Bob Roll

Last updated
Bob Roll
Bob Roll DC 2003.jpg
Bob Roll at the 2003 Tour of Hope in Washington, D.C.
Personal information
Born (1960-07-07) 7 July 1960 (age 63)
Oakland, California, United States of America
Team information
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Professional teams
1985–1990 7-Eleven–Hoonved
1991 Motorola
1992 Z

Bob "Bobke" Roll (born July 7, 1960) is an American former professional cyclist, author, and television sports commentator. He was a member of the 7-Eleven until 1990 and competed for the Motorola in 1991. In 1992 Roll moved to Greg LeMond's Z team and added mountain biking to his racing accomplishments. Roll continued racing mountain bikes professionally through 1998. Roll is known in the cycling world, and to his global cable television fans, as "Bobke".

Contents

He has written Bobke: A Ride on the Wild Side of Cycling, Bobke II, and two Tour de France Companion volumes. ("Bobke" is Southern Dutch for "Bobby".) He has also had many columns published in VeloNews. He is credited with suggesting that Joe Parkin, professional cyclist and author, move to Europe and wrote the foreword for Joe's first book. [1]

Cycling career

Roll started cycling in 1981 in his home region of Northern California. He spent two years in the States racing before heading to Belgium to race. After a furthur two years he became a professional cyclist for 7-Eleven, his first race was the 1985 Giro d'Italia. [2] During the 1988 Giro d'Italia Roll's job as a domestique pushed him to the limit, causing him to pass out at the finish and his heart to stop beating. [3]

In 1998 a young Lance Armstrong, continuing to recover from testicular cancer remediation, had recently dropped out of the Paris–Nice cycling race. Armstrong's training coach, Chris Carmichael, invited Roll to journey to Boone, North Carolina, to talk with Lance and do training rides with the young Armstrong for several days. [4] [5] Armstrong was extremely discouraged by his recent European cycling results, and Carmichael believed Armstrong had lost his career focus and was on the verge of fully retiring from professional cycling. Almost out of desperation, Carmichael talked Armstrong into doing one last series of intensive training rides, with Roll as his riding partner.

According to Roll, "I am sure Lance had probably never met a bike racer like me...a person who could still find some joy and happiness in such weather misery. We had eight hours a day, for eight straight days, of continuous riding in the pouring rain - rain in Biblical proportions! I think Lance would've turned things around even without our talks and rides in the Appalachia[n]s, but it turned out to be a pivotal career event for him (and Roll had made a new cycling friend)." A refocused and encouraged Armstrong went on to a successful fourth-place finish in the Vuelta a España, and within a year and a half he had won his first yellow jersey overall victory in the Tour de France road race. Armstrong has since had his yellow jersey wins nullified due to doping. (Roll's tale of the ride is in Bobke II; [6] Armstrong's is in It's Not About the Bike. [7] )

Post cycling

Roll continues to enjoy riding road and mountain bicycles for recreation, and is a member of the veteran cable television broadcasting team (along with Phil Liggett, MBE and the late Paul Sherwen) who serve as road cycling expert-commentators for the NBC Sports Network cable network's coverage of the Tour de France, Vuelta a España, Giro d'Italia, Paris–Roubaix, Tour of California, and other international cycling road races. [8]

Roll has appeared in a series of Road ID Tour de France television commercials as himself, riding a bus along with "Tour Mania" (a costumed-disguised rowdy faux rock group played by well-known professional cyclists, such as George Hincapie).

Major results

Bob Roll wins stage 1985 Coors Devils Cup Mt Diablo. Bob roll 1985A.jpg
Bob Roll wins stage 1985 Coors Devils Cup Mt Diablo.

Sources: [9] [10] [11]

1985
10th Overall Coors Classic
1st Stage 9
1986
1st Stage 3 Rocky Mountains Classic
1st Stage 3 Vuelta de Baja California
1st Stage 3 (TTT) Redlands Bicycle Classic
1987
1st Affoltern am Albis Criterium
6th Eschborn–Frankfurt
7th Overall Milk Race
8th Tour du Nord-Ouest
1988
1st Stage 3 Tour de Romandie
1990
1st Stage 2 Tucson Bicycle Classic
1992
5th Overall Tour of the Adirondacks
1997
1st San Francisco Hill Climb
1998
1st San Francisco Hill Climb

