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Carlos Sastre insists he still hasn’t made up his mind on his 2010 calendar. The 2008 Tour de France champion was dismayed to see media reports that he was going to skip the Tour in favor of racing the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España. “My surprise was in capital letters, because I never said what is being bandied about in the headlines, which, according to them, it appears I have decided what races I’ll do in 2010,” Sastre said in a press statement Wednesday.

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Team Type 1 will start 2010 _ it's third year in the pro peloton — with most of its riders returning and a few new additions. The team, which includes several riders with Type 1 diabetes, will have an expanded schedule next year, with plans to race in North and South America, as well as Europe, Asia and Africa. Team co-founder Phil Southerland will continue as the team’s chief executive officer but will not compete professionally after being sidelined much of the past two seasons by a leg injury.

Team Type 1’s 2010 Roster:

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Maureen Bruno-Roy (MM Racing-Seven Cycles) and Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) lead the USA Cycling cyclocross points series following this weekend's races. Bruno-Roy, from Arlington, Massachusetts, won both days at the weekend's Verge New England Series races in New Gloucester, Maine. Powers, from Hadley, Massachusetts, was third at Sunday's USGP race in Louisville, Kentucky, and has scored a series of wins and top finishes this season, including going three-for-three at the Cincinnati Cyclocross Festival.

Zack McDonald (Classic Cycles) got his second win of the SCX series and Kristi Berg (Redline Bicycles) continued her domination at a chilly but mostly dry Ft. Steilacoom this weekend.

The former team of disgraced cheaters Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli rolls on in 2010, surviving a difficult struggle to try to erase the doping stigma from its name. The former Saunier Duval squad will continue in 2010 thanks to the arrival of the new title sponsor Footon.

Michael Rasmussen is heading back to a European-based team. That’s according to Rasmussen, 35, who confirmed to the Danish newspaper Politiken that he’s poised to announce his return to a European team. “I won’t say which team it is until everything is settled. I expect it to be before the Oct. 31 deadline set by the UCI,” Rasmussen told the Danish daily. “By February, I hope to line up for the Ruta del Sol.”

The route for the 2010 Giro d’Italia — which was unveiled on Italian national television by race director Angelo Zomegnan in Milan last Saturday night — has elicited much praise from both the European media and the racers.

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Carlos Sastre likes what he sees for next year’s Giro d’Italia. With a climber’s course laden with monster ascents, including the Mortirolo, the Gavia, Zoncolan and Plan de Corones, the punishing Giro course could well tempt Sastre back to the Italian tour in 2010.

Portland Bicycle Studio's Molly Cameron made it two in row Sunday by taking the Men's A race at Cross Crusade No. 4, while Emily Van Meter (Hudz-Subaru) notched her first win of the season in the Women's A race. The skies finally opened up and dumped enough precipitation to bring out the mud for the first time this Cross Crusade season, and the rain had riders slipping and sliding over the pancake-flat course at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro.

For every hot piece of gear in our Interbike coverage there are ten we missed — here's a few.

Sam Schultz and Lisa Curry won Rolling Thunder under the lights Saturday night in Missoula, Montana. The fourth annual Rolling Thunder nighttime cyclocross race was held on crisp fall night in Montana. Kevin Bradford-Parish and defending champion Sam Krieg gave Schultz all he could handle. Also racing was Craig Richey, John Curry and Kenda rider Andy Schultz.

The sun shone down on the Verge NECCS Sunday in New Gloucester, Maine, but the mud hung like a black cloud over the head of many racers. Maureen Bruno-Roy (MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles) and Dan Timmerman (Richard Sachs/RGM/Radix), on the other hand, had great days in the saddle, each doubling up on the weekend and extending their series leads. Bruno-Roy kept herself upright through the start of the race, but that was the only change from Saturday as she dominated from the gun to the finish. On the first half lap, she had pushed out a 12-second lead and never looked back.

