Road

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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.

BERKELEY, Calif. – The Bay Area’s cycling social event of the season, the NorCal League’s CycleFest 2009 will feature the CEO of Slipstream Sports, Jonathan Vaughters, as its special guest at its main annual fundraiser, a three-day gathering, November 6-8 in Mill Valley.

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Alejandro Valverde finally has a date with destiny. November 16, to be exact, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear testimony in the ongoing appeal on his two-year racing ban in Italy for links to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal. The reigning Vuelta a España champion is fending off allegations leveled by Italian authorities that he was one of the top clients of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, a Madrid gynecologist and alleged ring-leader of the Puerto ring.

Philippe Gilbert must be wishing he had this ripping form a few weeks ago at the world championships in Mendrisio. Just days after taking scalps at Paris-Tours and Coppa Sabatini, the Belgian bomber rounded out his October treble with victory Thursday at Giro del Piemonte in the season’s penultimate race. Sixth at the road worlds in Switzerland, Gilbert has been laying it on thick during the final races of the 2009 European racing calendar, taking three consecutive victories this week.

Related: Interactive Google Map of the 2010 Tour route

While Garmin-Slipstream’s Chris Sutton made it a hat trick at Australia’s Jayco Herald Sun Tour Thursday, beating out Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell in a bunch kick for a third consecutive stage, what was more interesting was how the general classification now sets up for Thursday’s 10km time trial. The fourth stage of this tour, a 139km roundabout route from Anglesea to Barwon Heads, played out in nearly identical fashion to the previous day: two riders escaped, were caught close to the finish, and Sutton, led out by teammate Bradley Wiggins, beat Cantwell in a sprint.

Carlos Sastre, the 2008 Tour de France champion, says he won’t commit to racing the 2010 Tour until he’s studied the routes of all three grand tours. After getting a glimpse of what’s a harder, more climber-friendly Tour in Wednesday’s roll-out of the 2010 route, Sastre’s comments over doubts of a possible Tour start come as a surprise.

In the cutthroat pro peloton, Garmin-Slipstream rider Bradley Wiggins is the exception — a non-stop joker with outside interests in music, fashion, Mod-era scooters and when he’s not preparing for a race, a pint or two of beer. Take, for example, this exchange between the British rider and a TV reporter prior to the start of Thursday’s fourth stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. (Background info: British Sky Broadcasting, the sponsor of the new-for-2010 British cycling team Sky, is the United Kingdom’s largest pay-TV provider.)

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Related: Interactive Google Map of the 2010 Tour route

Here are some reactions from the main players during Wednesday’s Tour de France presentation: Alberto Contador – 1st overall: “My authentic rival is Andy Schleck. Looking at the time trial, it’s better for me than last year. This Tour is better for me than last year, especially with a stage finish atop a climb so difficult as the Tourmalet.

When the lights dimmed in the Congrés de Palais in Paris for the presentation of the 2010 Tour de France, the unexpected was the plat du jour. Surprises are always part of the Tour presentation, and 2010 certainly didn’t disappoint. Hard days in the Pyrénées and a long, penultimate-day time trial in Bordeaux set the stage for a final week clash that should keep fans on the edge of their seats.

The scenario was different but the outcome the same for Garmin-Slipstream sprinter Chris Sutton, who took his second consecutive stage win at Australia’s Jayco Herald Sun Tour Wednesday. Unlike his win Tuesday, which came from a group whittled down through attrition in the wind, Sutton took the victory and subsequent race lead Wednesday out a hard-charging lead group established over a cat. 2 climb just 15km from the finish line.

Reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador played down the threat of a doping probe that was launched a day before the presentation of next year's race. Paris prosecutors on Tuesday revealed they had launched an investigation after the discovery of suspicious medical equipment including "syringes and drips" during the Tour de France in July.

