Hamilton still on his bike, says doping troubles in the past
The Associated Press
Monday, April 21, 2008
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga.: One by one, the competitors in this week's Tour de Georgia were announced at the race's kickoff gala, all to a smattering of applause, some ovations longer than others.
No one drew a warmer response than Tyler Hamilton.
Even after a two-year suspension, an ultimately futile legal battle and the unshakable stigma of being labeled a cheater, these five words "Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton" still can elicit a raucous reception, even from people who'll never really know the full tale of Hamilton, the 2004 Olympic time trial winner.
Depending on perspective, Hamilton is either a villain or a victim in cycling's doping scandal.
But at 37, he doesn't care about perception. He's reinventing himself with Rock Racing, one of the top teams that will start the weeklong stage race Monday.
"I'll never forget what happened to me. I'll never be through it," Hamilton said Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press. "You can't forget something like that. It's behind me. I don't dwell on it like I used to. I'm done stating my case. I'm done trying to change the doubters. I'm moving forward."
After years of being in the shadows of American cycling especially Lance Armstrong, a seven-time winner of the Tour de France Hamilton finally got his moment to shine on a gorgeous, sunny day along the Saronic Gulf a few miles outside Athens.
Gold medal winner, 2004 Olympic time trial. The kid whose Olympic dreams were hatched while watching the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team and skiers such as Bill Johnson and the Mahre brothers finally had his moment. He was immortal, never to be forgotten, a champion.
"Highlight of my career," Hamilton said.
The bliss lasted about two weeks.
Hamilton tested positive for blood doping at the Olympics. But his backup sample deteriorated and couldn't be tested, meaning he kept the gold medal on what amounted to a technicality. He tested positive again for blood doping in September 2004 at the Spanish Vuelta, and that time, he couldn't escape a two-year suspension.
Hamilton swore innocence. Some believed him, some didn't.
In the end, he did his time, and returned to stage racing last year at the Tour de Georgia.
"We welcomed Tyler back to the tour last year and we welcome him back this year," event director Chris Aronhalt said Sunday. "Honestly, we're thrilled to have him at the start line. Tyler is still a very popular rider."
Yet trouble still has a way of finding him.
He raced last year with a team called Tinkoff, which signed Hamilton with little reservation at the end of his suspension. One problem: Hamilton says the Russian team owner hasn't paid him what he's owed, so they're now battling in an Italian court.
That fight was going to be Hamilton's last.
"I retired last September," Hamilton said. "I didn't announce it. No one knew it, really. But I retired. I was done."
Three months later, the phone rang.
Michael Ball was on the other end. Ball is best known for his work in the fashion world. He's also an avid cyclist, a lightning rod in the sport, and was trying to assemble what he called a dream team of sorts.
Hamilton listened to his sales pitch. Two weeks later, he signed a contract.
"To say that Tyler's career is finished, that's far from the truth," Ball said. "I just met with him recently and he is looking amazing. He hasn't raced since last year, this particular race, and he's trained extremely hard over the last three months, four months, and he's going to surprise us."
Hamilton won't win the Tour de Georgia this week. His role in Rock Racing's lineup right now is to be a support rider of sorts, which since he still isn't exactly race-sharp after his exile is fine with him.
"There's no ego at all on this team, period," Ball said. "Everybody's in there for a team win."
There's no shortage of teams who'll challenge for top honors at the Tour de Georgia, which is likely the top stage race in the country.
Astana snubbed by the Tour de France is in the field and led by reigning U.S. champion Levi Leipheimer. Team High Road, led by George Hincapie, likely will be at the front throughout the week. Slipstream Chipotle, led by Christian VandeVelde and Tom Danielson, is another pre-race favorite, as is Team CSC, featuring 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Bobby Julich.
But plenty of buzz has centered around Rock Racing, especially Hamilton, who made peace long ago with the fact that skeptics will never believe his pleas of innocence.
"People ask me today, if you had to do it all over again, would you do the Kangaroo Court all over again? And I say, 'Absolutely,'" Hamilton said. "I know what was right. I had to fight for what's right. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't have any integrity. And I know that I have integrity. This is the best sport in the world, the toughest sport, and I'm glad to still be part of it."
Given the reception he got in Georgia this weekend, there's clearly some people glad he is as well.
McQuaid: Teams are signing away their rights
By Agence France Presse
Posted Feb. 28, 2008
McQuaid says ASO imposes unfair requirements. The Union Cycliste Internationale has warned teams aiming to take part in races run by the powerful race organizer ASO that “unjust” conditions in the company's contract completely eliminate fundamental rights.
ASO runs a number of top events including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, the week-long stage race which has become the latest bone of contention in the ongoing feud between the UCI and powerful race organizers.
Following the recent departure of ASO, and fellow organizers RCS (Giro d’Italia) and Unipublic (Vuelta a España) from the UCI's Pro Tour series, ASO announced that Paris-Nice would be held under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation (FFC). Fuel was added to the fire earlier this week when UCI chief Pat McQuaid asked all teams to boycott the race under threat of possible sanctions. That call that was rejected Wednesday by the president of their representative body, Eric Boyer, who said the International Association of Professional Cycling Teams (AIGCP) had taken a "purely sporting decision." "The AIGCP came to this decision purely in the interests of the riders and the team sponsors,” Boyer said Wednesday, noting that the “AIGCP has informed Pat McQuaid of its decision." Now, the week-long “Race to the Sun,” which gives a good indication of who could be on-form for the more important races in the season, will go ahead as a non UCI-sanctioned event. The UCI believes however that ASO could abuse its power by making “unfair” demands on teams intending to compete, and has sent a letter - obtained by AFP - to each team warning them of the conditions set out in ASO's contract.