Arley Kemmerer of Hub Racing and Ryan DeWald of Battley Harley-Davidson won the elite races in the third annual DCCX cyclocross race in Washington, D.C., this weekend. The race, which is run by the DCMTB biking team with Family Bike Shop as the title sponsor, had a record 533 racers on a course carved into the landscape of the seldom seen Armed Forces Retirement Home.

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Race No. 4 of the US Gran Prix of Cyclo-cross on Sunday saw Katerina Nash (Luna) repeat Saturday's victory and Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) continue his tradition of a Sunday win in Kentucky’s Derby City Cup for the third consecutive year.

Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) won the Japan Cup on Sunday in Utsunomiya. The Dane, with an assist from teammate Jens Voigt, hit the line after 151.4km of racing just 24 seconds ahead of a chasing trio composed of Spaniards Dani Moreno (Caisse d’Epargne) and Juan Jose Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) and the Italian Ivan Santaromita (Liquigas). Sorensen launched a series of attacks in the last 40km, backed by Voigt, and the young Danish climber finally left the field behind, crossing the line alone for the win. Moreno took second with Santaromita third.

The New England Championship Cyclo-cross Series made its return to New Gloucester, Maine, Saturday, with the first day of the Downeast Cyclocross Weekend. Racers were greeted with a nagging, persistent rain, deep, slick mud and cold temperatures. Maureen Bruno-Roy (MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles) and Ryan Timmerman (Richard Sachs-RGM-Radix) proved to be the toughest through the storm.

Utah lost one of its biggest ambassadors for the sport of cycling Saturday when Terry McGinnis, the executive director of the Tour of Utah, passed away after a long battle with cancer. McGinnis was 46. "He was a fixture in the Utah cycling community," Burke Swindlehurst (Team Bissell), from Salt Lake City, said. "Everybody knew him and I don't think I've ever heard a disparaging word said about him. He was just a friend to cycling and a friend to every one." McGinnis was also instrumental in turning the Tour of Utah into one of the biggest bicycle races in the country.

The USGP series made its third stop in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday. With record crowds in attendance and some seriously heavy mud on the course, Katerina Nash and Ryan Trebon raced to victory and into the series leaders’ jerseys at Day One of the USGP Derby City Cup.

The 93rd edition of the Giro d’Italia in 2010 will start in the Netherlands on May 8 before embarking on a 3,416.5km journey around the Italian peninsula and ending in Verona on May 30. That was the course unveiled in Milan on Saturday with 21 stages and plenty of tough climbs. Reigning champion Denis Menchov, the Russian Rabobank rider, was among the guests at the official presentation alongside former winner Damiano Cunego and Italian stars of the past such as Mario Cipollini.

North American stars Sebastian Haedo, Luis Amaran, and Alejandro Borrajo are the first members of the new Jamis/Sutter Home Men’s Cycling Team presented by Colavita, the team known for the last seven years as Colavita/Sutter Home. Jamis has been the bike supplier to the team for the last two season, and steps up to be title sponsor for next year. Haedo, Amaran, and Borrajo led the Colavita/Sutter Home Men’s Cycling Team to its best season ever in 2009. The team captured the NRC team title and Haedo was second in the NRC men's standings.

Bjarne Riis has been pleased with the debut season of Danish phenomenon Jacob Fuglsang; so pleased, in fact, that he’s signed him up for a three-year contract extension. The 24-year-old Dane will stay in a Saxo Bank jersey through the 2012 season, which is good news for Riis, who is always on the hunt for promising Danish talent. Riis was so impressed with Fuglsang, a former mountain bike racer who switched to the road following the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, that he’s predicting big things in the future.

Caisse d’Epargne has inked a deal with Spanish all-rounder Juan José Cobo to join the team for 2010. The team announced that Cobo, who won stages at the Vuelta a España and the Vuelta a Castilla y León this year, will round out its lineup for the upcoming season. Cobo, 28, joins several new top veterans heading to the Spanish-based, French-backed team. Also set to join Caisse d’Epargne in 2010 are Marzio Bruseghin, Christophe Moreau and former King of the Mountains winner Juan Manuel Soler.

