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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.

So, what did ya think of the film about the Leadville Trail 100? Did you go? Did you like it? Hate it? Inspired? Laugh? Cry? Let's see your thumbs!

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:

Press Release

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.

Has Ben Delaney ever been to California? His story on the 2010 Tour of California route begins with "The 2010 Amgen Tour of California will venture high up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, ..."

The new league is part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), and is based on the high school mountain biking program established in California, where mountain bike racing has become a varsity high school sport.

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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.

Trail work is physically demanding and dangerous, but Joey Klein of the International Mountain Biking Association is a 15-years veteran of traveling the globe making singletrack for the rest of us.

Colorado teens will likely get a chance to race in the state's first high school mountain bike league in September next year. Supporters recently formed the Colorado High School Cycling League and plan a fundraising ride this weekend, led by Tom Danielson of the Garmin-Slipstream team. The ride departs at 9 am from the Bácaro Venetian Tavern in Boulder, Colorado.

Press Release

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.

A traffic investigator told jurors in the Los Angeles road rage trial this week that a driver’s comment at the scene of the incident “was so shocking his words burned into my brain.” Dr. Christopher Thomas Thompson is on trial in Los Angeles Superior Court for assault and other charges related to an incident on a narrow canyon road involving two cyclists on the Fourth of July, 2008. Thompson also faces charges related to a similar, earlier, incident on the same road, involving a different cyclist. If convicted of all charges, Thompson could spend up to five years in prison.

October 14 (Denver, CO) – Buy…Sell…Recycle! The 21st annual Subaru Denver VeloSwap, will be streaming live from this year’s event. The VeloSwap website (www.veloswap.com ) will be picking up live chatter and vendor specials through a twitter feed as well as live updates and interesting facts being broadcast from the VeloSwap floor.

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.