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 198519861987198819891990
Jersey yellow.svg Vuelta a España
Jersey pink.svg Giro d'Italia 78 61 114
Jersey yellow.svg Tour de France 63 DNF 132
Legend
Did not compete
DNF Did not finish

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyler Hamilton</span> American cyclist (born 1971)

Tyler Hamilton is an American former professional road bicycle racer. He is the only American rider to win one of the five Monuments of cycling, taking Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2003. Hamilton became a professional cyclist in 1995 with the US Postal Service cycling team. He was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours de France, where Armstrong won the general classification. He was a key asset for Armstrong, being a very good climber as well as time-trialist. Hamilton appeared at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. In 2004, he won a gold medal at the individual time trial. The first doping test after his Olympic victory gave a positive result, but because the backup sample was frozen, no doping offence could be proven. After he failed further doping tests at the 2004 Vuelta a España, Hamilton was suspended for two years from the sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santiago Botero</span> Colombian former professional road bicycle racer

Santiago Botero Echeverry is a Colombian former professional road bicycle racer. He was a pro from 1996 to 2010, during which he raced in three editions of the Tour de France and four editions of the Vuelta a España. He is best known for winning the mountains classification in the Tour de France, and the Time Trial World Championship 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadel Evans</span> Australian road bicycle racer

Cadel Lee Evans is an Australian former professional racing cyclist who competed professionally in both mountain biking and road bicycle racing. A four-time Olympian, Evans is one of three non-Europeans – along with Greg LeMond and Egan Bernal – to have won the Tour de France, winning the race in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Basso</span> Italian cyclist

Ivan Basso is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1999 and 2015 for seven different teams. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the early 21st century, and was considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the race in 2006 for Team CSC and 2010 for Liquigas–Doimo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Danielson</span> American road bicycle racer

Thomas Danielson is an American retired professional road racing cyclist who competed professionally between 2002 and 2015 for the Mercury Cycling Team (2002), the Saturn Cycling Team (2003), Fassa Bortolo (2004), Discovery Channel (2005–2007) and Cannondale–Garmin (2008–2015). He had been suspended twice for doping in his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilberto Simoni</span> Italian cyclist

Gilberto Simoni is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, most recently for Lampre–Farnese Vini. Simoni is twice winner of the Giro d'Italia cycling race. Simoni might have won a third Giro, but in 2002 he tested positive for cocaine and was withdrawn from the race by his Saeco team – he was later cleared of any doping violation by the Italian Cycling Federation. Aside from this incident in 2002 he finished on the podium in every other Giro between 1999 and 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Horner</span> American road bicycle racer

Christopher Brandon Horner is an American retired professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 1996 and 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Leipheimer</span> American cyclist

Levi Leipheimer is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He was twice US national champion, winning the time trial title in 1999 and the road race in 2007, and is an Olympic medalist. Leipheimer was born and raised in Butte, Montana and resides in Santa Rosa, California. He is the patron of the widely attended King Ridge GranFondo, a mass participation ride in Sonoma County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johan Bruyneel</span> Directeur sportif and former road bicycle racer

Johan Bruyneel is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and a former directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team RadioShack–Nissan, and U.S. Postal Service, a US-based UCI ProTour cycling team. On 25 October 2018, the World Anti Doping Agency imposed a lifetime ban on Bruyneel for his role in a doping scandal that also saw Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

The 7-Eleven Cycling Team, later the Motorola Cycling Team, was a professional cycling team founded in the U.S. in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz, a former U.S. Olympic cyclist. The team lasted 16 years, under the sponsorship of 7-Eleven through 1990 and then Motorola from 1990 through 1996. From 1989 to 1996 it rode on Eddy Merckx bikes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Vande Velde</span> American cyclist

Christian Vande Velde is a retired American professional road racing cyclist of Belgian descent, who rode professionally between 1998 and 2013. Vande Velde competed for the U.S. Postal Service, Liberty Seguros, Team CSC and Garmin–Sharp squads. He has been a cycling analyst for NBC Sports since 2014. He is the son of cyclist John Vande Velde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cervélo</span> Canadian bicycle manufacturer

Cervélo Cycles is a Canadian manufacturer of racing and track bicycles. Cervélo uses CAD, computational fluid dynamics, and wind tunnel testing at a variety of facilities including the San Diego Air and Space Technology Center, in California, US, to aid its designs. Frame materials include carbon fibre. Cervélo currently makes 5 series of bikes: the C series and R series of road bikes, the latter featuring multi-shaped, "Squoval" frame tubes; the S series of road bikes and P series of triathlon/time trial bikes, both of which feature airfoil shaped down tubes; and the T series of track bikes. In professional competition, cyclists have ridden Cervélo bicycles to victory in all three of road cycling's grand tours: the Tour de France; the Giro d'Italia; and the Vuelta a España.

