubt that my earlier post had anything to do with this comment, but I find it funny that other people were obviously thinking the same thing.

VeloNews | 2008 Tour de Georgia

Rock Racing gets in

Domestic team Rock Racing was not originally invited and had threatened take race organizer Medalist Sports to court over a disputed verbal invitation, but was given Saunier Duval’s team slot Tuesday. With that settlement, Rock has signed on as a founding sponsor of the Tour de Georgia — the event’s highest sponsorship level.

“My commitment to cycling is long-term and I am proud to support this world-class race which has featured such winners as Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis,” Rock team owner Michael Ball said. “As a tribute to the state of Georgia and to the rich tradition of this race, we plan something special for the final stage, so stay tuned.”

Hmm … sponsorship? Or bribery (on Rock Racing’s part) / extortion (on Medalist Sports’ part)? The timing of this sponsorship announcement is awfully suspect … making it seem as though the sponsorship is part of the agreement to let Rock race … a nice little quid pro quo.

The exchange of money does not make either the team OR the organizers look good.