Bianchigirll 

Watching the 'Tour and all those Road ID commercials with Bob 'Bobke' Roll got me to thinking about all those beer commercials with Bob Uecker.

will we see a remake of Mr Belvidere with Bob Roll?

that_guy_zach

That would be great. I was just thinking that when he was in the back of the minivan. What a ham.

iab

One can only hope.

Bianchigirll 

OH I have a better idea. While driving his car Bobke hits a cyclist, who turns out to be Lance and at the trial the Judges senteces Bobke to be Lance's butler so it would be Mr Bobke.

3speedslow

He's getting paid for it folks, and laughing all the way to the bank.

that_guy_zach

Those road ID commercials keep getting better and better.

sakonnetclip

I like them. His gimmick is just annoying enough to be memorable. And the interplay with cyclists who nobody really even knows works well. I'd make them even a bit more cheesy...but not take it too far...

Oregon Southpaw

Is Bob Roll gay*? His personality and lack of biographical information make me wonder.

*Not that there's anything wrong with that

Chombi

From what I've seen of Bob when watching the TDF coverage for the past few years, I think Uecker has more "clownage" that has an old school flavor to it than Roll when in front of the camera. Roll seems to balance it quite a bit with more serious talk, and can even thrown in a few "prickly" comments when he feels strongly about something negative that might have happened/caused by a rider during a stage in a race he's covering.

Chombi

Suburban Grind

I really liked the stories of his cycling experiences, expecially this early teenage one:

He talked about being distracted on a ride and riding into a pole on a sidewalk and smacking his forehead hard.

Now he'll forever be "Light Pole" Bob Roll to me. Made me think he really needs to wear that road id every time he's near traffic.

bikingshearer 

Uecker could also be serious, as he was a play-by-play announcer for years (I want to say that some of those years were with the Brewers, but don't quote me on that) and he could be prickly on occasion, too. But most of the nation only knows him from the Miller Lite commercials ("He mssed the tag! He missed the tag!") or appearances on Johnny Carson. Actually, I think Bobke is goofier than Uecker, and I don't mean that as an insult to eithr one ofthem.

look171

Heard this from some reliable sources back int the late 80s chit chatting after some local races. Bob is the protector for our 7-11 boys from the rough European farm boys. He would get into it with them. Chris Horner was like that also in his early years, he just would not take crap from the Europeans and something about it himself.

thenomad

I think he's great, his self-deprecating humor is perfect. BUT, I'm getting annoyed my the new young announcer who's slipped into the team with him and has the roll of "serious know it all announcer" who has no experience in the peloton but still spends the whole time poking fun at Bobke. I know it's the "roll" the network thinks is going to work but one of these days I want Bob to lob a fireball over to him like "well, you'd puke on your shoes if you could even do 1/2 of my morning trainer warmup"

look171

I think the other two guys are idiots that know nothing about cycling but are reporters to balance out the good looks compare to Bob Roll. They have to say something just to get something going. they can't jsut report the facts. Cantador crossed a wheel, and ran into the spectators. Those guys were so quick to judge that he was pushed. If you were pushed, you don't lost control like that. For those who have ridden long enough, that's exactly what happened when you cross a wheel. I saw Bob's reaction as soon as he sat back and and stopped talking.

Ecrevisse

Bob Roll has always been a great cycling story teller. His facts are not necessarily correct but his stories are good.

bobvonb

then why ask? however, this link mentions a wife and kids.

https://democraticvistas.com/2010/07/...-for-bob-roll/

heaven help us that a straight guy have such a sense of humor or be so pleasant.

"absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

Oregon Southpaw

Yeah, knew that was going to come off poorly. I was just curious*. Thanks.
*Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Otis

One of the other "idiots", Todd Gogulski probably knows a bit more about cycling than you give him credit for. Probably quite a bit more than anyone here (at least concearning professional road racing).

cb400bill

Todd "GoGo" Gogulski is a cycling TV commentator for NBC Universal Sports and Versus and a former professional road racer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Gogulski

look171

I know who he is. Listen to some of the thing he said last week. It seem that he say thing just to say it to get a reaction out of the others. Notice Phil and Paul almost never do that. But the others do it often.