VeloNation: Garmin Barracuda rider keeps eye on bigger picture.

Evans and Gilbert to join forces at Strade Bianche...

VeloNation: Defending champion yet to hit form.

VeloNation: World under-23 champion takes a simple win after an aggressive race of breaks and attacks.

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

VeloNews: Race director José Luis López Cerrón — whose name made headlines after he bought the meat that Alberto Contador alleged triggered his clenbuterol positive in 2010 – said on the race web site that the tourism board from the Castilla y León region will cover any budget shortfalls.

RBAction: Marky Mark in the sky with rainbows while Boonen mis-judges and Jake Keough shines for America.

CyclingTips: "From what the guys at SRAM are telling me, Australia is the first market in the world for the new 2012 Red groupset to land. Yesterday I had the chance to watch the guys at Bike Gallery to build up a new BMC Team Machine SLR01 and took it out for a short spin."

Peloton: It took just 23 miles for me to figure out exactly what kind of bike the new Venge is. As the pace ramped up 1k from the top of the main climb on our Tuesday night club ride I found the elastic stretching as the riders that weighed 30lbs less than me began to dance on the pedals.

Amy Dombroski: "When I was driving to Holland for a ‘cross race I noticed how odd it seemed to see windmills not moving. In a windmill farm of ten, only one was moving and the others looked dead.  Though this is drastic in comparison, I noticed similarities in the cadence of the riders in the Three Legs Cycling Sprint DVD in relation to Cav’s spinners."

Jürgen Roelandts is back on the bike again, at least on the rollers. He hopes to get back on the road again this week, but knows he won't be racing again until May at the earliest.

"I found out quite a bit about the Georgia cyclocross scene: it’s highly localized, but there’s a serious love for the sport down there."

Niner's new Air 9 RDO (race day optimized) is a thoroughbred 29er hardtail built for speed and racecourse performance. It follows on the heels of the Jet 9 RDO, Niner’s competition-focused full-suspension cross-country bike.

BikeRumor: With wheel technology marching steadily on (and prices marching steadily up), it’s nice to look a step or two down the range to find a darn sexy wheel.  When Easton’s EA70 XCT 26in wheels arrived (a 29er version is also available), I was taken aback by how cool they looked.

CyclingNews: Mehdi Sohrabi must delay his 2012 European debut for Lotto-Belisol, due to visa problems.  The Iranian  will now start in the Three Days of West Flanders on Friday, instead of Le Samyn on Wednesday.

CyclingWeekly: The denial is unsurprising for the 38-year-old whose racing career has been defined by a gritty determination and never-say-die attitude in the toughest competitions on the calendar. Yet Roger Hammond's 12th place ride at the National Cyclo-Cross Championships on January 8 looks like his last.

After kicking off the season in Australia at the Tour Down Under, the WorldTour returns to Europe for its first event on the continent, Paris-Nice, and five teams from the host nation of France all look to figure in the mix.

CyclingNews: Russian rider Alexandr Kolobnev, formerly of Katusha, has been acquitted of systematic doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport today after the court upheld the decision of the Russian Cycling Federation not to ban him for a positive test at the 2011 Tour de France.

Boulder Report: For most of the stages of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge, we know only broad details—start and finish towns and likely climbs or routes. But on Tuesday night race fans learned the specific route of Stage 6, a highly anticipated ride from Golden to Boulder.

The Rain! Well, it was wet.
The Pain! It hurt, go figure.
The Lame? Not lame as in gimpy leg lame but more like ‘Geez did you see those lame dudes throwing their empty bottles and actually trying to hit spectators with them?’

VeloNews: With Tom Danielson popping like a balloon on the decisive climb of Genting Highlands and dropping out of the general classification, Garmin-Barracuda sport director at the Tour de Langkawi, Allan Peiper, tells VeloNews.com it’s time to change objectives, stop working on the front, and try and grab a stage win before the race finishes Sunday in Kuala Terengganu.

