Horner responds to Michael Ball
- By Neal Rogers
- Published Dec. 12, 2007
- Updated Dec. 13, 2007 at 12:16 PM UTC
In an interview with VeloNews, Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball described his recent contract negotiations with Chris Horner,suggesting that American cyclist had “played us” and had been less than forthright about his desire to continue racing in Europe. After that story was posted, Horner contacted VeloNews to offer his side of the story:
Chris Horner: Michael Ball knew all along I wanted to stay in Europe. I had gone on the record, on VeloNews.com, saying I wanted to stay with Predictor-Lotto. And after he started telling people I was signed at Inter bike, I had trouble finding a job when I went back to Europe. His saying he’d signed me had practically taken me off the market.
The only thing that was appealing to me about racing for him was the three-year deal. It was good money, but the contract never came through the way we had discussed it. The deal was never done because we had originally discussed a three-year contract for x amount of money, but what he offered me was a day-to-day contract that was good for three years, meaning he could fire me whenever he wanted, just like he fired Sebastian Haedo and threatened to fire Rahsaan Bahati.
If Michael Ball gives the okay, I’ll be happy to release every version of my contract that he sent me. And for the record, I’m making substantially more money this year than I would have with him. Granted, Astana is a one-year deal, so I’m not making more than I would have versus three years with Rock Racing, but I didn’t want a day-to-day contract. I can tell you that his offer was substantially less, if you went from year to year. We had a good 10 to 12 weeks of contract negotiations, but it was never written the right way. And if he says I can release the contract to VeloNews I will be more than happy to, so everyone can see what I was offered.
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Neal Rogers
An interest in all things rock 'n' roll led Neal into music journalism while attending UC Santa Cruz. After several post-grad years spent waiting tables, surfing and mountain biking, Neal moved to San Francisco, working stints as a bike messenger and at a software start-up. He moved to Colorado in 2001, taking an editorial internship at VeloNews. He never left, and is now Velo's editor in chief. When not traveling the world covering races, Neal can be found riding his bike, skiing, cooking, or attending a concert. Follow him on Twitter at @nealrogers.