THE QUOTABLE BOB ROLL: A RANDOM COLLECTION OF THOUGHTS
Chasing some pearls from RBA's favorite philosopher king
THE BEAUTY OF JENS VOIGT
“I can’t have an opinion on the stage today without mentioning Jens Voigt. There simply aren’t any words to describe the effort he put in today. After crashing twice, the second one hard enough to take any sane person out of the race, he ended up back in front pulling the peloton up the hill. Jensy represents the last of the East German riders who always had a totally different mentality than all the other riders. Suffering at the front of the Tour de France is just so much better than what his life could’ve been. No matter how hard the race gets for them, they never think it’s unfair. Heck, when I was racing I thought everything that went on was unfair!” July 17, 2011
CAVENDISH
“As for Cavendish and the race, he was beautiful today and he had the ultimate lead-out with George & Renshaw. Like I said on the broadcast, Cavendish and the sprinters are such the perfect art form that they make the Venus de Milo look like a sack of potatoes.” July 15. 2009
LOVING THE FRENCH
The French riders are coddled, weak and soft….they’ve had every advantage handed to them. Cycling doesn’t, in fact it shouldn’t, reward the ideal of privilege and yet they’ve been handed it all because the race is so big and there are always big French companies looking to sponsor French riders. They don’t know how to struggle…having contempt for their system and what it produces is not racism. If you don’t have just a little bit of disdain for French people, you don’t love freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At best the French do one thing really good, they make good wine, although to do that they just have to stand there and stare at the grapes. It’s perfect, they don’t have to do anything but sit back and let yeast do all the work! July 15, 2009
RAIN & THE PILGRIMS
One hallmark of the true working man is they he can’t stop for the rain and for the first three stages of the Tour you could feel the suffering of the peloton as they pedaled through the cold, wet weather. But today the sun finally came out and you could feel that the gods must still have a little bit of love for the two-wheeled pilgrims.” July 9, 2008
THE CLASH & THE CLAMPDOWN
“Ah, that’s easy…everyday here (at the Tour) it’s about working for the clampdown. Without the Clash it’s not even remotely worth it. The zeal that they had is what defines the TdF. The Clash were freedom fighters and that’s what they spoke to The Clampdown…you have to unshackle yourself from the chains of the peloton and move forward if you want to live life and enjoy the win.” July 18, 2009
THE GREATNESS OF LE TOUR
“This is my motto from the Tour: If you’re authentic, the efforts are worthwhile. How many times do we have to see these riders dig so deep and ride through pain and mishap for the chance to attain some eternal glory?
“The randomness of the open road is always capable of knocking out any advantage a rider has in a blink of an eye and as an announcer, and a fan, that’s what keeps me on the edge of my seat year after year. When the Tour delivers like it did today it gives hope to humanity and there aren’t many places in the world where you can find that.
“Despite how ancient, inexplicable and absolutely bizarre as cycling is, cycling and the Tour de France will live on and how lucky are we to be part of it? ” July 25, 2014
PETER SAGAN AS BELA LUGOSI
“It’s not easy to win a stage in the Tour de France if you only have four guys left on your team. And of course, Peter Sagan did it again with another fantastic performance. That guy is like Bela Lugosi – no matter what happens, he never dies.” July 7, 2012
THE REST DAY
“I plan to sleep in, wake-up , then take nap. After that I’ll have a little lunch with a glass of wine and then take another much deserved nap.”
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