Tour de Georgia finishes tomorrow, and (Crack) Rock Racing hasn’t imploded yet. Definitely have to back off my prediction, although I’m not sure how happy the team is going to be with Oscar Sevilla’s 6th place finish …

But what’s the story with Tyler Hamilton being 41-minutes back? The twin not helping him pedal this week?

Kinda scary when a team’s top-ranked rider on a flat stage is a climber, who finishes 40 spaces ahead of the team’s sprinter.

RESULTS

14 - Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Rock Racing
23 - Kayle Leogrande (USA) Rock Racing
50 - Fred Rodriguez (USA) Rock Racing
51 - Tyler Hamilton (USA) Rock Racing
54 - Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col) Rock Racing
57 - Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Rock Racing
109 - Michael Creed (USA) Rock Racing
112 - Victor Hugo Pena (Col) Rock Racing

I’m looking for some good performances from Doug O. and YMC … preferably in breakaways.

Still want to know when Cesar Grajales is going to get a race start this year.

Rock Racing Reveals Rosters For Tour de Georgia, Sea Otter.

Culver City, Calif. — Rock Racing will field a line-up for the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T that includes a world time trial champion, an Olympic gold medalist, Tour de France yellow jersey, polka-dot jersey and white jersey wearers and a three-time U.S. national road race champion who is also a four-time Tour de Georgia stage winner.

Rock Racing’s roster for the seven-day, 600-mile (965 km) stage race includes: Santiago Botero (COL), Tyler Hamilton (USA), Victor Hugo Peña (COL), Freddie Rodriguez (USA), Oscar Sevilla (ESP), Michael Creed (USA), Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) and Kayle Leogrande (USA). Mariano Friedrick is the team director.

[...]

On the other side of the country, Rock Racing will field a full eight-rider squad for the Sea Otter Classic SRAM Circuit Race Saturday at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California. On the roster for the 71-mile (114 km) National Race Calendar event are: Rahsaan Bahati (USA), David Clinger (USA), Peter Dawson (AUS), Sergio Hernandez (USA), Kevin Klein (USA), Rudolph “Rudy” Napolitano (USA), Adam Switters (USA) and Jeremiah Wiscovitch (USA).

Hey Rock! When are you going to give Cesar Grajales (you know, the guy who beat Lance Armstrong to the top of Brasstown Bald in 2004) a race start?

VeloNews | No Rock Racing for Tour de Georgia

Organizers on Thursday announced the 15, 8-rider teams that will compete in next month’s Tour de Georgia.

A total of 120 professional cyclists will compete in the 600-mile, seven-day event to be held April 21-27.

The final field:

• Astana
• CSC
• Gerolsteiner
• High Road
• Saunier Duval-Scott
• BMC
• Slipstream-Chipotle
• Symmetrics
• Bissell
• GE-Marco Polo
• Health Net-Maxxis
• Jelly Belly
• Jittery Joe’s
• Team Type 1
• Toyota-United

“This is not only the most international field we have had at Georgia, but one of the most elite as well. Usually you only see names like Hincapie, Zabriskie, Leipheimer and Millar at the Grand Tours. Now you will see them at the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T. We have many teams from across the U.S. and Europe that we just could not accommodate,” said Jim Birrell, managing partner of Medalist Sports and race director for the Tour de Georgia.

So Michael Ball, and his (Crack) Rock Racing Team don’t get a ride in Georgia … getting closer and closer to my predicted implosion every day.

No Tyler Hamilton, no Santiago Botero, and no Oscar Sevilla. Instead, these riders get to line up and race major races like the Los Angeles Circuit Race, against such well-known, top-level pros like Mark-Paul Gosselaar (of TV’s Saved By The Bell fame), as Tyler Hamilton did this past weekend.

Gosselaar finished 7th, by the way, which is not a knock on his ability to race a bicycle, but he’s certainly not on the level of guys coming out of Utah like T-Bird or Jeff Louder, much less Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, or any of the Euro-Pros.