American Ben Jacques-Maynes is quietly having a strong Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Riding in his second Sun Tour, the Bissell rider finished 10th on stage 2, making the crucial 13-man split with 30km remaining before he lost contact with the leaders and ceded one minute. On stage 3 he finished 14th, two seconds behind the winner, and sits ninth overall. A strong time trialist, BJM could vault himself into the top five, or even on to the podium, following the 10km stage 5 time trial Friday.

The organization representing the world’s top professional cycling teams has asked to meet with the UCI to review a recent decision to phase out the use of two-way radios in the sport. Meeting in advance of Wednesday’s 2010 Tour de France presentation, the Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels (AIGCP) requested a meeting with the UCI in order to voice concerns over a ban imposed by the governing body’s management committee last month.

Beverly Park Elementary in Burien, Washington, hosted the second stop on the 2009 Seattle cyclocross (SCX) series. The day broke chilly but sunny and with the sun, the temp came up nicely for most races. Still no traditional 'cross weather for SCX. The course was very compact, consisting of an old cintrex running track and associated field on one terrace and then a back section of thicker grass and pavement on an upper section, separated by about 30 vertical feet.

Press release

Even though the September trade shows are over, there are still plenty of new products on the horizon. Based on company press releases, we found the following to fuel our post-Interbike gear lust. We'll start with the bling - Campagnolo's new clothing and wheels, and then come back to reality with some new lubes from Motorex and some affordable race-proven clothing from Pactimo.

Campy keeps the pressure on

Prosecutors in Paris said Tuesday that they have launched an investigation into doping at this year's Tour de France after the discovery of suspicious medical equipment, including "syringes and drips," disposed of by teams in July. According to French daily Le Monde, the investigation involves a number of teams including the Astana squad of Tour winner Alberto Contador and his soon-to-be-former teammate Lance Armstrong. Prosecutors, however, noted they are reviewing materials from several teams and have not targeted individual riders or specific teams thus far.

An autopsy on Belgian cyclist Franck Vandenbroucke, found dead in his hotel room at a seaside resort in Senegal on Monday, will take place on either Wednesday or Thursday, police announced Tuesday. "The autopsy will take place (Wednesday) or (Thursday) in Dakar," a police source told reporters on Tuesday, before adding that "we shouldn't lose ourselves in conjecture" over the cause of his death.

Press Release

The Fly V Australia team is a bit of an enigma. It’s an American/Australian team, sponsored by an Australian airline (V Australia, a branch of Virgin Blue Airlines) as a marketing tool to promote a new non-stop flight from LAX to Sydney.

Garmin-Slipstream took control of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour Tuesday during a 141km battle of attrition from Colac to the coastal town of Warrnambool that was marked by strong winds that fractured the peloton into pieces. By the finish only six riders remained at the front of the race, three of whom wore the blue-and-orange argyle of the American squad, including stage winner Chris Sutton.

Behind every great cycling event are its race director and management company. At the Tour de France, it’s Christian Prudhomme and ASO; the Amgen Tour of California has Jim Birrell and Medalist Sports; at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour it’s Michael Hands and TL Sports, a Victoria-based event management company that also runs several running events in Melbourne.

It’s been three weeks since Interbike, but I still get questions asking what really caught my eye at this year’s show. There was plenty and, until now, there really hasn’t been space in the articles I’ve done on VeloNews.com and in the print version for all of it. Aside from what I’ve already posted and put in the magazine, there were some real treasures and I’ve decided to devote today’s column to some of the other things that I found to be really cool. So here are some new components that appealed to me.

Modern retro

One man competing at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour after a long spell off the radar is Garmin-Slipstream’s Trent Lowe, who has been absent from the pro peloton for nearly the entire 2009 season.

Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke has died at the age of 34, a source close to the racer told the French news service Agence France Presse. According to Belgian media, Vandenbroucke was found dead in his hotel room in Senegal, where he was on holiday. A preliminary diagnosis suggests Vandenbroucke suffered from a pulmonary embolism. "Sadly this has only partly come as a surprise, for we knew he was not doing too well," said his uncle, former racer Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke. "He was up and down, both in terms of his health and his morale. He left for Senegal on Sunday."

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Katie Compton (Planet Bike-Stevens) made it three for three on Sunday in the final round of the Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival, while Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) used a tight corner just before the finishing straight to get the better of Ryan Trebon (Kona). The women’s race followed the script that had been written over the previous two rounds. Sue Butler (Monavie-Cannondale) got the hole shot, while Compton, who did not reconnoiter the course beforehand, was content to do her inspection during the race before riding off to another dominating win.

Proving that age is just a number, 40-year-old Estonian Jann Kirsipuu of the Malaysian team LeTua took the opening stage of Australia's Jayco Herald Sun Tour Monday in Ballarat. A four-time Tour de France stage winner, Kirsipuu out-sprinted Garmin-Slipstream’s Chris Sutton to take the stage win and the first leader’s jersey of the tour. Pre-race predictions proved correct, as strong crosswinds split the peloton just 30km into the 149km stage, with 41 riders making the selection.

Chad Gerlach’s high-profile comeback to pro cycling after five years of abusing drugs and living on the streets took a reverse this summer as he once again appeared to spiral down into addiction and panhandling. But more recently, with a new baby and assistance from family and friends, he’s off the street and back on the roads, in addiction treatment and hoping to resume his career.

David Clinger knows the sport of cycling from the highest of the highs to the lowest depths it brings. He knows those valleys and peaks depend as much on personal choices as they do on talent. It's why, when asked if he'd heard about Chad Gerlach's relapse into addiction, Clinger showed as much disappointment as sympathy.

Let the record show that upon crossing the finish line first Sunday in Rhode Island, Tim Johnson's first question was not about how his beloved Red Sox had fared in a playoff game that afternoon. Instead he asked how his Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com teammate Jeremy Powers had fared at the races in Ohio. Johnson made the Red Sox query next.

Sven Nys (Landbouwkredit-Colnago) came from behind to win the opening round of the Superprestige cyclocross series on Sunday in Ruddervoorde, Belgium. World champion Niels Albert (BKCP Powerplus) took the lead from the gun, leaving Nys, Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Projob) and Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) in his wake. But with six laps to go Nys had fought his way up to Albert, and in short order he put the hammer down, quickly building a gap that the world champion could not close.

Belgian Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) on Sunday won Paris-Tours for the second straight year. Gilbert beat compatriot Tom Boonen and Slovenia's Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) in a three-man dash for the line in the 230km semi-classic. Italian Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) finished fourth with Spaniard Oscar Freire fifth, some 20 seconds off the leading trio. For Gilbert the win brought a measure of revenge after Boonen pipped him to the Belgian championship in June.

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Suspended Austrian racer Bernhard Kohl has accused the doctor of his former Gerolsteiner team of overseeing an organized doping program at the 2008 Tour de France. In an interview published in the Austrian newspaper Kurier, Kohl charged said that physician Mark Schmidt was closely involved in doping riders. The 27-year-old former chimney sweep has admitted doping during the race, in which he had apparently won the king of the mountains jersey and finished third in the overall standings. Kohl’s results have since been negated.

It was a pair of Australian sprinters battling for opening honors at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour Sunday in the former gold-mining town of Ballarat, with Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell edging out Garmin-Slipstream’s Chris Sutton in a bike throw to the line. Cantwell got the better of Sutton after the Garmin rider opened his sprint 200 meters from the line out of a group of 18 riders that separated from the peloton halfway through the 60-minute “preface” criterium, which does not count towards the overall classification.

The Cincinnati UCI3 Festival moved north Saturday to the pocket-sized Sunset Park in Middletown, Ohio, for the Java Johnny’s – Lionhearts International; and Jeremy Powers and Katie Compton once again delivered an old-fashioned whuppin.'

Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and Katerina Nash (Luna Chix) dominated the first day of the inaugural Providence Festival of Cyclocross in Rhode Island on Saturday. The race was held under dry, fast conditions at Roger Williams Park, a sprawling in-town venue strewn with duck ponds, a carousel, a zoo and a Parthenon-like stage that made a perfect podium. The park, which hosted the national cyclocross championships in 2005 and 2006, also was home to the Interbike trade-only bike demo days Thursday and Friday and a public bike expo this weekend.

The time trial is said to be the race of truth: a rider alone, without aid of drafting, sets off in a race against the clock.

Robert Gesink made up for some of his Vuelta a España disappointment by winning the 100th edition of Italy’s Giro dell'Emilia on Saturday. The Rabobank rider beat Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank) and Swede Thomas Lovkvist (Columbia-HTC) in a sprint finish after 198.2km and five ascents of the San Luca climb. Australia's new world champion Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) finished fourth at 20 seconds, and 10 seconds ahead of Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov (Astana). It was Geesink's first win since a crash forced him out of Vuelta contention last month.

Only Saturday’s 72-mile (118 km) stage at the Vuelta a Chihuahua stands in the way of Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) delivering a victory. “I’m feeling relaxed, with no pressure,” Sevilla said. “I have very talented teammates around me who know what to do to make sure I maintain my lead through to the end.”

Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) and Katie Compton (Planet Bike) were victorious by wide margins in Friday’s Cyclo Stampede, the opener of this year’s Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival. But the race was truly dominated by the team of Mother Nature and Gravity. Mother Nature delivered plenty of pre-race rain, while gravity took advantage of riders as they rode, or rather, tried to ride, the multiple off-camber straights and turns on the course. Even Compton was victimized by the muddy slopes, falling twice and running off course in the first lap.

The 58th Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Australia’s second-largest stage race behind the Tour Down Under, takes place in Victoria from October 11-17, beginning in Ballarat on Sunday and ending in Melbourne six days later. Confirmed teams include American squads Garmin-Slipstream, led by Bradley Wiggins, Bissell, led by Ben Jacques-Maynes, Jelly Belly, led by Brad Huff, and Rock Racing, led by Ivan Dominguez.

Organizers said Friday that they are still finalizing the route of the fifth edition of the Amissa Bongo Tropical, slated for January 19 to 24 in the west central African country of Gabon. "We expect to finalize the route by the end of the month,” the organizers said in a statement. “We are considering routes through the Haut-Ogooué, Moyen-Ogooué and Woleu-Ntem and a finish in (the capital of) Libreville."

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Caisse d’Epargne’s Daniel Moreno won the fourth stage at Mexico’s Vuelta a Chihuahua Thursday, as Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) increased his lead in the overall standings with a third-place finish on the day. Sevilla finished 19 seconds behind Moreno in the 192km stage from Guachochi to Parral. Michael Rasmussen (Tecos Trek), who held the overall lead earlier in the race, was second, two seconds behind Moreno.

Niels Albert is on a roll. The world cyclocross champion, a rider who became the discipline’s new prince last season, started his season with four victories in the lead-up to the first World Cup in Treviso, Italy, which he went on to win. Until now, Sven Nys has been regarded as the king of ’cross, but he’s had a very different start to his season. After a top-15 placing at the 2009 mountain bike world championships, his cyclocross season had a rocky start.

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Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) won Italy's Coppa Sabatini Thursday, outsprinting ISD's Giovanni Visconti and Leonardo Bertagnoli (Diquigiovani) after joining a large and successful 24-man break earlier in the 199km race. Gilbert's teammate, recently crowned world champion Cadel Evans, was part of the break and remained aggressive throughout. Evans made a late surge on the final two-kilometer climb on the lastlap, setting a strong tempo for Gilbert and leaving the group strung out in single-file.