Rocking Racing, Sans MB

Wowzers, it's been awhile since posting and amusingly enough, I can do back-to-back jeans guy/cycling team posts. The last one was here.

The denim fashionista (should we coin fashionisto for a guy?) claims not to be back in the cycling racing biz, but his Rock Racing brand exists right now on the amateur level in Italy. He dropped his team when his Rock & Republic went bankrupt early last year. However, Cycling News reported today, "...last week Italian businessman Roberto Tronconi told Cyclingnews that he was set to relaunch the brand in Europe after long negotiations with Rock Racing founder Michael Ball."

MB though says he's not involved, "...not supporting it or anything. I know that they’re out there racing in the colours though. So I’m not coming back and I’m not going to be in the ProTour any time soon."

The amateur incarnation presently has no name professions, just a former big cycling team name.

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Tags: Mike Ball, Rock Racing, cycling

Whirring and Wired

Shame on me note: Oops, I haven't been updating this blog. I promise to do better. Now that many posts are likely outdated, that relieves me of the sense I have to index it. Search at top if you want to find things.

Today, it's back to the jeans magnate/cycling sponsor Michael Ball. See previous post here.

News now is that disgraced Tour de France cyclist Floyd Landis used hidden audio and video recording equipment for a sting on this MB at his California home. Finally fessing up to doping after adamantly swearing on the honor of his Amish parents that he never, ever did or would, he seemed to caved to the feds' pressures.

As Yahoo and other sports news report, Landis' hidden camera recorded the contents of MB's apartment fridge — with what appears to be human growth hormones and other forbidden baddies. Landis has been after seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, who was never on MB's Rock Racing team. However, in one degree of separation, other Armstrong teammates like Tyler Hamilton had been.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set up the surveillance. Subsequently, MB's place was raided.

There haven't been any charges so far. However, MB's Rock and Republic company went bankrupt and Rock Racing is inactive. The drug investigation seems to be tangential to an effort to go after Armstrong.

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Tags: Mike Ball, Rock Racing, cycling, Landis, Armstrong

Generics Hit the Racks

The jeans deity Michael Ball (here and here) was the lead example in a fashion piece in the Financial Times. Creative director and founder of Rock and Republic, he has applied what he considers the concept behind 1970s supermarket trends to his clothing.

Emulating generic packaging from over 30 years ago, his company has a Plain Wrap line. It starts at a super-bargain for him, at $35. The tops and bottoms have large-type labels saying exactly what they are, as shown in a grab from the RandR site.

His new line sells alongside the pricey designer ones.

This MB said thinking of packages marked just CHIPS or DOG FOOD, "I thought it would be fun to do the same thing with clothes."

A couple of other designers have followed suit, if you pardon, this season.

The Rotterdam Version

Michel Ball in Amsterdam sent an electronic greeting. He was pleasant, following his links to his many websites, I see that he included a correction. A four year old post had a bad link to his paintings, which I have corrected.

Meanwhile, see his amazing set of sites here.

Serious About Cycling

All last year, jeans god Mike Ball's pro cycling team raced here and there around the world. His Rock Racing has hired the likes of Santiago Botero and Tyler Hamilton.

Apparently, this Mike believes you can't be too colorful or confident personally or professionally. He is not shy and his team shows up in a fleet of Cadillac Escalades. See the Darrell Parks' pic Mike Ball & his girls for a hint.

The team had an okay first year, with a real busy sked.

If you can't make it to England, Spain, Boulder or Colombia to watch, you can consider some amazing jerseys and cycling accessories.

By the bye, this seems to be the only team that intends to avoid any doping allegations. It has its own internal testing that runs through Scott Analytics.

Yet, wait...

In the more stereotypical world of pro sports comes a tale of spite and anger. Rider Braden Cooke is ready to sue the team and owner Mike, according to a piece in Cycling News. The boss says he'll only pay another six months out of pocket and they have to get sponsors to go beyond that. TBD

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Tags: Mike Ball, Rock Racing, cycling

Mike the Swapper

Arrrr. Damn. I can't use my airline points before the deadline. I'll lose 'em.

A Mike Ball is part of the solution for that. At LoyaltyMatch, they take a couple of bucks from the transaction to swap such airline and other corporate rewards points for goods or cash.

This is another Canadian MB, based in Waterloo, Ontario. The prez and founder, Brad Ball, may well be a brother.

Mike is CTO and chief architect. His online profile reads:

Mike has over 22 years experience building and leading high technology development companies. Mike was one of the architects of Bell Sympatico and Advantage Business Internet Solutions, served as VP Technology for SpiderTop Rich Media Internet Corporation, and is an accomplished game developer and author. He is a computer science graduate of Confederation College and a member of OACETT.

His pic is jolly and makes him look like he stepped off the dance floor.

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Tags: Mike Ball, LoyaltyMatch, Mike Ball, waterloo

Ball and Chain Still Stomping

What they lack in subtlety they have in enthusiasm. The leads of Ball and Chain, Michael Ball and Jody Benjamin (shown from a 2003 CD release) have Cajun-ized their Ottawa community and beyond.

After not getting around to writing up a promised review of their live at the bayou CD, I rechecked them. Their main website has been static for two years, including tour dates. I figured I had totally missed my chance.

No so.

They seem to have left that old site in favor of the trendier MySpace version. That has four full tunes to hear, but not download.

The CD Baby sales site for live at the bayou and for Trouble All The Time have multiple short, incomplete clips.

Like Cajun and zydeco or not, you have to admit that these are folk who have terrific fun with their music. They've made a living of it up where there are no bayous and where Cajuns were a forced export from the Atlantic end of the country a long time ago.

As most reviewers already note, there's a lot of Hank Williams in Benjamin's twangy renditions. Ball comes on mostly with the hyperactive fiddle. This is much more my wife's style of music than mine, but I could do an evening at a club with them on stage quite happily. Moreover, Williams was hard to look at and I rather doubt he ever wore a skirt with flounces, much less twirled it while he sang.

By the bye, Ball and Chain has four shows coming up in Ottawa in the early part of 2009.

Saddle to Jeans

Jeans god Michael Ball made the Financial Times this weekend. The Pedal Power piece on bicycles as the new fashion accessory reports that he's gone beyond serge de Nîmes.

The CEO of Rock and Republic is a cycling freak. As his company's site puts it:

Recognizing that Michael needed structure, his mother got him involved in sports. It proved to be the perfect place for him to channel his rebellious. Cycling became his sport of choice, and the key to adding structure, focus and direction to his life.

Cycling taught Michael team skills and the rewards of competition. But it was the bright colors and bold graphics of the team's uniforms that inspired his sense of design...

The FT notes that this Michael Ball, "...began his professional life on a bike. A track cyclist for years prior to starting his jeans line, Ball has also launched a racing team, Rock Racing. It includes two Olympic gold medalists, three Tour de France stage winners, and Oscar Sevilla Rivera, possibly the best young rider in the current Tour. Cyclists' clothing is also available via its website. 'The Rock Racing line is designed with a fashion eye, so that you're grabbed by the cyclist when he goes by,' says Ball of the range. 'It's a bit flamboyant, but also aerodynamic.'"