Professional Cycling For the Fans - bob roll must die!

Have you been sleeping? OLN will not carry the TDF next year. That is absolutely certain.


They're changing their name to Versus in September. Phil even told me so. :p

damn, you scared the cr@p outta me with that till I saw the VS comment,
thought I missed something and they already announced it.

marty

He gotcha Marty:D

Reminds me of a dream I had the other night in which Merlin Olsen was being chased by a bunch of Super Mario characters....

LOL - too funny.

Bob Roll is the main reason I watch the Tour Day France on TV. He is funny, creative, and knows his stuff.

Much love for Le Bobke. :beer:

I read somewhere that a gap in the front teeth such as Bob Roll has indicates above normal sexual powers. The wider the gap, the sexier the person is, so the story goes. This means Bob must be an absolute stud. Anyone ever heard of this bit of wisdom?:D

I've cycled long enough to remember when coverage of the Tour consisted of several lines of print cached in the sports section of the LA Times. Any details of the various stages emerged months later in [I]Winning [I]magazine or a few other publications.

To have the ability in the present day to see every stage and to hear the commentary is priceless!

As for Bob Roll, having followed his career as a rider,author and broadcaster, to me he epitomizes what cycling is all about..a sport that's a little quirky and a whole lotta fun.

Long may he run!

Roll is incredibly annoying, a dimwit and just plain dull. If there isn't a better former cyclist to put behind the mike for color, they should at least dump this clown.

Roll is incredibly annoying, a dimwit and just plain dull. If there isn't a better former cyclist to put behind the mike for color, they should at least dump this clown.

I doubt it, since the majority of you would find something else to whine about. How about this for a suggestion....why don't all of you who think you can do better send in your demo tapes to OLN/Versus and see hoiw you do? At least then the rest of us in BF would know who we were ridiculing.

Brian

It's interesting that the only commentators I can stand are ones who actually rode the tour - Bob and Paul. Phil and the American guy are SO STUPID. But Robbie Ventura was the one who made me gag. Immediate mute for that guy. And the trek and cervelo commercials disguised as reports were lame. If they discussed equipment for all the teams it would be okay.

Agree about the commercialism of the product line spots, but at least this year i think Trek was an actual sponsor and bought time.

I love Bob Roll. Please recall he finished the TdF several times, suffered hypothermia and a heart rate of low thirties or lower during the hypothermia-Giro with Hampsten, Paris Roubaix, and was part of the two people who rode life back into the legs and spirit of a flailing Lance Armstrong inthe mountains of North Carolina. His presence on 7-Eleven and Motorola was always one of strength in the clutch and also humor and distraction. So his palmares has cred with me.

Plus his humor and poetry are what i watch the show for.
KEEP IT GOING BOB.
Plus having tossed a few back with him and Paul and Phil, they are great pub company and are smarter and funnier in person, exception Phil, he is best on TV.

Bob is no dim-wit. That is pure schtick.

Bob is no dim-wit. That is pure schtick.

Like, Paris Hilton?

Paris can't even spell "schtick".

I read somewhere that a gap in the front teeth such as Bob Roll has indicates above normal sexual powers. The wider the gap, the sexier the person is, so the story goes. This means Bob must be an absolute stud. Anyone ever heard of this bit of wisdom?:D


Lauren Hutton told me it's true.

I simply record the Tour(and all cycling on OLN) and watch it later at my leisure and without commercials. Of course, I can't go to the LBS until I've seen the stage that day; those guys at the shop almost spoiled it for me one day.

bbattle.... that takes a special kind of patience, I couldn't imagine doing that.

bbattle.... that takes a special kind of patience, I couldn't imagine doing that.

I do the same thing. People gave me spoilers on stages 15 and 16 though. Not like gave everything away, but enough to blow it, like I have a Cervelo and some guy goes, oh somebody on one of those bikes won the stage today. So of course I see three CSC in the break and two pulling their butts off, one sitting on, and I know it is going to be Frank Schlenk in 1st at the top. Jerk. I told him NO SPOILERS like a minute before.

Then the next day somebody tells me that Landis is hosed. I had this big plan to go over to a friend's house and watch it on his projection TV. Totally ruined the suspense.

:lol: No sir, I'm gettin' a feed from wherever I can at the moment, or watching for the 30 seconds on the news. Can't wait.

Paris can't even spell "schtick".

Maybe she can't spell "schtick" but she sure knows what to do with one.

MEA CULPA! I take it all back. Bob should die a slow painful death. I've lost all respect for him. He's just a TREK-owned tool:

http://www.olntv.com/tdf/

He never said squat about the others accused (at least one falsely) on much less evidence. He's just pathetic. He clearly loves Lance more than he loves cycling.

I thought Bob was an annoying doofus at first. I then began to see his humor and insights for exactly what I believe them to be; a much needed dose of irreverence and perspective to the "serious cycling" scene. His comments were full of moronic brilliance and I loved it.

He never said squat about the others accused (at least one falsely) on much less evidence. He's just pathetic. He clearly loves Lance more than he loves cycling.
I think his love for cycling is unbounded and the guys goes poetic about it.

As to your comment about Bob and Lance, please imagine if you ride a bike, riding with a guy on a team or several times a week on group riders, this same guy gets cancer, nearly dies, then comes back with his coach and asks you to go ride for him for a week to see if the guy can refind his inner soul and love for the bike, and you are there...a guy you rode with for years, nearly dead. Yes, I think that it is likely you would become a friend and fan and more.

Did you read my link? He is killing cycling with his irresponsibility. It's not even in OLN's interest to suggest a conspiracy. Do you think Americans will watch a sport that is fixed by the organizers? This is all about jumping on Lance's conspiracy bandwagon because Trek is making so much money. He should be fired.

Another thumbs up for Bobke, thumbs Down for AL Troutwig. he always bugged me during the Yankee games too. Now he does Gymnastsics, curling, olympic knitting, etc etc. Jacko all trades, master o none. He asked some amazingly dumb questions during the broadcasts. What is a 'bikeset' exactly?

And the uber-American/Lance worship thing got out of hand (all of them, even the allophonic Sherwen/Ligget duo being guilty). I'm as proud as any American of our riders but there ARE other nations involved in this thing........enough already.

My fave moment this year was the expanded coverage late one night (during the last week) when Al & Bob thought OLN had gone to commercial (but their 'off-camera' comments were clearly audible as the video coverage continued uncut) and they were goofing on Phil and Paul for saying Floyd had no chance of recovering from the bonk stage (this must have been during his 5-billion water bottle rebound stage the next day). To top it all off, when Dessel went over a rail at the side of the road while madly descending towards the finish line, Bobke uttered a nice loud obscentity (sanctifying excrement) in surprise......good times, good times.....

Maybe she can't spell "schtick" but she sure knows what to do with one.

I doubt it.