CyclingFans: March 14, Belgium Race starts at 12:15pm CET (7:15am U.S. Eastern). Finish at around 4:45pm CET (11:45am U.S. Eastern). Live video from 3:00pm CET (10:00am U.S. Eastern).

BicycleRetailer: Girl Bike Love’s CycloFemme, a day celebrating women in cycling, is already catching on.

CyclingFans: This inspiring video shows highlights from the 2010 edition of Milan-San Remo, set to music by Coldplay ("Clocks").  For the EIGHTH consecutive year, you can follow Milan-San Remo at www.cyclingfans.com.  (Saturday!).

CyclingNews: Race organizers have named the 16 teams, including some of the world’s best international and domestic squads, to compete in the 2012 Amgen Tour of California, which will take place May 13 to 20. Comprised of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) ProTeam, Pro Continental and Continental squads, the 16 world class teams chosen to participate in the 2012 race will include Olympic hopefuls and Tour de France contenders representing more than 20 countries, giving fans around the world a preview of what is to come in July in both France and London.

Milan-San Remo - March 17
Paris - Nice (Stages & results),
Tirreno-Adriatico - March 7-13 (Stages & results),
Tour de Taiwan - March 10-16 (Stages & results),
Ronde van Drenthe (Results),
Panamerican Road Championships (Stages & results),
Dwars door Drenthe (Results),
Drentse 8 (Results),
Merco Cycling Classic (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages ),
More...

CyclingIQ: Saxo Bank, the only ProTeam present among the 19 participating teams at this year’s Tour de Taiwan, today got the stage win most pundits would have expected from the first division squad. Could the delayed “inevitability” of a Saxo Bank victory hint at a shrinking qualitative gap between Asia and Europe?

Lee Rodgers’ Tour de Taiwan Diary: Itʼs showtime.

The pack is called ʻthe packʼ for a reason — collectively weʼre hunting, and yet, paradoxically, every individual is potential prey. The Cannibal? Man, we all love the taste of rider meat!

RBAction: Kendall Ryan of Team TIBCO/To the Top earned her first win of the season this past weekend, taking Saturday’s criterium stage of the Tour de Murrieta in southern California. Ryan got ample help from teammate Lindsay Myers en route to the sprint win over Tour of New Zealand stage winner Loren Rowney (Specialized-lululemon).

The freedom..the challenge..the passion..the pursuit of a great coffee. We simply call it THE WHEEL REVOLUTION.
Crew neck t-shirt, Printed graphic on front and back and embroidered badge on sleeve. Cotton jersey with peached finish for that super soft and worn feel.

BikeRadar verdict: 5 out of 5 stars. "Stiff and light, with a heat mouldable custom fit."

BikeRumor: Some people just like a clean handlebar. Or a clean stem. Or a really short one.

PodiumCafe: Horner was far from upset with the result, coming so early in the season, and on the heels of an eight-month layoff following a crash in the 2011 Tour de France.

CyclingNews: Vincenzo Nibali of Liguigas-Cannondale was the surprise winner of Tirreno-Adriatico, as former race leader Christopher Horner of RadioShack lost 20 seconds on the closing time trial to fall to second. Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) showed that he had not forgotten how to time trial, easily cruising to the win.

InnerRing: As far as I know, Maurice De Muer and Jerry Casale never met. But these two men, one French, the other American, shared a love for cycling in very different ways, and each was a mentor to countless numbers of young cyclists. They both died last week.

Cyclismas: After a dismal beginning to the 2012 campaign with victories only coming from über-cyclist Fabian Cancellara, Team RadioShack-Nissan has gone on a public relations offensive to draw attention away from their performances on the bicycle, including today’s disastrous time trial performance by Chris Horner, losing Tirreno-Adriatico by a mere 14 seconds.

VeloNation: Froome involved in separate training crash.

VeloNews: Bigger tires roll faster at the same tire pressure than smaller tires that are otherwise identical, readers often don’t believe me. And those same readers also often don’t believe that dropping that bomber pressure they run in their tires will reduce their rolling friction.

