edidiot

How good was he when he raced in the TDF? His hand's gesture on OLN is so f****ing annoying. His commentator is also annoying but no where close to his hands.

Magic Johnson quits NBA and become the best analyst on TNT, Bob Roll is just so suck.

don d.

He was a solid domestique/support rider.

TriDevil

One year on the 7-11 team he was the top placed american finisher for the team, 63rd I think. That was a question on OLN. I honestly like bob. He's gotten me laughing out loud a handful of times. Al Trautwig is far worse than bob. He is only on to try to get more stick and ball game loving americans to watch and 'understand' the tour.

shokhead

They crack me up and have a ton of insight. It must be hard to talk about something on the screen and it switchs,the FRENCH feed i mean.

mmerner

I think they said he was in TdF 4 times?

RegularGuy

Twice, I believe. 1986 and 1987. He placed 67th in GC in '86. He was a DNF in '87.

Roll, though his mannerisms and attitude may be annoying to some, has real credibility. Trautwig doesn't. I like Roll well enough for the pre-race stuff. OLN should leave the "play-by-play" call to Phil and Paul who do it so well.

auk

Bob, if you read his book(s), is a real card. Tough as nuts on the bike. He played a key role in 7-11 and Motorola as a bouncer of sorts. If you wanted to get to the team leader (at that time Hampsten) you had to go through Bob to get there.

Dave

UNCLECHET

I've got to disagree with you on Bob. Bob's comments come from being there. He was a fantastic rider. I remember seeing him at a mountain bike race in Colorado and the guy was just ripped. He was in incredible shape. He had some good results. Not only that but he took everything with a grain of salt. He always seemed to be having fun! You should read his books. I'll bet you'd like them.

I liked the OLN TDF coverage better when it was just Bob, Phil and Paul. The rest of em are just "filler".

zonatandem

How many times have YOU ridden the Tour? 'Nuf said.

ChiefCatchacold

This article says he was there 4 times:
link

RegularGuy

I've been wrong before.

zensuit

I respectfully disagree that he sucks...he actually has an opinion...you might not like his style, but he knows bike racing...and he was one of those hard men who rode in Europe when there wasn't any money and the Euro riders absolutely hazed and abuse gringos...

The man deserves some respect.

sm266

I think Bob rocks. He's funny, especially at making sly fun of Trautwig, and Trautwig doesn't even realize it. Bob deserves respect, and he has mine. Oh, and my husband and I make fun of his hand motions, so those are worth extra laughs too.

Jakey

Bob can be annoying be he is funny at times... Al sucks...and I would take EITHER over Magic Johnson....ugh...his commentary is just terrible... imo..

TXCiclista

Bob is great! I WOULD like to nail his hands to the desk though (either that, or give him better gestures (hands in a temple, point right hand at you, bring hands back together in a temple, pull in towards the chest )). Bob is just so much fun and underneath that "Aw shucks" demeanor is someone with a staggering amount of race knowledge. On occassion, I think he even has insights that Phil and Paul lack (though not the panache with which to deliver them). Personally, I'm thinking of joining the Bobke Fan Club

Gustaf

I think a lot of Bobs knowledge is watered down when he is placed along side Al and other fools.

Schiek

I think you mean Charles Barkley.

Magic doesn't work for TNT, and as far as commentators go, he's about 100 times more annoying then Roll could ever be.

khuon

I'm a fan of Bobke and agree with most of what's been said here. I also think that the style of cycling commentary tends to differ from popular ballgame commentaries. It's more closely akin to say yacht racing commentary. Personally, listening/watching baseball commentators makes me feel patronised. They cast such artificially pumped "excitement" that I'm insulted.

RegularGuy

Did you catch Phil Liggett's impression of Bobke with his hands taped together during the pre-race show one morning? It was my best laugh of this year's Tour.

I enjoyed Roll's interview with Lance during this morning's pre-race show, too.

BR: "Who still loves you?"

LA: "Bobke."

DieselDan

Bob Roll adds a unique, but experenced and maybe skewered, view of the Tour DAY France that Phil and Paul, and most definatly Al, just can't delivar. Sure his hands are annoying, and so were George Bush's.

youngrider08

Ha good point Good Point. Personally I think that they put bob up there to get the non-riding younger aged crowd. Who flips. They see some Nerd who Does funny Hand things and cracks stupid comments they stay.
My favortie thing that ive heard bob say would be: "Lance is Better because he peddles faster" Duhh But i knew what he meant so yea. Bobs there live with it :-P

Flaneur

Liggett is one of the most experienced and respected commentators working. He's done the last how many tours? Thirty? Something like that. He's also a race organiser and commissaire and is head of the biggest grass-roots cycling organisation in the UK.

Sherwen had a long career as a trusted domestique in France. He specialised in northern cobbled one-day and short stage races (his team was based in Roubaix for years)but rode (somebody correct me) nine tours and finished seven.

Bob had a short but lively european career, beginning as Sherwen's was ending. His roles on TV are as the insider with the irreverent angle and as the American connection. The Americans who raced before the Seven-Eleven team was formed had to conform to the old conventions of training and behaviour- to fit in with French, Italian, Belgian and Spanish ways of seeing and doing things. Bob represents the views of those who dissented from that and tried to forge their own, American way forward. Even in the comparatively liberal 7-11 camp, I think Bob pretty quickly decided that the grind of a long European season was not for him, hence the switch to mountain biking.

The three guys together represent a tremendous pedigree- experience, integrity and seperate but respectable viewpoints. Isn't that what the network and the viewers want? Looks like a dream combination to me.

flat tire

Bob Roll is great! I love his enthusiasm and humor. In fact, I think OLN does a fabulous job with the tour. Compare the Tour to the Super Bowl, World Series, or Basketball playoffs. There is no comparison. Those other sports are way overrated and they are so boring and their commentators suck. I say this as one that played a lot of basketball and baseball in my life, thinking (incorrectly) at one time that it was only a sport if it involved a ball.

Cranks

"OLN should leave the "play-by-play" call to Phil and Paul who do it so well."

Agree wholeheartedly. Wish this year they had shown much more of the racing. In previous years didn't OLN have a live feed that was start to finish? Maybe 6 hours is asking too much, but you read about things in the cycling news that happened and you just think "where was that."

Gotta love Phil and Paul's knowledge - they can look at a guy's pedaling style and tell you who he is long before seeing a number or a face. That's real dedication, and their race calling is so much more concise and informative.

I've got it made, though. My wife loves the tour so much (mostly because it is in France), she has decided to forego some purchases for the next year so we can go again in 2005 (we went in 2002). I'm not sure if I'm using her or she's using me, but neither one of us cares.

joeprim

I like Bob and think he adds a lot to the understanding of what is going on. See unlike you guys I've never raced in the TdF and like the insights.

joe