The World Cup series came to a close last weekend in Italy, with Swiss cross-country star Christoph Sauser and French downhiller Celine Gros locking up the only two overall titles that were still in doubt.

As for the races in the high mountain town of Livigno, Belgian Roel Paulissen took the men’s XC, with Gunn-Rita Dahle of Norway continuing her unbeaten streak with yet another win. The Norwegian’s run is up to 11 straight World Cups dating back to the start of the 2003 season. Dahle is now the reigning World Cup, world and Olympic champion.

In the downhill, Gros also got the win in the women’s race, while fellow French rider Fabian Barel followed up his world title win in Les Gets with victory in Italy. Czech Michal Prokop took the final four-cross win to go with his overall title, while American Jill Kintner earned victory in the women’s four-cross.

The men’s downhill (Steve Peat) and women’s four-cross titles (Sabrina Jonnier) were also secured at the World Cup stop in Calgary, Alberta.

Kintner’s four-cross win was one of several solid results by U.S. riders that included a second in the downhill by Luna pro Kathy Pruitt, and breakthrough fifth-place effort for Adam Craig in the men’s cross-country. The Giant-Pearl Izumi rider finished strong moving from ninth to fifth during the second half of the race. He was 2:44 behind Paulissen, who beat Siemens-Cannondale teammate Christoph Sauser by just 13 seconds.

The result bumped Craig all the way to 17th in the final World Cup standings. Fellow American Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski finished as the highest ranked North American in 12th. The RLX Ralph Lauren rider was 30th at 9:50 in Livigno.

"I've always known I could ride with these guys," said Craig, who will be among the favorites at this weekend's U.S. national championships in Mammoth. "But it was nice to finally prove it."

Despite Sauser’s clear overall win, there was no series champion awards ceremony after the race because the fate of Filip Meirhaeghe has yet to be decided. Despite an announcement of his positive test at the end of July, the Belgian cycling federation hasn’t ruled on what Meirhaeghe’s punishment will be.

Right now Meirhaeghe is listed as the third-place finisher in the series behind Sauser and Paulissen, but one would assume that Meirhaeghe’s win at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup would be nullified since his positive test was contested just two days before the race.