Not surprisingly, that stance has many in the sport trying to distance themselves from Ball. At least two equipment sponsors have refused to work with the team, and in December, Frankie Andreu, a former teammate of Lance Armstrong's who was Rock Racing's team director, resigned in protest. "If you're ruining the reputation of the sport," says Andreu, "it kind of defeats the purpose."

No one familiar with Ball's story would be surprised by how he's rankled cycling's traditionalists. A reviewer for New York magazine said she had to "wash the skank off" after watching the undulating models featured in R&R's fall 2007 runway show. British tabloids reported that a partnership between Ball and Victoria Beckham ended with her threatening a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. Ball has also been sued for assault and sexual harassment. "I've received death threats in the fashion world," he says. "The stuff I'm facing in cycling is nothing.

"I've come to Malibu for Rock Racing's 2008 team launch. Cycling squads host these gatherings every year to introduce riders and offer up boilerplate about the coming season. But when we arrive at Ball's rented villa, the scene is more Hollywood bash than cycling event. He eases the Bentley up a steep driveway lined with European sports cars and Cadillac Escalades. The latter are easily the flashiest team support cars in cycling, all adorned with the skull-and-wings logo of Rock Racing.

Inside, waitresses serve drinks to dozens of thin, beautiful publicists, handlers, and various hangers-on, most wearing R&R clothes. A DJ spins in the living room, and flat-screen TVs show clips of the team riding in formation while Ball drives behind them in his black Lamborghini. The riders—including Kayle Leogrande, a tattoo artist whose arms and legs are fully inked, and David Clinger, a veteran racer who was fired from a former team for his Maori-style full-face tattoo—wear matching black warmup suits and silver street shoes. Landis arrives late, trailed by a film crew Ball has hired to record the event, and jokes about his showing up in Levi's.

But Ball's highest-profile signing has been Mario "the Lion King" Cipollini. The 41-year-old Italian, who is ending a three-year retirement to ride for Ball, has never been involved in a doping scandal, but for nearly two decades he was cycling's most flamboyant personality—a six-foot-three presence given to animal-print skin suits, coiffed hair, and deeply unbuttoned shirts. He once famously said that if he hadn't been a pro cyclist, he would have been a porn star. Ball calls him "the epitome of Rock Racing."

Noticeably absent in Malibu is VeloNews. The leading bike-racing publication in the U.S. was disinvited after publishing a number of critical stories about Ball. But some insiders suggest that the sport shouldn't be turning away people willing to invest in it, especially given that Ball hasn't broken any rules.

"How teams select riders is up to them," says USA Cycling president Jim Ochowicz. "There are rules that everyone has to follow. Beyond that, people can agree with them or criticize them. I certainly wouldn't want to see them leave the sport."

That's not likely. "In my business, I sit all my employees down and let them know 'This is how I expect you to work,' " says Ball when I ask about the backlash. "'Knock at the front door. If they don't answer, go to the back door. If they don't answer there, go to the side window. Break it. Get in.'"