Serpa beats Nino Corridor to take Genting Highlands stage and yellow jersey

VeloNation: Tour de Langkawi classification shaken up

CyclingNews: Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) suffered severe chest pains on yesterday’s queen stage of the Tour de Langkawi, and despite a determined effort to limit his losses and stay in contention, in the end, the mountain, and his ailments got the better of him.

CyclingNews: Race organisers ASO have announced the wildcard entries for two of its biggest spring races, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In addition to the 18 ProTour Teams, who all receive compulsory invites, seven other teams have been given wildcard invitations to both Belgian events.

VeloNation: Showdown beckons at Tour de Langkawi.

CyclingNews: Pierre Rolland (Europcar) risks missing out on Paris-Nice due to a knee injury sustained at last week’s Tour de Haut Var. The Frenchman banged his knee against his stem when his chain slipped and the seemingly banal incident may cost him participation in the Race to the Sun, which gets underway on Sunday.

CyclingNews: Bjarne Riis and Team Saxo Bank had their day before the UCI's licencing commission on Monday, and must now await the group's decision as to whether the team will retain its WorldTour licence.  Alberto Contador's suspension removes a majority of the points the team used for its 2012 licence.

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.

The Daily Distraction.

BikeEurope: For model year 2012/2013 Shimano launched the city touring Alfine group with integrated Di2 electronic shifting. The Di2 technique was introduced in Dura-Ace and Ultegra component groups in the last years. The Di2 technology has proven itself in the most extreme weather conditions.

Irish Peloton: There is ongoing debate from all sides about the future of the sport of cycling with respect to the racing calendar and the distribution of money along with a potential breakaway league. Richard Moore wrote an excellent piece on it for Pro Cycling magazine which was reproduced on cyclingnews.com.

InnerRing: Kazakh team Astana has hired a British public relations agency called Weber Shandwick to help manage the team’s image. In the agency’s own words “to use the riders and the team to get media to re-evaluate perceptions of Kazakhstan” which is a nice way of saying trying to get people to forget Borat.

Today's Quote

“One day on the 2006 Tour, Tom Boonen, who was reigning world champion, was near the front, slowing things a little.  At the moment I launched my attack, he hit me hard on the back. I stopped, he yelled at me and I said to him: ‘You can shout if you like, but don’t touch me.’ I was the small French guy he could hit because I’m thirty centimetres smaller than him." -  Thomas Voeckler  CyclingNews

RedKitePrayer: Positive mental attitude (PMA* ) is one of those things that has primary, secondary and tertiary benefits. When you’re alone, it makes everything you do easier. When you’re with a gro    up, it makes things easier for the whole group and reflexively for you. Further, the example you set influences what people do in groups you may not even be a part of. The converse is also true. The more negative shit you put out into the world, the worse off you are, the worse off we all are.

Joanna Rowsell was born in Sutton, not too far from the Olympic Velodrome, and is already a seasoned campaigner on the boards and the road, even although she only turned 23 just before Christmas.

"So chainrings... No big deal right? I mean nobody makes a better aftermarket set than just getting stockers right? Wrong. Based in the sea side town of Santa Cruz California, Praxis Works lend us a set of their lovely, LevaTime Liquid Ano, forged chainrings."

BikeRadar: Doddy and Justin Loretz, examine the differences between 29in- and 26in-wheeled bikes, and hoping to dispel some of the myths and rumours surrounding the two.

VeloNews: George Hincapie vows to help his new BMC teammate Thor Hushovd at Paris-Roubaix and seems to have thrown in the towel on his own dreams of winning the Hell of the North.

Trek's flagship Superfly Pro carbon 29er hardtail gets upgrades to both the frame construction and spec for 2012. BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Great power transfer, natural-feeling geometry and smart overall spec list, but not as stiff or comfortable as some competitors."

VeloNews: Red heat-shrink tubing segments shrunk down around Eggbeater pedal ends. Photo: Lennard Zinn.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Brilliant value, race-ready carbon bike. Exciting to ride with responsive handling, but not the most cosseting."

CXMagazine: "As the season wore on, I realized that not only had my preparation for the season been completely wrong – you mean dropping long endurance rides in favor of short sessions of skills training wasn’t a good idea? – but also none of my attempted solutions came close to working."