One of the stipulations set down by ASO is for teams to "immediately pull out of the race any rider or staff member whose presence could damage the reputation of the event, or the organizer." That move is in direct response to the numerous doping scandals which have marred the Tour de France, including last year's edition when riders from Astana, T-Mobile, Cofidis and Rabobank further discredited the event. McQuaid warned in his letter to the teams that it was wrong for ASO to determine unilaterally the reasons to expel individuals from its races.
"I would like to impress on you the following. The signing of this contract would mean that your team would put itself completely outside the UCI,” McQuaid wrote. "By signing the contract you would be joining a private circuit controlled entirely by ASO for the benefit of its commercial interests.
"You would be abandoning the protection afforded by rules of the UCI which are designed to give teams and riders rights and not simply protect the interests of organizers." McQuaid also hit out at a "completely one-sided contract in favor of ASO,” and said it was devoid of any provisions giving riders the rights to a presumption of innocence in the event of doping suspicion. "ASO would be able to exclude any rider or even an entire team simply as a result of a mere rumor of doping (article 2.2 and 3.2): the contract provides for no form of appeal to a neutral body in contrast to the UCI's rules which provide for appeal to president of the college of commissaries, the president of the CUPT, the Road Commission or CAS. "You would be denied this fundamental right of redress," McQuaid said. [WM: Edit; Hmmmmmm.]
Rock Racing's Ball stirs up conservative cycling world
By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY
Michael Ball, owner of upstart Team Rock Racing, arrived at Sunday's start of the Tour of California in a black chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce Phantom with a Day-Glo green skull logo painted on the side. An entourage of a Cadillac Escalade and a team bus decorated with more green skulls accompanied Ball with the thumps of hard rock music.
Last week race organizers barred three Rock Racing riders from competing because of their alleged involvement in a Spanish doping scandal. While Ball's antics on and off the race course have riled the cycling establishment, fans have embraced the team. "Bike races are usually really nerdy," says Mindy Lim, 23, of Cupertino, Calif. "This is more like a rock concert."
Ball, 44, is a former racer who excelled in the rough-and-tumble world of street criteriums and track racing. Former Mercury team director and pro racer John Wordin remembers Ball as "tough and tenacious." A Mexican-American kid from Los Angeles, Ball says "cycling saved my life." He took his racing attitude to the competitive fashion world with his company Rock & Republic, known for its designer jeans. "I thought fashion was mean and political," says, "But pro cycling is even tougher."
Unlike most teams, which depend on sponsor money to fund their programs, Rock Racing sells team gear at races and online. In the team's second year of competition, Ball expects to bring in $1 million from sales at the Tour of California. Rock Racing, a UCI continental team, isn't expected to contend with the top Pro Tour teams. Rock Racing has five riders in the field, three fewer than the standard team roster.
Ball supports a strong riders' union and has embraced riders he believes have been treated unfairly by anti-doping agencies, such as Americans Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis.
Hamilton, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in road racing, recently completed a two-year suspension for doping. Hamilton, Santiago Botero and Oscar Sevilla were not allowed to start because the race's new rules say any rider with an "open file" for doping will be barred from competing.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity," says Hamilton, who was out signing autographs at Sunday's prologue. "We really want to win for him."
Ball says, "We have a moment right now to change this sport. If it means giving these guys amnesty, do it. Stop digging up graves. This sport is going to wither on the vine and die if this continues."
Bob Stapleton, owner of Team High Road, says Ball makes good points. "I just think he could go about it in a better manner."
AEG responds to Rock Racing
By Kirsten Robbins in California, USA for cyclingnews.com
In the Saturday afternoon Tour of California press conference AEG Sports president Andrew Messick confirmed that three Rock Racing riders, Santiago Botero, Tyler Hamilton and Oscar Sevilla would not race. "I have a high regard for Michael Ball," said AEG Sports President, Andrew Messick. "He's passionate about cycling, he believes that underdogs deserve a second chance, and I think all of those are enormously admirable. Our issue is that for us to have a race that is credible and fair, and that generates the respect of the organisations around the world – there has to be better a set of rules that are unambiguous and everyone has to live by them ... We are not prepared to make exceptions on the basis of deals. We have an obligation to all the other athletes and teams that have chosen to abide by the rules, and an obligation to the sport. The team is still permitted to start five riders and we would love to have them."
In response to Messick being asked if the possibility remained that Rock Racing would be permitted to start the eight riders, his answer was that "the only riders who will be aloud to start are the riders who are officially on the roster," said Messick regarding the exclusion of the other three riders. "There is a process by which the riders were put on the roster. ... We bent quite a number of rules over the last thirty-six hours to allow the inclusion of Mario Cipollini on the roster, and he is on the roster. As of today, Rock Racing has five riders on its roster, and so five riders will be allowed start.
"Ball and I went for a bike ride this morning and we spent forty-five minutes talking about various issues related to cycling, and while we have an enormous amount in common with respect to our passion for the sport, our hopes for the sport and what we think is required to put the recent past behind us, I think its fair to say that we differ on a number of issues," continued Messick. "I should say that the specific nature of our disagreements is going to stay between Michael and me."
Messick's decision to not start the three riders was based on an agreement between AEG Sports and the 17 teams competing in the event that any rider involved in an 'open' investigation would not be permitted to start the Tour of California. The three Rock Racing riders were recognised by the UCI to have been implicated in Operación Puerto and thus AEG Sports made the final decision to not allow them to start the event.
