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Rock Racing loses Hamilton and Creed
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Rock & Republic jeans
Tyler Hamilton’s announcement last Friday that he was retiring from bike racing as a result of a positive doping test was incredibly sad. Michael Creed’s acknowledgement shortly thereafter that he was fired by Rock Racing might be a sign of additional unraveling at the race team sponsored by the premium jeans maker. And rumors that two other Rock Racing riders might have been released as well add a little more smoke to the potential fire that might be the end of Rock Racing altogether.
Let’s take a look at these issues individually and then collectively to see if we can deduce whether or not the Great Recession of 2009 has put such a crimp in the business fortunes of Rock & Republic Jeans, and its flamboyant founder, Michael Ball, that its bike racing team may not be able to survive to the end of this season.
Tyler Hamilton is without a doubt a sad case. His victory at the US Pro championships last year was one of the year's top stories. But from Boy Wonder to two-time offender, his star has definitely fallen. But it’s hard to imagine even his harshest detractors pummeling him any more now that he’s bared his soul about his struggles with depression. Hamilton claims he started trying to deal with depression nearly six years ago, which would be right in the middle of his stint as America’s bicycling sweetheart. Here was a guy who finished second in the Giro in 2002 with a seriously damaged shoulder, then took us all on a magical Tour in 2003 when he finished an extremely gritty 4th while riding with a fractured collarbone courtesy of a stage one pile-up. Who can forget his breakaway win on stage 16 when he rode most of the day gritting his teeth with his eyes closed in pain? Posters of his closed-eyes visage hung from bedroom walls for months after that heroic deed.
The fact that Hamilton performed these brave endeavors while appearing to remain an aw-shucks, boy-next-door type made him all the more endearing to sports fans who get mighty tired of the “I’m the Greatest” clothing most of our athletic heroes parade around in. Depression is a physical illness, not a mental shortcoming, but it certainly can be exacerbated by emotional stress. Although he has admitted to his latest doping transgression, Hamilton still stoutly denies the homologous blood doping for which he was suspended and also dismisses the rumors that he is mixed up in the long-festering Puerto Affair. Despite his denials, it seems more likely that he was involved in what now appears to be a wide-spread flouting of cycling’s ban on performance enhancing drugs. If that was the case, trying to rationalize behavior that almost surely goes against his basic nature must have helped fuel the depression that was ravaging him through his salad days.
Hamilton’s admission last Friday that he had used a non-prescription anti-depressant that contained DHEA, a relatively benign steroid that is none-the-less banned by WADA, was coupled with his immediate retirement from cycling and the shocking admission that he had suffered from depression for much of his life. His retirement reduced Rock Racing’s roster by one rider, but another surprising announcement later in the day took the roster down by yet another rider. Mike Creed, an all-around rider for Rock, disclosed that he had been fired by the team, which cited lack of performance in its rationale for giving him the boot. Rumors from the domestic pro peloton indicate some additional Rock riders may have been fired as well, but no news source has been able to validate those rumors as of this writing. Ironically, Mike Creed had been Tyler Hamilton’s roommate at various races over the past year and Creed was interviewed by the press to get his reactions to Hamilton’s news just shortly before revealing that he was no longer with the team either.
I asked it earlier this season – is Rock Racing really here to stay? Most anecdotal evidence points to a very difficult economic environment for luxury goods makers, which is where Rock & Republic falls in the retail landscape. The Wall Street Journal recently projected a drop in sales of 10% this year for luxury goods, but some other forecasters are suggesting more dire declines than that. I haven’t been able to find any specific financial results for Rock & Republic, but if the company’s fortunes sag by 10-20% this year, it’s hard to imagine Rock & Republic continuing to fund a bike racing team. The next few weeks and months should clarify the picture. If rumors of other Rock riders being set adrift are true, it could be that the beginning of the end will converge on the end pretty quickly.
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