Andreau leaves Rock & Republic

Originally Posted by snood

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...cle_174817.html

Could Mario Cipollini's comeback be over before it even began?

On Friday morning the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper claimed that Cipollini would come out of retirement and ride the Tour of California for the US Rock Racing team before becoming manager of a Monaco-based part of the team.

However by the end of the day it seems that Cipollini and charismatic Rock Racing owner Micheal Ball had already fallen out, contracts may never be signed and Cipollini might have to put his bike back in the garage.

Cipollini admitted there were problems with the new team on Italian radio.

“It's going to be a difficult birth, let's see what happens,” Cipollini said via phone from Santa Monica.

“We're discussing things and sifting through things but compared to two days ago things have become more difficult. Something has happened. We'll see if we manage to save the baby but it's going to be a difficult birth.”

The Rock Racing team has already cancelled a press conference planned for Monday January 21 and Cipollini has apparently decided to return to Italy on Sunday rather than stay, as planned, until the end of the month.

More later

Originally Posted by kennf

More interesting tid-bits on Mario's status (from CN):


Ball has made controversial contracts with riders involved in past doping scandal. Maybe Cipollini, like Frankie Andreu before him, is finding the waters to be rocky. "I was clear with him on [Oscar] Sevilla, [Santiago] Botero and [Tyler] Hamilton, who he has already signed. I said to Ball that it is not the right way to interpret cycling, that these riders would never be able to race in a European team. He gave me his reasoning, that they would only race in America. However, they take from the staff new requests, like 'Cipollini has to be a manager also in the USA, he has to transfer here for some time.' For this reason I no longer understand any of it."

Originally Posted by TheDarkLord

Once again, Ball seems to be clueless. From earlier in this thread, "Races that Ball is said to be interested in, like the Giro d’Italia or Milan-San Remo...", and now he is only interested in racing in America? That aside, assuming that a team would only race in USA, one would expect the team manager to be in USA, right? I don't quite understand what Cippollini is saying...

Originally Posted by confusedfan

After reading the article on CN, I got the impression that Ball told Cipo "sure, you can have free rein to set up a European racing program and be our manager there" (or at least that's what Cipo understood), and that now that Cipo sees that Ball is only a continental team (so can't race the PT races) /that Ball has hired riders that (allegedly) wouldn't be welcome to ride in Europe/that Ball is now saying the team will only ride in America such that Cipo would have to move to America, that Cipollini is confused and no longer really interested. Perhaps these 2 dominant personalities simply can't co-exist...

Originally Posted by Aquamarinos

Cipo has signed!

http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/Pri...macipolla.shtml

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...cle_174887.html

Originally Posted by kennf

Cipo will be at ToC, BUT:


"The 40-year-old speedster "is not coming back to try and win," said lawyer Giuseppe Napoleone, according to the Ansa news agency. "He's done everything he needed to do. That's not the aim,""

I'm gonna go ahead and predict some major hangover rides for Mario during the Tour.

Originally Posted by helmutRoole2

A recent image of Cipo, Doug Ollerenshaw and, I think, Scott Moninger. That's probably Botero in front of him.