Although Ball received letters from the riders' national federations of Colombia, USA and Spain confirming that the three riders were not involved in any open investigations, Messick clarified by stating the UCI's direct confirmation [WM Edit: The UCI has no investigative power, which makes this rule all the more perplexing.]was enough to exclude the riders from starting. "The letters are irrelevant, and whether the athlete is eligible to race in UCI races has no bearing on what all seventeen teams agreed to about the eligibility of riders for this race. Every team agreed that no riders who were under an open investigation would participate; it's different from UCI eligibility. Every team agreed the UCI and USA Cycling would tell us about any riders who are currently under investigation and that is the criterion and the basis – that's the rule."
Three members of Rock Racing won't compete
By Diane Pucin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 17, 2008
Michael Ball, the owner of cycling team Rock Racing, decided not to register Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero and Oscar Sevilla in the Amgen Tour of California, which begins today in Palo Alto.
Ball had hinted Saturday morning that he would either compete with the eight-man team of his choosing or not race at all after the three riders were not approved for entry. All three have been linked to a Spanish doping investigation. AEG, which owns the Tour of California, had said all 17 teams registered for the race signed a contract agreeing they would not permit any rider not approved by UCI, the international cycling federation, in the race.
Saturday night Ball released a statement saying, "This is not a decision governed by the agreement. There is no open investigation. AEG is acting irrationally to the detriment of the sport." But Ball also said Rock Racing would compete with the reduced five-man roster.
Andrew Messick, AEG's director of sports, said: "We are disappointed in Rock Racing's disingenuous statements regarding the composition and eligibility of their team in our race. We have communicated our rules to Rock Racing, and the other 16 participating teams, in plain language. Rock Racing, like the other teams, agreed to the rules of our race."
At a team news conference Saturday morning in Palo Alto, Ball had been more defiant, saying he was determined that Hamilton, Botero and Sevilla would race. "I'm steadfast in my guys riding," Ball said. "I'm in a position to give these guys who may or may not have made a mistake a second chance."
But during registration later in the day, Rock Racing did not enter the rejected riders. One of five Rock Racing entries is former world champion Mario Cipollini, 40, who had been retired for the past two years. Ball had said he hoped the absence of the three riders from the start list was just an "administrative glitch." Rock Racing is a new founding sponsor of the three-year-old race. Messick insisted the three would not start. "We went to great lengths with Michael to explain the process," Messick said. "They have five riders who are on the roster and eligible. We won't allow anyone to start who isn't on that roster."
Ball argued that cycling, plagued by doping scandals for two years, needed a fresh start. "We have a moment right now to change this sport," Ball said. "If it means giving these guys amnesty, do it. This sport is going to wither on a vine and die if this continues."
This year's third edition of the 650-mile race begins today with a two-mile prologue at Stanford and finishes next Sunday with a circuit race around the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. CSC, led by Fabian Cancellara, the defending world time trial champion, and Astana, anchored by defending Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer, are favored to win the team title. CSC will also feature last year's third-place finisher, Jason McCartney, and veteran Bobby Julich, who finished fourth last year. George Hincapie, a former Tour de France stage winner, is the most recognizable name for Team High Road. The Belgian team Quick Step brings two-time world champion Paolo Bettini and top sprinter Tom Boonen. The Slipstream-Chipotle team also has two strong time trial riders in David Millar and David Zabriskie.
'Rock' racers won't force way into Tour of California
By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY
February 16, 2008
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The party hasn't even started at the Amgen Tour of California and the host is having problems with some unruly guests.
Team Rock Racing was told Thursday that three of its riders — American Tyler Hamilton, Colombian Santiago Botero and Spaniard Oscar Sevilla — would not be allowed into the eight-day road cycling race because the UCI international cycling federation determined the three were under investigation for doping. New rules for the California race say that any rider with an "open file" for doping would be barred.
Michael Ball, the combatative owner of Rock Racing and fashion jeans entrepreneur, defiantly declared Saturday morning that his team's riders will compete in Sunday's opening prologue time trial, insisting that all of his cyclists had been cleared to race by their respective national federations.
"I'm steadfast in my guys riding," Ball said at a press conference. "I'm in a position to give these guys who may or may not have made a mistake a second chance. They're willing to step up for a second chance and I'm willing to give them that chance." But after a team meeting Saturday night, all three riders said they would rather sit out the race than disrupt the prologue.
"They'll still be on the team and they'll be out signing posters for the fans," Ball told USA TODAY. "There were some of our riders who said, 'If they can't race, we won't race,' but the three guys wanted to see the team out on the course."
When told of Rock Racing's decision, Andrew Messick, president of race organizer AEG Sports, told USA TODAY, "I have not heard from Michael Ball but, if this is true, we are pleased to have Rock Racing competing in the Amgen Tour of California and are heartened that Rock Racing will follow the rules that have been established for the race. It's finally time for the best field of cyclists ever assembled for a race in the United States to mount up and show the world how beautiful the sport of cycling can be. California, here we come!"
Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini will be added to the team's roster for Sunday's prologue. Cipollini, famous throughout his cycling career for his outrageous skin-tight racing outfits, will wear the team's distinctive black and neon-green uniform that features multiple images of a stylized Death's Head skull.
Because the "open file" rule applied only to the Tour of California, Hamilton, Sevilla and Botero will be eligible to participate in other races.
Hamilton, winner of the Olympic road racing gold medal in 2004, served a two-year suspension for blood doping at the 2004 Tour of Spain. All three riders have been linked in media reports to the recently revived Operation Puerto doping investigation in Spain, but none have been charged.