The route for the 2010 Giro d’Italia won’t be revealed until Saturday, but hints of what’s in store are already being leaked in Italy. Several media outlets, including rival daily Tutto Sport, have scooped the newspaper owned by Giro organizers, La Gazzetta dello Sport, by cobbling together several pieces of the Giro puzzle. What’s already confirmed is that the 2010 Giro will start in Amsterdam. From there, it’s a matter of speculation and informed guessing. Here’s a sampling of what’s been whispered. The official route will be revealed Saturday:

French rider Aurelien Duval (Française des Jeux) was provisionally suspended on Friday by the UCI after testing positive for a stimulant. Analysis of the A sample Duval provided on October 1 at the Circuit Franco-Belge, tested positive for the banned stimulant norfenfluramine. UCI rules permit the 21-year-old Duval request and attend the analysis of his B sample. Duval joined Française des Jeux in the summer of 2008.

The managers of the Astana team said Friday that they will work tirelessly to keep Alberto Contador on the Kazakh-financed team, despite missing a UCI deadline that might give the defending Tour de France champion the right to terminate his contract. The Kazakh Cycling Federation, which manages the professional team, issued a statement restating its commitment to the sport and its desire to keep the four-time grand tour winner on its roster.

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The Astana team has missed a preliminary deadline to file required paperwork as part of the UCI’s annual review of teams’ ProTour status. Astana was one of five teams that missed the October 20 deadline, but may be the one that suffers the most immediate consequences, since UCI rules now allow riders on teams that have missed that deadline to terminate existing contracts.

The Amgen Tour of California has been a great early season race since its inception in 2006. Its organizers want it to be a great race, period. “We aspire to be an important part of the cycling calendar,” said Andrew Messick, AEG Sports president. “We felt as though being a February race we were, I don’t want to say pre-season, but we weren’t a race that most riders were really targeting.” To be a bigger race, the Tour of California needed two things, Messick said: a mid-season date and access to more climbing.

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California will venture high up into the Sierra Nevada, dispense with the traditional prologue, include a time trial in Los Angeles and feature the first mountaintop finish in the race’s history at Big Bear. The biggest change for the eight-day event remains the move from February to May (16-23), pitting it against the Giro d’Italia. Still, race organizers expect a field of comparable strength to 2009, when world champions and former winners of the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix lined up alongside America’s best riders.

World road champion Cadel Evans said Thursday he is considering returning to Australia in January to race the Tour Down Under for the first time since 2005. The Australian two-time Tour de France runner-up said he was considering changing his strategy for 2010 and riding in the Adelaide tour was "highly possible". Evans, who won the elite men's road race at the world championships in Switzerland this month, said he was mapping next year's campaign with Silence-Lotto team chiefs and would confirm his plans early next month.

The managers of the Tour de France arrived in Ajaccio, the capital city of Corsica Wednesday to kick off three days of meetings to explore the possibility of starting the race on the autonomous French Island in 2013. "This is the first step of a process to see if the Tour de France can be successfully held on Corsica,” said Tour director, Christian Prudhomme. During a press conference at the Corsican Assembly, Prudhomme said the meetings mark the first of "several trips” that will be necessary to rate the island’s ability to host the 2013 Grand Départ.

As the 2009 UCI calendar draws to a close, the 2010 spring classics are a faint flicker of pain and glory far off on the horizon. If all goes to plan for team manager Gavin Chilcott between now and then, the U.S.-based BMC Racing Team will line up at the start of the monuments with a good chance of taking one of the world’s biggest one-day titles.