VeloNews: SRAM’s new Red group is a clear step up from the previous Red generation, providing vastly improved front shifting, drastically reduced drivetrain noise, and a further reduction in weight. But can some of those improvements be had without buying the whole group? SRAM says no, but after testing on our own, we disagree.

RBAction: Be honest. When was the last time you had a stimulating conversation about your bike’s bottom bracket while you were out on a group ride? When was the last time you ran into your local bike shop full of anticipation to check out the latest in bottom bracket choices? It’s safe to say that few components have been as overlooked and disregarded in the marketplace as the bottom bracket. No more.

PEZ: All about the science of cycling - the book features both the latest scientific findings along with practical knowledge geared for your own training or your next workout, and will be landing at your local bookshelves in late April or available for pre-order as a signed copy. We caught up with Stephen and Hunter for a preview of Cutting Edge Cycling.

PodiumCafe: Woodland's stories are entertaining and cover a wide variety of sports and the whole history of the Olympic Games.

Chris Froome of Team Sky has hit and seriously injured a 72-year-old pedestrian in a training accident in Italy, according to the Italian media. Both were taken to hospital, with Froome found only to have scrapes and bruises.

The Daily Distraction.

The Girl with the Cowbell Tattoo: DC or Bust!

CycleSport: It took quite a while to set up a face-to-face interview with the president of cycling’s  governing body. Almost a year lapsed between the first email request to the UCI’s communications manager, Enrico Carpani, and the day I sat down with Pat McQuaid at the cyclo-cross World Championships in Belgium at the end of January.

CyclingNews: Lawyers representing the doctor at the center of the Operación Puerto blood doping investigation, Eufemiano Fuentes, have acknowledged that he did carry out blood transfusions for professional athletes, but are insisting that he wasn’t breaking any laws when he did so. Due to face trial in Madrid later this year along with five others, Fuentes is accused of a crime against public health due to the fact that he helped to carry blood transfusions in hotel rooms.

If the evergreen Chris Horner ever does retire from professional cycling, the 40-year-old American will no doubt field offers to provide TV race commentary. Why? Because not only does Horner love to tell a story, but he’s also universally touted as a tactical genius, able to read a race better than anyone in the pro peloton.

Today's Quote

"Life goes on whether you win or lose for sure. So I'll try to relax tonight and then in the morning as the race approaches, hopefully I'll remain calm and easy." - Chris Horner CyclingNews

EuroSport:The International Olympic Committee will decide on the 2004 Olympic gold medal of the American rider before the end of the eight-year statute of limitation in August.

VeloNation: Infusing Italian passion and style into their clothing.

CyclingNews: BMC Bicycles is continuing its backing of the top-ranked US development cross country mountain bike racing team this season. In its ground-breaking 2011 season, the team's racers earned the U23 national title and the U23 men's and women's US Pro XCT titles. For 2012, the squad has re-vamped its roster of promising young American mountain bike talent.

BikeRumor: Counterfeits. The word conjures up images of guys on the street with trench coats full of fake Rolex watches, or trunk fulls of knock off designer handbags, not something to do with bikes. But, as Thomson recently found out, there are counterfeit bike parts out there that to the untrained eye can look the part.

CompetitiveCyclist: Remind yourself why you fell in love with bike racing by watching the last few minutes of Stage 4 of this year's Tirreno Adriatico. It was a 251km, seven and a half hour marathon where simply reaching the finish line was an accomplishment. The attacking in the last few minutes make the race seem like a form of collective attempted murder.

road.cc: The rise of African cycling & Craven Camp - Dan's project to nurture the next generation of Namibian cycle talent.

BikeRumor: Bamboo as a frame building material has been around for a while now.  Builders such as Calfee and Boo Cycles have been using with much success.  Since 2008 Panda, based in Fort Colins, CO, has been building their unique steel lugged bambooframes.  I got a closer look at this years NAHBS.  Shown above is their lugged steel bike with bamboo seattube called The Action.