The on-again, off-again relationship between Mario Cipollini and Michael Ball's Rock Racing team seems to be on again. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported Sunday that the Italian sprinter had signed with the American Continental team and will ride the Tour of California next month.
The 40 year-old former World Champion has 42 stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and 12 in the Tour de France. He also has tax evasion fees of 1.1 million Euros from the Italian government.
"The Lion King" met last week with Rock Racing owner Michael Ball in Santa Monica, California, and it was announced that he would not only ride but manage a European edition of the team. However, on Saturday Cipolini said that he was waiting to get certain issues cleared up, and threatened to return to Europe without signing.
Sunday's announcement of the signing seems to indicate that negotiations for a pre-nuptial agreement were successful for this marriage made in heaven – or elsewhere.