Ball says he'll contunue to press for a strong riders' union to protect cyclists from unfair treatment at the hands of "hypocritical and corrupt" anti-doping agencies.
"It's good for business," Ball says. "With a union comes security. That means athletes who make mistakes aren't outed and the investors and sponsors aren't out. Control for the sport has to come from a rider's union and in each team organization. That's how it is in other pro sports. Our experience this weekend has only made us stronger."
Rock Racing Owner Michael Ball Sounds Off on Exclusion of Select Riders from Tour of California
Bicycle.net, By briggs
February 16th, 2008
Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball called a press conference at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto today to discuss, according to a team spokesman, “the Rock racing team for 2008, some of the anti-doping policies and integrity of Rock Racing, the changes needed in the sport today, specifically the need for a rider’s union and rider’s rights, a new business model for cycling and finally, what Rock Racing is doing with the ‘Rock the Cure’ (program) in terms of giving back to the community, and finally the responsibility we all have to change the face of cycling.”
Ball, clad in the neon green and black team Rock Racing kit, took a seat at the front of the filled room with a sheet of notes and a clip-on microphone. He started with saying “each of the athletes on the team make me proud, first and foremost, and are just really great guys.”
Things moved quickly as he first introduced the team for the upcoming Tour of California. According to Ball, the team will be comprised of Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, Tyler Hamilton, Freddie Rodriguez, Victor Hugo Pena, Doug Ollerenshaw, Michael Creed and Mario Cipollini. Mariano Fredricks will direct the team, and Ball thanked “one of the individuals in this room for stepping aside and moving on to whatever he does in the future, thank you.” The “certain individual in attendance” was none other than Frankie Andreu, the former team director of the Rock team who resigned suddenly before the beginning of the 2008 season. Andreu listened passively toward the back of the room, his face remaining void of emotion, as Ball spoke.
Ball then went on to address the anti-doping policies of the Rock team. Using the term “first and foremost” again, a clearly agitated Ball expressed that “the individual’s rights are where I stand. There are no pending doping cases by the UCI or any other respective federation against any, and I mean any, of our riders in this Tour.”
With a heavy sigh, he continued. “A union needs to be formed.” And in what would be a common theme for the rest of the conference, he clarified, “I don’t want to get into specifics, but with a union, comes security. Meaning, that athletes that cross the line, that may make some bad decisions, aren’t outed. The issue is to control the sport from within, not from the outside. That’s how it should be done, it’s good for business.”
Addressing doping in the peloton, he stated “If an individual crosses the line, they are sanctioned, they are suspended, there is jeopardy in terms of crossing that line, but again, do it from within, period. The past, for me, is the past. It’s time for this sport to move forward. You’re innocent until proven guilty. It’s time to make a difference in this sport, period.” After a sigh-filled commentary about “unjust behavior of governing bodies and individuals,” the forum was opened up for questions from the media.
Hungering for some concrete answers, members of the press immediately addressed the issue of only six riders, Hamilton, Sevilla, Cipollini and Botero not among those listed, being named on the official Tour of California race roster. Non-plussed, Ball denied any contact from Amgen, the title sponsor. “You’d have to ask them at this point. I’m steadfast in my guys riding.” After again naming the roster, the topic moved to whether Ball will bring rider’s not listed on the official roster to the prologue start line on Sunday. Realizing his position, Ball said, “That’s a tough question. They’re speaking to me personally then . . . it will be a tough decision, I can’t say right now. It will be a very tough next 24 hours, very tough.” Pressed on the subject after the official conference, Ball would say only “We ride as a team. We ride together or we don’t,” suggesting that if any of his riders are not allowed to start that he’ll pull the entire Rock Racing team.
In what should make for a dramatic opening day to the 2008 Tour of California, Ball may be left with no choice but to choose between some of his riders competing in the TOC, or voluntarily pulling them all out and allowing none of them to ride. But at the end of the day, Ball said it himself. “I’m a business man. I’ll sell a ton of product. I’ll make a ton of money. And I’ll treat this as a lesson.” Good or bad, the Rock Racing team is front and center at the Tour of California before a single kilometer has been ridden.
In Uncertain Climate, Only Certainty Is Drug Testing
By EDWARD WYATT for the New York Times
February 16, 2008
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Professional cycling is beginning its new season about where it finished the last one, with the consequences of the use of performance-enhancing drugs casting a broad shadow over the sport.
When the Tour of California gets under way Sunday, it will feature a defending champion, Levi Leipheimer, whose Astana team was told last week that it would not be welcome at the Tour de France this year — despite having the winner and the third-place finisher from last year’s race — because of past doping problems involving riders who are no longer team members.
Another team, High Road, is making its debut without a title sponsor. Its longtime sponsor, T-Mobile, ended its support last year after one of the team’s riders failed a drug test before the Tour de France. That result came despite a heralded antidoping regimen instituted by the team’s manager.
And a third team scheduled to be one of the 17 squads at the starting line, Rock Racing, as of Friday had only five riders on its roster, instead of the expected eight. Three riders were dropped last week; all are formerly prominent cyclists, including the American Tyler Hamilton, who have been implicated in previous doping investigations.
“It’s an environment of tremendous uncertainty now,” Bob Stapleton, the manager of the High Road team, said Friday. “This is an important year for the sport, and I think everybody is trying to find solutions” to keep doping out of the headlines.
In the first two years of the event, the Tour of California has not had a rider fail a drug test, and this year the organizers instituted what they said is one of the strictest antidoping regimes of any major race. Each of the 136 expected riders will provide blood samples before the race, which will become part of a permanent physiological record that cyclists will be required to maintain beginning this season.
