With the revelations of the USADA’s investigation of Lance Armstrong’s doping could there possibly be a worse time for one of the greatest American bike racers and person ever (Bob Roll) to be leading a bike racing camp with the doping Dr. Max Testa? The only thing Bob Roll has ever been on is crazy and awesomeness…and maybe some beers. When I was running a Scott regional MTB team in 96&97 I was lucky enough to provide support for Bob at the 96 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival (the same year someone else I often provided local support for, another non-doper Joe Parkin, won the race). It remains one of the highlights of my time in the bike industry. It was a 40 mile point to point race so we scoured the maps and drove our team van and personal cars at super illegal speeds through little country roads so that we could hit water/personalized food/mech stops every few miles where the trail contacted the roads. A van filled with hundreds of parts and tools topped with 7 bikes, 3 people, and another cargo filled container on top of the roof makes triple digit speeds on fire roads adult depends time. Pre race we dropped a couple of people off deep in the forest where we couldn’t get too. I know we way outdid a couple of national teams as their riders consistently asked for help. While we had a list of must have riders, we also gave out neutral support to anyone that asked, no matter what team as befitting my team/shop/race philosophy. Emeril Lagasse made us food that night (he had worked at Chequamegon on and off in the 80/90s) not in a fancy dinner display atmosphere but for a bunch of stragglers burned out from the days events. He too had a long day but he whipped us some great food that really put an end to the bleeding. Of course being planners there was still beer and wine.