Just as word leaked out beforehand about the route of the 2010 Tour de France, so several sources in Italy have published reports on the likely stages for the 2010 Giro d’Italia — which will be formally unveiled this Saturday in Milan. Race organizer RCS and its daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport have announced only the first three stages, which will all start in the Dutch city of Amsterdam next May 8, 9 and 10; but rival papers Tuttosport, La Stampa and La Repubblica have all carried stories on the likely route.

Saxo Bank’s Marcus Ljungqvist has announced plans to retire from competition and has accepted a director’s position at the new British-sponsored Sky team. The 35-year-old Ljungqvist said he had weighed several offers to continue riding, including one from the new RadioShack team, but decided it was time to hang up his cleats. "I am truly honored to have received offers in the twilight of my career," said Ljungqvist, "but all things come to an end and after serious reflection, I decided to look for a new challenge."

Katie Compton (Planet Bike) has become the first American to lead the UCI's international cyclocross points rankings. Compton, from Colorado Springs, Colorado, owes her lead to her win at the Treviso, Italy, world cup last month, combined with a string of wins at U.S. UCI races. She has won all seven UCI races she has started this season.[nid:99492] Compton is training in Colorado and will resume racing at the NACT weekend in Colorado next weekend.

Challenge Grifo Pro

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Nick Wieghall (California Giant Berry Farms) ensured there would be no repeat men's winners yet this year, while Kristi Berg (Redline Bicycles) made it three for three at the sand-heavy course third stop of the Seattle Cyclocross Series.

Spanish team Fuji-Servetto will ride on in the 2010 season thanks to a new title sponsor coming on board under its new name, Footon-Servetto. The team announced Tuesday the arrival of new title sponsor, Footon, a Swiss-based company specializing in foot insoles and other health care products. The news comes as the team’s future looked bleak.

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich on Tuesday brushed off the latest doping allegations against him and repeated his position that he will speak only when he is ready. On Monday, German magazine Der Spiegel cited a police investigation report which states Ullrich went to Madrid 24 times between 2003 and 2006 to see doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the Madrid gynecologist at the center of the Spanish probe Operación Puerto.

Despite its ProTour status for 2010 being still up in the air, Astana continues to bolster its squad for the upcoming season. Italian workhorse Paolo Tiralongo revealed he’s signed a two-year deal to join the Kazakh-backed team while Aussie sprinter Allan Davis confirmed he’s seriously considering an offer to join Astana despite having one more year on his contract with Quick Step. Meanwhile news media in Kazakhstan reports that two time Giro winner Gilberto Simoni may, too, be poised to sign with the team.

Navigation systems manufacturer Garmin Ltd. has announced plans to extend its sponsorship of the Garmin-Slipstream team, adding three years to a deal that was set to expire at the end of 2010. Citing the team’s performance and its commitment to “ethical sporting and developing the next generation of cycling champions,” the company said its sponsorship for the past 18 months has exceeded expectations.

There were a number of special bikes that I saw at Interbike that I have still not had much opportunity to write about. So I’ll use this week’s column to do so.

With the introduction of two new helmets for 2010, Rudy Project is taking a stab at the top of the helmet hierarchy, and hoping riders will take notice. “In essence, we’re calling 2010 the ‘year of the helmet,’” said Paul Craig, Rudy Project's North America CEO. “It’s the culmination of two to three years of research, development, and testing which has allowed us to leapfrog, in our eyes, other helmet technology.”

It is not unusual during a full season of racing to hear about a pro cyclist or two breaking a clavicle or other bone in a multi-rider pile-up. But is there something inherent to cycling that increases your risk for developing a break when you hit the pavement hard? A growing body of research indicates that being fit through cycling training alone does not guarantee optimal bone density. Cycling only may be bad for your bones.

Team Rubicon-ORBEA, presently known as Land Rover-ORBEA; Benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a first year UCI-continental team, is in search of a title sponsor. Rubicon’s two-year partnership with Land Rover will end December 31st, 2009. In order to continue with the team goals for 2010, the team needs to come up with a title sponsor by November 5th.