Another crack in (Crack) Rock Racing’s armor? Or just Cipollini being Cipollini?

VeloNews | No more Rock, no more rolling for Cipollini

Mario Cipollini’s relationship with the American team Rock Racing has ended, and the Italian is quashing rumors that he might jump into this weekend’s Milan-San Remo for a different team.

“Unfortunately I’ve had to end my relationship with the American Rock Racing team that started a few months ago,” the former world champion said Tuesday.

European papers had speculated that Cipollini would join the Tinkoff Credit Systems team for Milan-San Remo, but he said he was only interested in joining a team if he could be involved with its management and development.

“The idea of riding Milan-San Remo made sense if it was linked to a wider project of building and managing a new team and my return to racing was part of the project to create a dream team. Despite a contract, this hasn’t happened for reasons out of my control.”

Only 33 days until the Tour de Georgia starts … wonder if that race’s promoters will let Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero, and/or Oscar Sevilla race, or if they’re going to be stuck on the sidelines again. I’m still predicting a team implosion …

From cyclingnews.com comes word that “Cipollini and Ball’s relationship on the rocks”:

The relationship that was started last fall in a Las Vegas discotheque could come to an end if Mario Cipollini does not get his say in the management of Rock Racing. The Italian, who came out of retirement at the age of 40 to race in the Tour of California last week, and his lawyer met with the owner of the team, Mike Ball, yesterday to discuss the coming season.

“We need to sit at the table and make clear who is in command,” said Mario Cipollini in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Luigi Perna. The Italian from Lucca and lawyer Giuseppe Napoleone were scheduled to meet with Ball later in the day.

“The boss is Ball, but after him it is me. Therefore I want to manage the squad starting now. I can organise the participation in [Milano-] San Remo. To find men to race is not a problem. … If Ball does well it will continue, otherwise goodbye. I now understand that the name Cipollini still has value, in the United States and elsewhere.”

Cipollini was happy with his return, but not with the fiasco surrounding the team and Ball’s backing of Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero. The riders, all allegedly linked with Operación Puerto, were barred from racing by the organiser, but continued along daily by riding behind the race caravan and signing autographs for fans at the stage villages.

“For a week I had an infinite amount of patience … Maybe it was my great desire to return to racing with an important project. However, we can’t go forward like this. We are not able to continue to pull along this heavy weight that ruins our image, and now Ball also understands this. It is not enough to advertise and show off models.”

So, first Sevilla, Botero, and Hamilton are prevented from riding the Amgen Tour of California … and now, Cipo is threatening to bolt from the team unless he takes a more active role in how the team is run … somehow, I don’t see Michael Ball giving up any control of the team unless/until the team starts to disintegrate, and by that time it will be too late.

I’m still calling for an implosion before the end of the Tour of Georgia.

We’ll see.

2008 Teams Announced | Amgen Tour of California

I cannot believe that the organizers have invited (Crack) Rock Racing to participate in the Amgen Tour of California …

This is a team that has hired alleged (and in at least one rider’s case, convicted) dopers like Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, and Tyler Hamilton. This is a team that is actively consorting with a rider that is currently banned from the sport for a doping violation (in Floyd Landis). This is a team that is losing sponsors (HED for sure, and others are rumored) because of these associations.

Ah, but this is also a team that signed on as a “founding sponsor” of the Amgen Tour of California itself … I guess when you buy your way into a race, it wouldn’t really be cool to exclude the team.

But with all the ridicule that Amgen, makers of the most widely abused performance-enhancing drug, has taken for sponsoring a race, why not add a team that seemingly turns a blind eye to doping to the mix as well.

And people wonder why this sport is going to hell in a handbasket.

I know Sager has got at least one compadre on the squad, and there are a lot of other good riders on the team; but Michael Ball reminds me of John Wordin (and the whole Mercury/Viatel fiasco) … and I’ll feel sorry for the rank-and-file riders when the team implodes mid-season.

And I really hope I’m wrong, for their sake.