In addition, 30 percent of the riders will have urine samples tested before the start for an array of illegal drugs. Each day during the eight-day, 650-mile race, the stage winner, overall race leader and six others will be tested for steroids, hormones, stimulants and masking agents — double the usual amount of daily testing at big races.
“We want to be sure that this race is clean and fair and that the best riders will win,” Andrew Messick, the president of AEG Sports, which organizes the race, said last month.
This year’s field is probably the strongest in the race’s short history, featuring six current national time-trial champions — representing Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Britain and the United States — and the national road champions of Germany, Britain and the United States.
Leipheimer, the American road champion, won the California tour last year. He led from the opening prologue to the final day, winning by 26 seconds over Jens Voigt, a German racing for CSC.
Leipheimer is expected to be a prime contender again, though the prologue — a flat, 2.1-mile time trial around the Stanford campus — is less likely to suit his style than did the short climb that served as last year’s opener.
After the prologue, daily stages will wind from Sausalito through the Sonoma wine country and the central California valley, then cross the toughest mountain on the route, the 4,360-foot Mount Hamilton, in what could be a decisive third stage Wednesday.
The race then travels down the Pacific coast to San Luis Obispo before a 15-mile time trial Friday in Solvang. After traveling inland, the race ends next Sunday with a big climb, over the 4,906-foot Millcreek Summit, and several circuits around the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The race has also taken on added importance for Leipheimer and Astana after they were excluded from two of the year’s three major tours, in Italy and France. (Alberto Contador, the Astana rider who won the Tour de France for Discovery Channel last year, is not here.)
Astana replaced nearly its entire management structure after it was forced out of the Tour de France last year because its top rider, Alexander Vinokourov, failed a doping test. Johan Bruyneel, the former manager of the Discovery team who took over Astana, said the team would refocus away from the big tours.
“We are now going to look for other goals,” he said in a telephone interview last week. “We have a strong team, and there are other races where we’re wanted and where we will want to win” — if only to prove that the organizers of the Tour de France made a mistake by leaving Astana out.
George Hincapie, a former Discovery rider who is racing for High Road, said he thinks the team will have a great deal of motivation to ride for the victory, because the team is new and because of the doubts engendered by the withdrawal of T-Mobile.
High Road, the only team in cycling’s top rank with headquarters in the United States, was told initially that it would not be included in the Tour of Italy. But on Friday the company that organizes the Italian tour extended an invitation, provided that the team does not have any doping violations before the May race.
Rock Racing, a relatively new team that races only in United States events, had been expected to field one of the more visible, if not strongest, teams in California.
Founded by Michael Ball, the owner of the Rock & Republic fashion company, the team signed, Hamilton, Santiago Botero and Óscar Sevilla. Hamilton served a two-year suspension for blood doping, and Botero and Sevilla have been implicated in the Operation Puerto doping investigation in Spain.
“When I put this team together, I wanted guys who were not getting a fair shake, who weren’t getting an opportunity,” Ball said.
Although those three riders were included in Rock Racing’s preliminary start list, they were absent when the final roster was released Thursday. Ball was scheduled to address the issue at a news conference on Saturday, as well as talk that Mario Cipollini, the Italian sprinter who has not raced in more than two years, may be joining the team.
Last year’s second- through fifth-place finishers at the Tour of California are riding for the CSC team, and another CSC rider, the Argentine sprinter J. J. Haedo, won two stages at last year’s race. That probably makes CSC the team to beat.
“We will have to see which card we are going to play,” Bjarne Riis, the CSC manager, said last week at the team’s training camp in Agoura Hills, Calif. “This is a team that wants to have the victory.”
Italy's Cipollini ends retirement
By Elliott Almond, Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/16/2008 01:39:44 AM PST
The Amgen Tour of California just got more interesting.
Mario Cipollini, the legendary Italian cyclist once known as "Super Mario," is ending a two-year retirement to compete for Rock Racing, the Mercury News learned Friday night. Cipollini, 40, will start the 2.1-mile prologue time trial Sunday in Palo Alto. The flamboyant Italian was the consummate sprinter during a 16-year career that ended in 2005. He won more than 40 stages at the Giro d'Italia, and multiple stages at the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana. A Rock Racing official confirmed the move.
The addition of Cipollini adds spice to the 650-mile race at a time Rock Racing is at the center of a drug controversy. Three of the team's biggest stars - Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero - have been banned from the Tour because of their connections to a Spanish investigation into performance-enhancing drugs and cycling. But none of the athletes has been indicted and team spokeswoman Melinda Treavis said Friday night that as far as Rock Racing was concerned, "they are in the race. They are going to line up until someone tells us they can't."
Rock Racing takes the rebels' view
Rock Racing, entered in Tour of California, wants to save the sport by ending what it views as the persecution of cyclists.
By Diane Pucin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 16, 2008
Michael Ball, seller of blue jeans, renter of two Malibu mansions and employer of a chef from Spago, is founder and owner of Rock Racing, a new-age cycling team filled with twitchy, tattooed rebel riders who are shaking their fists at the autocratic leadership of a sport Ball feels is destroying itself by a doping witch hunt.
Ball also says with exclamatory profanities that Rock Racing will be the savior of cycling.
Michael Ball, CEO and Creative Director of Rock & Republic
As the third edition of the Amgen Tour of California race beings Sunday with a prologue in Palo Alto, Rock Racing is a new founding sponsor of the weeklong race that is owned and run by AEG. Rock Racing bought its founding designation with a check for $500,000 according to several cycling insiders, but the money couldn't buy Rock Racing a full complement of eight racers.