Kona’s Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks went one-two at Sunday’s cold and windy Wissahickon Cross in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, while Luna’s Georgia Gould won by a large margin. The women started off the UCI double-header, and despite the storm that turned the previous day’s Granogue course into a quagmire, the circuit at Wissahickon remained solid, though somewhat cooler than normal.

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Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) came out on top in the slop at Granogue Cross on Sunday. Suburban Wilmington, Delaware, felt more like northern Europe as riders lined up in 40-degree temperatures and drizzle to tackle a thick slime of mud brought on by three days of steady rainfall. Since 2001, the Granogue course has gained a reputation for its relentless punchy climbs, tricky off-camber descents and searing run-ups, but the addition of greasy mud added a new level of challenge to the UCI Cat 2 event.

The Zipp OVCX Tour paused in Bloomington, Indiana, on Sunday for a quick dive through an untraditional mix of fast single-track, multiple bridges, a paved climb and some sloppy field sections, with fall colors in full bloom. In the elite men’s field it was harvest time with no time to enjoy the landscape as OVCX leader Mitchell Kersting (Bob’s Red Mill) sprinted from the start and never looked back.

Popular Portland ‘crosser Molly Cameron (Portland Bicycle Studio) took the win during the Cross Crusade Sunday in Sherwood when series leader Sean Babcock (Team S&M) flatted in the closing laps of the Men’s A race. Despite taking a tumble on the last lap, masters national champion Wendy Williams (Hudz-Subaru) continued her dominance over the Women’s A field when she won her third straight in another tight back-and-forth battle with Veloforma’s Alice Pennington.

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Natasha Elliott (Garneau) made it two for two on Sunday, winning the second round of the Toronto International Cyclocross, while Jeremy Powers led a Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com sweep of the podium. It was another course entirely that the field tackled on Sunday — instead of square mazes and a climb up the ski hill, racers faced flowing, off-camber turns, spiced with a bit of sand and mud to keep the spectators happy.

Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli won their respective events at the 28th Chrono des Nations on Sunday in Les Herbiers, France. Vinokourov covered the 48.7km men's course in 1:00:09, 1:07 ahead of French time trial champion Jean-Christophe Péraud (Creusot Cyclisme). Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2r) finished third at 1:12. It was Vinokourov’s second win of the season and his first for Astana. His victory in the time trial of the Tour de l’Ain came as he rode for a Kazakh national team.

Kurt-Asle Arvesen will race next season for the new British cycling outfit Team Sky, his Saxo Bank team announced on Sunday. The 34-year-old Norwegian champion has raced for the Danish team run by Bjarne Riis since 2004. Arvesen, who won stage 11 of the Tour de France in 2008, was forced to withdraw from this year's Tour after breaking a collarbone in a heavy crash on stage 10.

If Bradley Wiggins is going to ride for Team Sky in 2010, you won’t hear it from him. The British rider is midway through a two-year deal with Garmin-Slipstream but has been heavily linked to the new ProTour team —an organization born with the mission statement of producing a British Tour de France winner in the next five years.

World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) won the second round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup on Sunday in Pizen, Czech Republic. On a circuit made more difficult by a steady rain, Albert took his second consecutive World Cup win in 1:05:13 with Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) second at 19 seconds back. Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) finished third at 0:21. American Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) finished 13th at 1:37. Niels leads the World Cup standings with 160 points. Stybar is second with 135 and Klass Vantornout (Sunweb Pro Job) third with 115.

Spanish head-banger Davide de la Fuente is close to penning a deal that will put him in an Astana jersey in 2010. According to the Spanish daily MARCA, all that’s missing is the signature to close the deal that will add some needed firepower to the depleted Astana roster for next season. The arrival of de la Fuente, a hard-nosed rider capable of winning one-day races and sneaking into breakaways, would be good news for Alberto Contador.

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.

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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.

Press Release

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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.

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.