CyclingFans: February 29, Belgium. Race starts at 11:50am CET (5:50am U.S. Eastern). Finish at around 4:43pm CET (10:43am U.S. Eastern). Live video from 3:00pm CET (9:00am U.S. Eastern).

VeloNation: Tour de Langkawi heads to crucial battleground of Genting Highlands.

CyclingNews: José Serpa (Androni-Venezuela) took victory on stage 5 of the Tour de Langkawi at Pandan Indah, while Darren Lapthrone (Drapac) moved into the leader’s yellow jersey.

CyclingNews: Races & Results.
Le Tour de Langkawi (Stages & results),
Strade Bianche (Start list),
Paris - Nice (Stages ),
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (Results),
Women's Tour of New Zealand (Stages & results),
Vuelta a Andalucia (Stages & results),
Rutas de América (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California (Stages ),
More...

VeloNation: Garmin Barracuda rider ‘not freaking out’ about climbs on today’s stage.

The Basque rider had twice finished fifth in the Tour and was always among the candidates to challenge for the final-three come July. But having the pressure of carrying the team colors of Euskaltel-Euskadi, the homegrown Basque team where he rode from 1998 to 2008, proved too much sometimes.

CyclingNews: It's one of the highlights of the entire professional cycling season and a race that is close to his heart, but Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) has revealed that he and his fellow pros are nervous at, and also slightly confused by, the crucial and fundamental changes that have been made to the parcours for the 2012 Tour of Flanders.

In "The Power of Habit," Charles Duhigg explores and exposes how habits essentially rule our lives. By learning how to shape them ourselves, we can entirely turn our lives around.

road.cc: What's that he's riding then? Doesn't look like a Team Machine...

PodiumCafe: The finishing circuit last year was the site of one of the greatest Belgian advertising moments I have seen in a long time. I give you Frites Man.

Bicycling: 5 ultraeasy ways to make your bike look and feel new.

Cyclismas: The UCI is currently considering banning – or at the very least de-listing – Iranian cyclist Behnam Khalilikhosroshahi, as the Tabriz Petrochemical Team rider’s 18-character-long surname is causing the Swiss governing body’s website to spontaneously crash with increasing frequency.

VeloNation: Race leader Dave Zabriskie rolled across the line in 70th place, preserving his one minute advantage in the general classification.

CyclingFans: Wednesday's Tour de Langkawi Stage 6 departs Proton Shah Alam at 10:00am local (3:00am CET, 9:00pm U.S. Eastern Tuesday) and is expected at the finish at Genting Highlands at around 12:57pm local (5:57am CET, 11:57pm U.S. Eastern Tuesday).  Tour de Langkawi live streaming is being provided (intermittently?) during each stage, with video highlights streamed online at 11:30pm local here.

When pro team directors complain about the UCI’s almost total ban on race radios, they say that without radios they can’t get essential information to their riders, especially when the race is in a state of flux. What they rarely mention is the role played by the motorcycle-mounted blackboard man.

CyclingNews: Danish Continental outfit Christina Watches-Onfone has revealed that talks to sign Davide Rebellin have failed, after rumors previously suggested that a deal was close to being completed. The 40-year-old Italian has been without a team since leaving Miche-Guerciotti last year, despite enjoying success with them, and has been looking for a team to prolong his career.

VeloNation: Polish National Team to ride WorldTour race again, along with Colnago-CSF Inox, Team Type 1 Sanofi and Caja Rural; no Polish trade teams eligible.

SteepHill: Strade Bianche (White Road) has rapidly risen as favorite among bike racing fans and racers since the first edition in 2007. Italy's version of Paris-Roubaix is held on the dirt roads of Tuscany with the finish in Siena.

CyclingNews: Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) may be the darling of the French public after his exploits at the Tour de France, but he has admitted that his riding style has won him few friends in the peloton over the years.

Wouter Weylandt, the Belgian cyclist who was tragically killed at the 2011 Giro d'Italia, is to have a memorial plaque dedicated to him in the Dutch city of Middelburg. Weylandt won the third stage of the 2010 Giro d'Italia in Middelburg and the city is keen to mark the life of the rider who delighted the local fans so much with his victory there on May 10, 2010. It will unveil the memorial on April 2.

BikeRumor: Fiets magazine scored some prototype spy shots of Shimano’s rumored 11-speed Dura-Ace group on Great Britain’s Alex Dowsett’s team bike at an early season Belgian mini-classic. They’re reporting his was the only bike of the Team Sky group with the rough looking (read: straight from the milling machine) test pieces.

WanderingJustin: Since March 2011, they’ve been my go-to glasses. My initial review praised their optics, fit, cool factor and their very innovative magnetic lens retention setup.

Bicycling: A competitive cyclist’s relationship with food can be summed up in one word: intense. Our love for food runs deep and plays a role in almost every aspect of cycling. A hearty meal is the reward for a long day in the saddle.

The Daily Distraction.

InnerRing: Yesterday the UCI put out a short press release on the apparent financial health of the pro peloton. Two statements stood out:
-  the budget of the 40 top teams is €321 million, an increase of 36.5% over three years.
-  the average annual salary is €264,000, up from €190,000 three years ago.

BikeSnobNYC: To find the perfect bike, sometimes all you have to do is ask.

VeloNation: Méditerranéen and Haut-Var victories put British rider far ahead in the season’s first ranking.

Today's Quote

“I’m not hiding it, I didn’t go well. I think I suffered more than I thought I would from my inactivity. But I wouldn’t be putting myself back in the game if I wasn’t convinced I could return to my old levels. You know well that I don’t like just to scrape a living.” -  Danilo Di Luca  CyclingNews

VeloNation: Cyclocross World champion honoured after his triumphant win in the sand dunes of northern Belgium.

PodiumCafe: Robert Penn's It's All About The Bike is the story of one man's quest to build the ultimate bicycle, wrapped around a potted history of the bike.

There's been little doubt that Shimano engineers have been developing an electronic Di2 version of the company's top-end XTR group but it's only recently that prototypes look to have been spotted in public. Canadian cross-country racer Geoff Kabush (Scott-3Rox Racing Team) appears to be testing a prototype drivetrain on his new Scott Scale 29, an observation based on two images he posted on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.

Cyclismas: The worldwide economic crisis has had its first casualty of the 2012 cycling season with Radioshack-Nissan in the unfortunate position of cutting back its classics season, bypassing both Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

Still unlisted on the Cannondale website is this ridiculously stealth Scalpel ULTIMATE 29er.  The guys at  Freshbikes debuted one of the first Scalpel 29 complete builds back a few months ago here, and now have their hands on one of the few Ultimate models available globally.

CycleOps Aluminium Rollers BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Look a bit basic but they’re fast to get rolling, easy to store and impressively smooth when you’re going flat out."

road.cc: Lightweight and very stiff racing shoes that you can heat-mould for the perfect fit.

Chicago-based shoe firm Lake are one of the world's most established cycle footwear brands, having brought out their first line of mountain bike shoes way back in 1982. The intervening years have seen them expand with a road range, one of which - a custom design of the range-topping CX401 - stood out at their UK distributor Moore Large and Co's annual show today.