Rock Racing signed drug-tainted athletes such as Olympic medalist Tyler Hamilton, who served a two-year doping suspension that ended in 2006, Colombian star Santiago Botero and Spain's Oscar Sevilla, who have all been linked to the Spanish sports doping scandal, but when the list of riders approved by the International Cycling Union (UCI) was released Thursday, Rock Racing had a team of only five, and Hamilton, Botero and Sevilla were not on the list. Team spokeswoman Martine Charles said Friday she could not comment on why Hamilton, Botero and Sevilla were excluded.
Three weeks ago Ball, who describes himself as the product of a broken home, raised by the "mean streets" of the San Fernando Valley, offered a glimpse into cycling the Rock Racing way.
The team held a media day, though one prominent member of the cycling press, Velo News, had its invitation rescinded after its reporter, Neal Rogers, named Kayle Leogrande, a Rock Racing rider, as the anonymous filer of a lawsuit against the United States Anti-Doping Agency. The suit charges that USADA planned to test one of the anonymous rider's "B" urine samples even though his "A" sample had tested negative. The "B" sample is only supposed to be used to confirm a positive "A" sample test.
Two burly bouncers who were wearing all black greeted visitors to the media day party. The home was filled with skinny, tanned women wearing all black, and black-clad waiters pushing offerings of lamb and cheese and figs.
It was hard to tell who were cyclists because so many of them have tattoos. Leogrande, who is on the approved riders list, owns a tattoo parlor and has ink drawings covering his torso. Teammate David Clinger of Woodland Hills, who was arrested in a bar fight in Pennsylvania almost two years ago, has his face and neck covered in what he calls a "tribal" tattoo.
Ball gave a rambling series of answers about his life and of his attraction to sports. At Lake Balboa Birmingham High, Ball said he played football because he loved to hit people. After taking six weeks of college extension courses, Ball said, "That was it for me. I'm done with school."
In 1986, Ball traveled to Colorado Springs to watch a cycling race. "What hooked me was that I witnessed a violent crash. A guy came around the turn, took it too wide and crashed into the crowd, hit a signpost, knocked himself out and convulsed," he said. "Cycling had an intensity, a visceral medieval feeling that anything could happen at any time, that you could be finished by a violent act, the end of a crash."
Ball said he spent several years as a minor league cyclist. In 2002 he founded his edgy clothing company Rock and Republic and about a year ago decided to create a cycling team. Ball says he is motivated by what he sees as a grave injustice done to riders who have been accused of doping by testing procedures that are not transparent. "Their civil liberties are being trampled on, their careers are being ruined. Give me some proof, man."
Hamilton is gray-haired now and softer and rounder than the chiseled racer who won a stage at the 2003 Tour de France and won an Olympic gold medal in 2004.
"I've done my time, served my suspension, why shouldn't I get a chance again?" Hamilton said. But Hamilton won't be riding. The Tour of California had announced earlier this year that any rider whose name was not approved by the UCI would not be included.
Ball says he understands there is doping in his sport and others. "But let's grow up here. The way it is being handled, sponsors are exiting, riders' careers are destroyed. We're eating our young, cannibalism is rampant. This is a sport I care about and that has been very good to me."
Andrew Messick, president of AEG sports, says he sees no contradiction in taking Ball's money. "Ball has been a very good partner for us so far," Messick said. "He has agreed to our rules, which are more stringent rules than the UCI has. Michael Ball is investing in pro cycling when there aren't a lot of guys who will. Frankly, I think he is to be commended for putting his money where his mouth is."
Cipollini arrives in California, with Tyler Hamilton in the back seat
CIPOLLINI ON ROAD AGAIN IN CALIFORNIA
From Cycling Weekly
Saturday 16th February 2008 - Alasdair Fotheringham
The most charismatic sprinter of all time, Mario Cipollini, was a guest of honour last night at the Tour of California presentation dinner just hours before he hits the road in the race itself. Photographed in a team car of his Rock and Republic squad on Friday evening, Cipollini looked fit and on form, even if presumably he was tired from the long air trip from Europe.
As usual with Cipollini the questions of whether he would finally take part in his first race since Milan-San Remo 2005 have been surrounded by uncertainty,last-minute changes of heart and all the other issues that help make the man a walking, talking soap opera. His contract was only signed this week, he has backtracked on more than one occasion and the team itself has added to the controversy by signing Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero and Oscar Sevilla – all three implicated in the recently re-opened Operación Puerto anti-doping probe.
Despite strong rumours to the contrary, Hamilton – seen here in the picture next to Cipo' - has confirmed to Cycling Weekly's Stephen Farrand that he will be taking part in the Tour of California alongside Cipollini.
After all the razzmatazz about Cipollini's participation, it remains to be seen whether in fact all the fuss has been worth it, and Cipollini can do more than finish somewhere in the back of the pack on each stage.
CIPOLLINI TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA
From Cycling Weekly
Friday 15th February 2008 - Stephen Farrand
Mario Cipollini is on a plane and heading to California after apparently sorting out his licence and contract with the Rock Racing team just 48 hours before the start of the Tour of California. Cipollini has always refused to confirm he would make his much trumpeted return to racing at the Tour of California but Cycling Weekly understands that almost all of the licence and contract problems have been resolved and so Cipollini jumped on a plane early on Friday morning that will see him arrive in Palo Alto near San Francisco just two days before Sunday's 3.4km prologue. The late departure will mean Cipollini will have little time to get over jet lag and the long trip will surely leave him struggling in the prologue. Cipollini will be 41 on March 22 and has not raced since Milan-San Remo in 2005, but if the reports that he has been training hard all winter are true, he could even pull off a surprise in the first road stage to Santa Rosa on Monday.
