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It may be a new race to the North American Cyclocross Trophy series, but both winners were repeats from last year’s edition of the GNC Toronto Cyclo-cross on Saturday. Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com) and Natasha Elliott (Garneau) scored wins at the popular event, now a part of the NACT series.

With four kilometers to go, it was obvious that an Italian wasn’t going to win Giro di Lombardia for the ninth consecutive year. A Belgian and a Spaniard ? Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) – were 12 seconds clear of a chasing group that included three-time winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre), enough gap to end the Italian stranglehold on the season-concluding fall classic.

Seatposts with 1-bolt saddle rail clamps are not uncommon—in fact, several designs have all proven to work just fine. But Ritchey’s WCS 1-Bolt system is especially effective in that it’s adaptable to saddles with different rail dimensions.

The results of an autopsy performed in Senegal indicate that cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke died of a double pulmonary embolism combined with an existing heart problem, Belgian newspapers reported Saturday. Vandenbroucke, 34, was found dead earlier this week in his hotel room in the Senegalese resort of Saly, where he had been on holiday with cyclist friend Fabio Polazzi. According to reports published in Het Laatste Nieuws and Het Nieuwsblad, investigators concluded that Vandenbroucke died a natural death and his body had now been released for a return to Belgium.

The UCI licensing commission has granted a four-year ProTour license to the new U.S.-sponsored Radio Shack team. "Following examination of the request received, the License Commission has awarded a four-year UCI ProTour license for the period 2010 to 2013 to Team Radio Shack (USA)," the UCI, cycling's world ruling body, said in a statement released on Friday. The team will be headed up by former Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who made his comeback from retirement in January 2009. Armstrong will be joined on the team by fellow Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner.

The mystery surrounding Garmin-Slipstream’s tactics for the final stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, a 62km circuit in Melbourne, was solved Saturday evening as the team committed to defending the lead of yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins, rather than triple-stage winner Chris Sutton, who sat second overall by just five seconds. Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell won the stage in front of large crowds ahead of Michael Matthews (Jayco AIS), bookending the tour following his win in the opening preface criterium.

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich consulted Eufemiano Fuentes, the Madrid gynecologist at the center of the Operación Puerto doping case, 24 times between 2003 and 2006, Der Spiegel said in a report to appear on Monday. Der Spiegel's report was based on a 2,219-page investigation into Ullrich by German police which concluded that the rider "used Dr Fuentes doping system to improve his performances." Ullrich visited Madrid on 24 occasions for consultations with Fuentes, it said.

It's all academic: Two top-level pros take home Stars & Stripes jerseys at Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in Truckee, California.

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The 2010 National Racing Calendar is pared down a bit from what was announced for the 2009 season — but, since several 2009 events were canceled — the 2010 NRC has about as many events as this year's. Next year the NRC will include 27 events in 22 states, comprising 15 criteriums, eight multi-day stage races, two one-day road races, one circuit race and one omnium. While there is no series prize list, the combined prize lists from the individual events totals $981,000. Events must offer a certain level of prize list and meet other requirements to be part of the calendar.

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The slow wheels of Spanish justice are almost grinding to a halt in the never-ending saga of the Operación Puerto blood doping ring. According to reports in the Spanish media, oral testimony ordered in January of this year by an appeals court likely won’t happen until 2011. Earlier this year, a Madrid appeals court ordered ruling judge Antonio Serrano to hear oral testimony to further try to determine if any laws were broken under existing Spanish law at the time of the May 2006 raids.

I'm not a lawyer either, but I believe Charles Pelkey’s interpretation of Virginia law is correct. Military members are subject to civil prosecution all the time.

Saturday’s Giro di Lombardia – the “Race of the Falling Leaves” – is Italy’s long good-bye to yet another exciting, daring and controversy-filled season. In the last major European event of the 2009 campaign, Lombardia always packs an emotional and palpating punch to put the peloton to rest for an ever-shortening winter to recharge the batteries going into the next year.

Over a technical and windy 10km time trial course in Geelong, Garmin-Slipstream’s Bradley Wiggins took not only the stage 5 win at Australia’s Jayco Herald Sun Tour, but also the race lead with one stage remaining. Wiggins blitzed the course around Geelong’s Botanical Gardens and along its coastal roads, which used some of the same roads as both the annual Jayco Bay Cycling Classic series and the 2010 UCI world road championships, in a time of 13:07, 14 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Garmin teammate Svein Tuft.

Just days after concluding his 15th pro season at Paris-Tours, veteran Spanish rider Vicente "Chente" García Acosta will be back next year for one more season in the saddle. The 37-year-old from Pamplona has finished no less than 25 grand tours, and recently signed a one-year contract extension to keep him in the pack with Caisse d’Epargne in 2010.