Alexi Singh Grewal is an American Olympic gold medalist and former professional road racing cyclist. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Grewal became the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in road cycling. He has two brothers, Rishi and Ranjeet, who were also top American cyclists, especially in mountain bike racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Carmichael (cyclist)</span> American cyclist

Chris Carmichael is a retired professional cyclist and cycling, triathlon and endurance sports coach. He was a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team, the 7-Eleven Professional Cycling Team (1985–1987), and the Schwinn-Wheaties professional cycling team (1988–1989). He started coaching with the United States Cycling Federation in 1990, was the U.S. Men's Road Cycling team coach for the 1992 Olympic Games and the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team Head Coach for the 1996 Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryder Hesjedal</span> Canadian racing cyclist

Eric Ryder Hesjedal is a Canadian retired professional racing cyclist who competed in mountain biking and road racing between 1998 and 2016. Hesjedal won a silver medal at the 1998 Junior, 2001 Under-23, and Elite world championship in mountain biking. He turned professional with U.S. Postal Service in 2004 after several years with the Rabobank continental team. Having previously finished in fifth place at the 2010 Tour de France, Hesjedal won his first and only Grand Tour at the 2012 Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour win by a Canadian. Other major wins include two stages at the Vuelta a España, the first such stage wins by a Canadian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Luis Rubiera</span> Spanish cyclist

José Luis Rubiera Vigil is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He last rode for the UCI ProTour team Team RadioShack. Rubiera won his first professional race at the 1997 Giro d'Italia, winning stage 19. He won another stage in the 2000 Giro d'Italia and was part of three consecutive team time trial (TTT) stage wins in the Tour de France.

Martin Earley is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, who competed in the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mara Abbott</span> US professional womens bicycle racer (born 1985)

Mara Katherine Abbott is a US former professional women's bicycle racer. In 2010, Abbott became the first US cyclist ever to win the Giro d'Italia Femminile, one of the Grand Tours of women's bicycle racing. Abbott retired after the 2016 Olympic Games road race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandon McNulty</span> American cyclist

Brandon Alexander McNulty is an American cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates. In the 2016 UCI Junior World Time Trial Championships McNulty became the fourth American junior world champion after Greg LeMond, Jeff Evanshine, and Taylor Phinney, winning the time trial by 35 seconds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepp Kuss</span> American road cyclist

Sepp Kuss is an American professional cyclist from Durango, Colorado who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. A talented climber, Kuss won the 2023 Vuelta a España, the first American to do so since Chris Horner in 2013. He has also won individual stages at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

References

  1. Joe Parkin (2008). A Dog in a Hat. VeloPress.
  2. Maestas, Amy. "The Durango Telegraph". archives.durangotelegraph.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  3. "Former bike racer Bob Roll rolls into TV career with offbeat wit". The Mercury News. 8 May 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  4. "Coach Remembers When Armstrong Almost Quit". Associated Press. 2005-07-25. Archived from the original on 2006-05-23.
  5. Litsky, Frank (1999-08-01). "CYCLING; Finding His Missing Desire in the Mountains". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-06-04. Armstrong needed a training partner. When Carmichael suggested Roll, Armstrong said, "That's perfect." And when Armstrong called Roll, Roll's wife, Chiara, urged her husband to accept. "I think Bob has incredible talent and personality," she said. "He could boost anybody's morale. Bob made Lance remember all the good things about cycling."
  6. "Blog Archive » What About BOB?". MissingSaddle. 2006-05-26. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  7. Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, Chapter 5, ( ISBN   0-425-17961-3), Putnam 2000.
  8. "Bob Roll". NBC Sports Pressbox. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  9. "Bob Roll". www.cyclingarchives.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  10. "Bob Roll". FirstCycling.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  11. "Bob Roll". www.procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.