Comment: Absolute Bullshit.
Thursday, February 14, 2008 1:47:08 PM PT
by Charles Manantan for PezCycling.com
The Giro and Tour selection process and the UCI’s seeming inability to create stability might seem to be at odds but are birds of a feather. And that bird is sitting directly over the riders…
Astana being booted is pretty sensational. Michael Ball’s Rock Racing outfit is on a different level of sensationalism to be sure, but both are news worthy partially due to the same lack of solid rules and leadership for the sport…
Rock Racing is simply playing by the rules. They’ve signed eligible riders and are speaking to people that may be eligible. They’ve not broken rules, yet the guys making the rules (and a generally snobby an opinionated road racing public) are up in arms at the fact that it’s not what the sport needs right now in “the war on doping” (which also sounds strangely like our own government’s heavy use of “the war on terror” as the chief vehicle for pushing an agenda that sometimes is more about money)…
Contrast Rock to a team like Slipstream who are simply putting down harder rules than the sport requires but also making a great go of putting their riders in the unique position of having a far less stressed place to work… Personally I’ll take the Slipstream formula, but I don’t discount that both are contributing, regardless of motivation or percieved ethics…
Something I find interesting (and some humor in) is that while Jonathan Vaughters and Michael Ball are almost polar opposites, they are both advancing change for the better…
Most folks won’t see it like that and are making Ball out as a target. Fair play as the organizational side is definitely not the cycling norm, but the man is standing by his riders and making people play by the rules and in my opinion, I appreciate what Ball is doing far more than a team principal that will toss his rider out at the first sign of trouble in an effort to save his own skin…
I would rather ride in a team structured and run like Slipstream, but could it be possible that Michael Ball forcing the rules (including supporting the law suit from Kale Leogrande vs USADA) is doing more to change cycling than Jonathan Vaughters is in creating tougher rules within his team? In a way Slipstream is simply putting in a structure outside the system while Ball could ultimately be doing more to change the system it's self.
Now for the Crap. Skip ahead to the Giro and Tour in what some will call an effort to “take the high road” by ignoring arguably the sport’s strongest team on “principle”, while allowing others with arguably more or equally dubious history to participate.
My point isn’t that Danilo Di Luca should be allowed in the Giro even though he’ll be the star with the most recently dope-related suspension. My point isn’t that CSC has a great image with the “defrocked” Bjarne Riis at the helm (regardless of the rest of the podium that year). My point isn’t that Cofidis is recently squeaky clean or that Rabobank are righteous because they say they didn’t know where the Chicken was training... My point is that Astana isn’t really any more tainted than these teams.
What this situation clarifies is what has always been at the root of the sport’s struggles. The almost Mafia like organization of the sport…Simply stated: Both the Grand Tour organizers and only recently to a lesser degree the UCI have simply avoided creating solid clear cut rules and taking full responsibility for what they want control over. Why is anyone’s guess, but if you asked me, this is down to the fact that if solid rules are in place, everyone has to follow them... including the guys making the rules…
And while the sport, its athletes and sponsors would clearly benefit from the stability of a clearly defined rules process, organizers and governors would lose the constant “benefit” of having to be courted / lobbied / compensated if they eliminated the ambiguity that results in their continual flow of “decisions” rather than “rulings”…
- Want a tour spot? Come see me…
- Think Unibet shouldn’t be allowed to race? Come see me…
- The team folded but if you want your money from the bank guarantee, come see me…
- Think a certain type of equipment shouldn’t be allowed? Come see me…
- Want a wildcard invitation? Come see me…
- Want a stage start/finish? Come see me…
- Should a rider be suspended, and for how long? Go see someone else…
- Should a rider be allowed to race? Come see me / go see them
- Has a team done enough to make up for past mistakes? Maybe if they came to see me…
- Want a spot in all the big races? Come see me and pay mebut that’s no guarantee you will be racing, I can only guarantee that you won’t if you don’t pay me… And one of the bigger shams…
- Stripping the riders of UCI points and taking away that leverage.
Cycling is making an absolute joke of itself at the executive level and we are absolutely at a critical tipping point, much like a buss balanced on the edge of a cliff… The problem is that the fat greedy guys simply out weigh the skinny ass riders and staff in this battle, and if governing fat cats don’t move toward credibility and the betterment of the sport, they take themselves off the cliff too.
In the past couple of years, the efforts to control doping have taken a substantial step forward in that we actually have doping being acknowledged and commented on by riders (and by acknowledgement I don’t just mean in the form of one pro dropping back and threatening someone for speaking up) as well as being addressed by teams. But the UCI are simply floundering by still allowing countries to control sentencing and enforcement…
That’s simple incompetence and can be forgiven to a degree, except that it’s enabling the Grand Tours rapaciousness. Simply put, it’s the lack of rules and of in house organization, responsibility and enforcement that allows the ASO and RCS to use the fight against doping as a guise to make rulings against teams simply to self serving ends…
“We’re eliminating Astana on principal” is nothing more than a scam. Either way, or rather, in both cases, the UCI and Organizers are not moving things forward enough to make the sport a better place and take full advantage of both the progress against doping and the increased popularity of the sport. In fact, the sports executive level has done the opposite.
