In The News: Bonds invests in women’s cycling
Former MLB slugger Barry Bonds is supporting the Twenty16 women's team directed by girlfriend Mari Holden
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Barry Bonds, avid cyclist and cycling investor — SFGate.com
Cycling is no stranger to controversial figures and the sport has welcomed another divisive personality in former Major League Baseball player Barry Bonds.
Bonds, whose girlfriend Mari Holden is an Olympic medalist, former world time trial champion, and a fixture at the major U.S. tours, where she drives VIP cars, began cycling for fitness due to a string of surgeries. Bonds retired from MLB following the 2007 season and holds the all-time home run record. The slugger was convicted of obstruction of justice in April 2011 in relation to testimony he provided during the grand jury investigation of the BALCO doping ring.
He did not serve jail time.
Bonds is investing in the Twenty16 team managed by Nicola Cranmer. Holden joined the team as a director for 2014.
“The women’s side doesn’t get the attention,” Bonds told SFGate.com‘s Ann Killion. “I thought, ‘We should be down with this, because they’re very talented.”
The Twenty16 team was formerly sponsored by Exergy, the alternative energy firm that fell short on its multi-million-dollar cycling commitments in 2012.
The 2014 roster includes seven-time track world champion Sarah Hammer, Kristin McGrath, and Kaitlin Antonneau.