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Notes from the road: The Commish, leaks and big names

By Bryan Jew, Managing Editor
Published: Nov. 7, 2003

Bill Bavasi got the job as Seattle Mariners general manager today, which means I’m writing my column for at least another week….

Speaking of hirings, Threshold Sports yesterday announced that former U.S. pro Anton Villatoro has been named commissioner of the Pro Cycling Tour. I hope his first acts as commish are to abolish the designated hitter and reinstate Pete Rose. Or at least reinstate Gord Fraser.

* * *

The big news items this week were the signings of David Clinger by Health Net and Mark McCormack and Ivan Dominguez by Colavita-Bolla. Look for Colavita to announce the signing of one more former Saturn rider in the next week or so.

Also, Sierra Nevada will soon announce its roster for next year, including the not-so-well-kept secret that Trent Klasna has signed on for next season. Team manager Kurt Stockton will bring back a core group of riders from last year’s team, but also says he’ll probably fill out the roster from the pool of currently out-of-work riders from Saturn, Prime Alliance and Schroeder Iron.

This week’s announcements from Colavita and the news out of Sierra Nevada are some positive signs that the U.S. road scene is taking shape for next year, and that some of the smaller operations are trying to take things to the next level. It may not be the greatest news for the merged Prime Alliance-Saturn organization announced last week, as the exodus of riders from those two teams continues.

At last count, these were the riders who have signed with or are close to signing with other programs: Tom Danielson (Fassa Bortolo), Ivan Dominguez (Colavita), Trent Klasna (Sierra Nevada), Phil Zajicek (Navigators), Mark McCormack (Colavita), Viktor Rapinski (Navigators) and David Clinger (Health Net), with one more Colavita signing imminent.

* * *

My vote for smartest move of the off-season so far goes to Colavita, for its release of team news at a constant trickle. Rather than waiting until its roster was totally complete, the team’s John Profaci has been proactively announcing his big signings as soon as they happen, both for the men’s and women’s teams, ensuring that the team name has gotten into the news on a semi-regular basis, and also helping to fuel some interest and speculation in the sport as a whole.

Too often teams put an embargo on information until they decide it’s time to do a "full-blown" announcement, leaving fans in the dark about how the squad is being built, and what riders might be under consideration.

If you look at other team sports in the U.S., the situation is completely opposite. NBA teams, for example, will trot about a dozen free agents through town over the summer, making sure that the media knows exactly who’s being courted. Sure, the Nuggets may not have signed Jason Kidd or Dennis Rodman this summer, but you can bet that the team was in the news plenty during the off-season.

And taking an example from baseball, I don’t think you’ll ever see Alex Rodriguez in a Yankees uniform, but the speculation about a possible trade between Texas and New York has fueled endless discussion in the media.

Hopefully, U.S. cycling teams will see the light and start to come around. After all, why would sponsors not want to see their name in the news throughout the whole month of October?

At least someone is catching on, I think. In a conversation yesterday, Jittery Joe’s manager Micah Rice told me that the team has inked a million-dollar sponsor and was close to signing Lance Armstrong.

* * *

Actually, Rice didn’t have much personnel news to report, other than that he had a core group of riders back from this year’s squad. However, he did say that he was waiting on a co-title sponsor that could allow him to make some bigger moves if it comes through.

Rice would only describe the potential co-title as a "liquor sponsor," which of course caused the VN staff to rejoice.

* * *

On a national sports talk show the other day, the conversation turned to "great sports names," with the hosts citing monikers such as Mickey Mantle, Joe Montana and Bobby Bonds as destined for greatness.

I’ve got two words for them: Lance Armstrong.

Actually, on an otherwise bleak, uneventful afternoon in Boulder, it was an interesting diversion to think about some of the names in American cycling. I’ll throw a few out.

The good? Trent Klasna. Jesse Lawler. Jonas Carney. Austin King. Colby Pearce.

The not-so-good? Burke Swindlehurst. Tim Johnson. John Peters. Dan Schmatz. Jacob Erker.

Please send you comments or angry e-mails to VN.com.