cycling fans anonymous: Controversy and confusion over Rock Racing's Tour of California team

Michael Ball, behaving in his usual train-wreck/publicity-hound fashion, held a press conference today to announce his firm intention to have his entire 8 man team (Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, Tyler Hamilton, Freddie Rodriguez, Victor Hugo Pena, Doug Ollerenshaw, Michael Creed and Mario Cipollini) at the start of the Tour of California tomorrow, despite that fact that the official ToC startlist includes only 5 names for Ball's team, leaving off the contentious three riders of Sevilla, Hamilton, and Botero. Ball claimed that he has not been told directly by race organizers that suspected Fuentes' customers Sevilla, Hamilton, and Botero cannot start, and suggested that the official startlist's abbreviated roster for his team was perhaps merely some kind of word processing or administrative error on the part of the organizers (yeah right).

To make things even stranger, officials from both the ToC and AEG were present in the audience of the wacky-sounding press conference but refused to answer questions about the actual Rock team roster or what the hell is going on. Maurice Suh, lawyer to accused dopers everywhere it seems, was at Michael Ball's side at the press conference as well. Suh, who has worked for Landis, is now also working for Rock's Kayle Leogrande in his lawsuit against USADA. Leogrande's controversial spot on the ToC roster has reportedly already been taken over by lothario ex-sprinter and accused tax-evader Cipollini, whose on-again, off-again contract to ride with Rock Racing is now on again, at least as of the past hour. (Check back next hour for the story of his sudden decision to tear up his Rock contract and return to Italy, for the millionth time.) Ex-Rock DS Frankie Andreu also was seen standing quietly in the back of the audience at the press conference, no doubt thanking his lucky stars that he is no longer required to tolerate being jerked around by Ball's totally erratic behavior and bizarre lack of understanding about the rules and ways of the cycling world.

It is unclear what will happen tomorrow at the prologue, although it certainly seems that there could be some kind of nasty and distracting showdown. If Hamilton, Sevilla, and Botero show up at the start line to race, will they be barred by organizers? Will security be called to haul them away? Will the rest of Ball's team walk off in disgust and refuse to ride? At the press conference, Ball stated that if his entire 8 man team is not allowed to race, that he might pull his whole team out of the race. However, he later seemed to contradict himself, saying that "I’m a business man. I’ll sell a ton of product. I’ll make a ton of money." This seems to imply that the potential financial benefit of having at least some of his riders showing off his fashion company's logo in the race might overcome any ideas he has about team unity and having his team either race as a full group or not at all.

I am of the opinion that Ball is probably pleased as punch to see such controversy over his riders, as it gets him the publicity that he wants. I really wonder if he cares that much whether Hamilton, Sevilla, and Botero actually get to ride, as his whole point seems to be to manufacture controversy and publicity for himself to feed his ego and assert his less-than-helpful ideas about doping in cycling. I just feel sorry for the untainted riders on his team (Creed for one) who have no doubt worked very hard to prepare themselves for their chance at the Tour of California, and now are stuck in a potentially morale-killing limbo of not knowing what will happen tomorrow or whether they will get to ride at all.

There are several articles on the press conference out there, each of which take their own slant on events: