The prologue for the Amgen Tour of California starts at 1 p.m. (PT) today in Palo Alto, but Rock Racing's roster Saturday night looked like a big question mark.
Tyler Hamilton. Oscar Sevilla. Santiago Botero. Will they attempt to race in spite of being banned? Apparently not.
And will one of the greatest sprinters of all time, Mario Cipollini, actually emerge from retirement at age 40 and slip on Rock Racing's black jersey? Apparently so.
Either team owner Michael Ball is sending in a team that's in disarray, or he's squeezing out every bit of publicity he can muster before the race starts and other teams get publicity for winning stages.
Only 5 on roster
When AEG announced the team rosters on Thursday, they all had 8 riders each except for Rock Racing, which had 5. It turns out the names of Hamilton, Sevilla and Botero had removed because the Union Cycliste Internationale had determined the three were still under investigation in the Operation Puerto probe from two years ago.
Any rider with an “open file” for doping is barred from the California race.
Ball announced on Saturday that his racers had been cleared by their national federations and he'll put them all in the prologue. Several news outlets reported the three were going to race, or at least try to race.
Don't disrupt prologue
In a story from the press conference filed Saturday by VeloNews, Ball is quoted as saying all eight — or none — of his team members would race:
“We live as a team, or die as a team.”
Then Saturday night, reported USA Today, Hamilton, Sevilla and Botera announced at a team meeting that they'd rather sit out than disrupt the prologue.
Ball told USA Today:
“They'll still be on the team and they'll be out signing posters for the fans. 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.”
I think we'll have to wait and see you rolls down the ramp for the 2.1-mile prologue before we know for sure.
The Lion King
Meanwhile, it looks like Cipollini is actually coming out of retirement to race for the team in California. The Italian sprinter is one of the winningest cyclists of all time, chalking up 191 victories between 1989 to 2005, including 42 in the Giro d'Italia alone.
Bicycling magazine said another one of Rock Racing's cyclists, Kayle Leogrande (USA), is suing the USADA for testing a B sample after an A sample came back negative. He was listed as a starter but has been replaced by Cipollini.
Apparently the negotiations with Cipo have been an on again off again affair, but he finally signed this week and appeared as pre-race functions on Friday.
Roster
Here's the official roster listed for Rock Racing on Thursday:
Michael Creed (USA)
Kayle Leogrande (USA)
Doug Ollerenshaw (USA)
Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (COL)
Fred Rodriguez (USA)
Read this LA Times piece “Rock Racing takes the rebels' view” to learn more about the team and its founder.
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