CyclingFans: Monday's Paris-Nice Stage 2 departs Mantes-la-Jolie at 11:45am CET (5:45am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Orléans at around 4:20pm CET (10:20am U.S. Eastern).  Paris-Nice live streaming video should get underway at around 3:00pm CET (9:00am U.S. Eastern).

VeloNation: Swedish champion enjoys the best of the conditions to take first yellow in the Race to the Sun; Wiggins just a second behind, despite riding in the rain.

CyclingNews: Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank) suffered a setback to his Classics preparations today, crashing in the opening stage of Paris-Nice. The 2011 Tour of Flanders winner managed to finish the stage but was later taken to hospital. Scans and tests revealed no broken bones and Nuyens aims to start tomorrow’s 185 kilometer stage.

InnerRing: Paris – Nice starts today with a short time trial. Don’t call it a prologue, today’s stage is longer than 8km so it is classed as a proper stage in its own right. And that’s worth noting because over the 9.4km time gaps will open up. Whoever is capable of gaining time today will also be capable in the final time trial on the Col d’Eze too.

CyclingNews: Races & Results.
Le Tour de Langkawi (Stages & results),
Merco Cycling Classic (Stages & results),
Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen (Stages & results),
Tirreno-Adriatico (Stages ),
Le Samyn (Results),
Le Samyn des Dames (Results),
Strade Bianche (Results),
Paris - Nice (Stages ),
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (Results),
Amgen Tour of California (Stages ),
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CyclingNews: Alexander Serov (RusVelo) powered to a narrow victory in the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia's second and final stage, a 12.3km individual time trial in Murcia. The 29-year-old Russian finished 55 hundredths of a second in front of runner-up Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar Team), while Alexander Wetterhall (Endura Racing) finished third, three seconds back.

CyclingNews: Robert Gesink (Rabobank) put in a solid performance on stage 1 of the Tour of Murcia, finishing 7th, just under a minute behind stage winner and race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team). It was further confirmation that although the Dutchman has yet to hit top form, he is well on his way to a full recovery from a broken leg that wrecked the tail end of his 2011 season.>

White Industry, famous for their beautiful chrome hubs, didn’t disappoint. On display at their booth were their splined track hubs. One side features their proprietary splined interface, which eliminates stripped cogs, while the other is traditionally threaded.

VeloNews: So many amazing craftsmen attend and show at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show that giving them all due credit is nearly impossible. After the first day of the show, however, we have found four bikes that stood out for their creativity and execution.

MurrietaPatch: Friday will bring the return of the popular IE Bikes time trial. Unlike any other time trial in Southern California, its European style terrain consisting primarily of paved roadway and a 1.2-mile portion of unpaved/hard compact dirt.

VeloNation: Arnaud Démare takes win number three of first pro season as yellow jersey passes from one Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider to another.

CyclingFans: Stage 2 starts at 12:15pm CET (6:15am U.S. Eastern). Finish at around 4:52pm CET (10:52am U.S. Eastern).

VeloNation: Malaysian race concludes in front of huge crowds in Kuala Terengganu.

SingleTrack: The Elite Mens’ start at Flat Creek Ranch.

CyclingNews: Specialized-lululemon put on a stunning display of aggressive, tactical racing at the Merco Cycling Classic criterium, netting the stage victory for Ina Teutenberg. The German champion triumphed in the sprint ahead of Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies duo Joelle Numainville, the race's best young rider, and Leah Kirchman, the Canadian criterium champion.

Today's Quote

“There are few more impressive than Cancellara when he's on. He doesn't just win, he destroys." -  Jered Gruber  PEZCyclingNews

InnerRing: For a while if you wanted to follow Colombian cycling it meant the excellent Cycling Inquisition blog. Briefly an exciting new force in cycling in the mid 1980s now the country’s riders are making a return.

BikeRumor: With the introduction of the new SLX group, Shimano formally announced their new Direct Mount rear derailleur system. We say “system” because it’s not really a new “standard” in the moan-and-groan sense of the word that means you’ll have one more thing to figure out when upgrading parts.

road.cc: South coast wins bit=g on West Coast at the North American Handbuilt Bike Show in Sacramento.

The Daily Distraction.

CyclingNews: The AIGCP (Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels) held its annual spring meeting in Paris on Friday, voting on a number of key issues within the sport but in a damning indictment for the UCI, it was unanimously agreed that its members have no confidence in the current leadership of cycling's governing body.

Cyclismas: The Schleck Line is an expression in pro cycling, deriving from the name of pro cyclist Andy Schleck whose lifetime time trial performance is taken to define the threshold of incompetent cycling. When a cyclist fails to finish in front of a Schleck, the rider is said to be below the Schleck Line.

CyclingNews: Two sections of the Paris-Roubaix route are in question for the running of the race on April 8. The famous cobblestones in the Arenberg Forest must still be cleaned as they are still too dangerous to be ridden.

VeloNation: Wheelchair-bound rider takes up administrative post with “her team”; still determined to ride again.

BikeRadar: All this week we've been running a video series on 29er mountain bikes designed to dispel some of the myths that have been, for want of a better word, pedalled over the years about the bigger wheeled bikes.

It's 'be-cruel-to-bike-tires' season with the cobbled classics here.

CyclingTips: The 3 Peaks Challenge is coming up this weekend and I just started thinking about everything I'll need to do to prepare. Without exaggerating, it's the toughest ride I've ever done and to simply getting around it is an enormous effort. If you're like me you haven't done nearly enough training to touch Nick Mitchell's sub 8hr time, however, there are a few things you can still do to make it one of the most enjoyable and satisfying 235km of your life.

RedKitePrayer: What I see going on in this randonnee bike from Bishop are all the values I hold highest in frame building, and all in one bike. The fillet brazing is exceptional. He thins the points of the lugs, which I can say from experience takes more filing than you’ll do in a year of fingernails. And he adds small brass fillets to the lugs to smooth the transitions from one tube to the other. I didn’t see a thing on this bike that needed more refinement.

Impressive minimalist saddle for all-round road duties, although scuff bumpers would be a practical tweak.