The power struggle and greed during the massive increase in exposure have simply lead to a far more negative perception of the sport… We’ve in a sense demolished the Idol that was cycling… Leaving it in a heap at our feet. That it’s happened is a shame, but it would pale in comparison to us simply gluing the broken pieces back together, putting the same false idol back onto the same foundation of greed. The UCI are trying, but in current form and under current management are simply not nearly professional enough for the job they’ve got before them.
I made a comparison to the Mafia, and I guess I should really apologize for that… While both the Mafia and Cycling have brutalized people while developing, the Mafia don’t deserve the insult of comparison to cycling’s leaders, as several Mafia organizations have done a better job of going legit and developing extremely successful, professional and profitable businesses… Cycling on the other hand seems to be stuck in a struggle between the UCI who are struggling for credibility and relevance and the Grand Tours inability to see past the next short term pay day.
So what now? Well for starters, there is one group that have finally stepped up and made a statement, but need to have the balls to go one further and put both the UCI and ASO/RCS on notice. The CPA needs to step to the front and do so right now. Today. This minute. The riders union simply has not been a strong enough force in cycling.
The day the AIGCP decided they would agree not to hire a rider, regardless of reason, beyond that rider’s suspension, the CPA should have put a stop to all racing. I’m not saying Ivan Basso should not have been suspended and I am not for doping. But I am for following the rules and not allowing the AIGCP or anyone else for that matter to continue to make things up as they go.
Teams that are complicit in doping at any level should not be able to wash themselves of responsibility and they certainly should not be able to limit an athlete’s ability to provide for their families and themselves in any way that is not clearly defined by the governing body of the sport.
What professional cyclists (and I believe the non management support staff of teams should also be represented by either the CPA or another union) should do is start to require the people running the sport to treat them fairly.
The CPA should, quite simply, Strike. The riders should not be subject to decisions “on the fly”. Riders should never be worried about being black balled, but it’s going to take balls to make it happen, and I don’t mean sitting in the road for a few minutes… I mean nobody should kit up and show at all… Damn it men, you can’t make a point by riding a stage slowly and generating 7 hours of TV revenue instead of 5 and a half and call that “making a point”! Neither can riders sit in kit on the road with frowns on their faces... Guys when you show up full tilt in protest, you're generating TV interest... You're showing sponsrs logos... And you're giving the same people you are fighting a spotlight and a microphone to promote themselves even more... Don't feed the beast any longer... Simply don't show.
Have your fairly new president (Cedric Vasseur) call a press conference and state your case. You should, plainly state:
• There will be no Giro and no Tour unless criteria are clearly defined for selection and rejection.
• There will be no participation in any event for any organizer than will black ball a large group of your compatriots.
• There will be no paying of dues to the UCI unless the UCI clearly define and enforce rules world wide and remove the bulk of the threat of nationally motivated race interruption.
• There will be no racing unless all riders have the full benefit of medical and disability insurance.
• There will be no racing for any team organization or governing body that try’s to enforce a rule retroactively to its establishment.
• When a team folds, there will be no racing by any of the riders on that team until all the riders on that team have had their financial situation resolved.
Gentlemen (and ladies) your livelihood is under tremendous threat Look no further than Unibet to see that the UCI and organizers simply do not have your best interests at heart. In fact, the CPA can do more to ensure sponsors get their money’s worth than the sponsors themselves can, because only THE RIDERS have full control of the sport.
You have been downtrodden and forced almost into indentured servitude for decades… To some degree you also have your team leaders to blame as well, but with what’s happening to the top tier athletes at this point, with the money tightening and the sport losing its credibility and with sponsors coming and going faster than Brittney Spears through a rehab clinic, everyone now needs to step up.
I mentioned the war on drugs / war on terror above, and the ASO and RCS and lately to a lesser degree the UCI seem to have something in common with terrorists just like they do the Mafia… Terrorists tend to want to break down society and keep people poor, starved and desperate. That’s the only way they can maintain control. To a degree, that’s what’s happening to cycling and to its riders… Happy just to have a contract or to get to participate and not fully realizing that it’s them that are empowering their oppressors.
I think it’s past time for revolutionary change. And what better place to start than Italy or France… Two places that know how to treat oppressive regimes. The CPA needs to force the issue and stand up and take it's place. The power of the riders has simply never been properly heard despite the fact that they are easily the strongest voice.
You pro's don't owe anyone anything. You have absolutely earned your place and should stop feeling as though someone is doing you a favor by letting you slave away on the bike and ravage yourselves. You don't owe anyone as much as you owe each other. The time has come to effect things beyond just today.
Tyler Hamilton not on Tour of California start list
Published by Brent; bikeride.com Blog
February 15, 2008
This morning the start lists were released for the Tour of California and Rock Racing was missing some of their star riders including Tyler Hamilton.
A few days ago in was announced that the Operation Puerto investigation was being reopened, so this may be the reason for leaving Hamilton off the list,
although today, CyclingNews.com says that the investigation will only concern heads of the affair, Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and his assistant, so no riders can be punished.
The exclusion of Hamilton and other Rock Racing cyclists is another example of the rules in the sport of cycling being a case of “making it up as we go”.
Hamilton has served his two year suspension for blood doping. Any links to Operation Puerto date to before his positive test, and only serve as extra evidence [WM edit: "Opinion"] that he was blood doping . He shouldn’t have to be subjected to this double jeoprody situation when other riders who have doped and served suspensions are racing again. He has served his time and then some.
I realize Hamilton has never admitted to doping, and I’m sure he would make it much easier on himself if he came clean [WM edit:"Opinion"], but he has served his time, and should be free to race.