CyclingFans: Monday's Volta a Catalunya Stage 1 departs Calella at 1:35pm CET (8:35am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Calella at around 4:58pm CET (11:58am U.S. Eastern). Volta a Catalunya live streaming video is scheduled to get underway by around 3:45pm CET (10:45am U.S. Eastern).

SoCalCycling: Joseph Schmalz (Elbows Racing) won the Pro Men's San Dimas Hospital Road Race from a breakaway in epic conditions.

Milan-San Remo - March 17 (Start list),
MTB World Cup Cross Country #1 March 16-18 (Races & results),
San Dimas Stage Race March 16-18 (Stages & results),
Oceania Cycling Championships March 16-18 (Stages & results),
Nokere-Koerse - March 14 (Results),
Paris - Nice March 4-11 (Stages & results),
Tirreno-Adriatico - March 7-13 (Stages & results),
Tour de Taiwan - March 10-16 (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages ),
More...

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CyclingNews: Howe takes victory in men's crit.

CyclingNews: Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower) celebrated a sweet victory over Burry Stander (Specialized) and Manuel Fumic (Cannondale) in the elite men's cross country race at the South African World Cup, the first round of the 2012 season.

Liquigas-Cannondale went three-four in Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, but the team was left wondering what could have been had things just gone a little differently.

Brussels Airlift.

PodiumCafe: You can pick any of several points and call that the start of the season -- TdU, Omloop, Paris-Nice opener. As of the departure from Milan yesterday, nobody in their right mind can refuse to acknowledge the season is now underway.

Craig Lewis: Coming into this year, the Amgen Tour of California (ATOC) was always in the back of my mind as a race where I really wanted to shine. I knew there was never a guarantee that Champion System would be invited, but you can’t let thoughts like that get in the way of your goals. After reading the list of teams that would be invited to ATOC this year, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one left scratching my head. Are we at Champion System disappointed? You bet.

Peloton: The 2012 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will begin tomorrow. Almost canceled due to lack of funding, the race has the makings of a classic with a star-studded field. Riders like Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner (RadioShack) and Bradley Wiggins (SKY) are on form and flying, while Andy Schleck (RadioShack) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) are still building form.

TwistedSpoke: You know that Milan San Remo was a bad race for Garmin-Barracuda when there’s no mention of it on the team website. Home page news is the new 2012 team jerseys are in stock, there’s a limited edition poster available and that Sep Vanmarcke won Omloop a few weeks ago.

Australian Simon Gerrans kicked off the 2012 season by winning the national road championship and the Santos Tour Down Under, immediately putting his new GreenEdge team on the map. It was an illustrious start for Gerrans, 31, who first won the Tour Down Under in 2006 as a second-year pro.

VeloNation: Should Sky have given Boasson Hagen more support?

road.cc: An international Raleigh celebrates 125 years of the marque's existence.

VeloNews: Milan-San Remo is a monster of a race. It may not be the toughest of the classics, but it is no doubt the longest, with the official race length at 298km. Being that this is the first really big classic of the year, every team is firing on all cylinders to try and prove their worth. The speeds were very high on Saturday (the peloton covered 57km in hour 1), which lead to a group of no more than 45 riders hitting the final climb of the Poggio with 11km to go.

InnerRing: Vincenzo Nibali attacks on the Poggio and only Simon Gerrans goes with him. Behind Rabobank’s Matti Breschel looks over his shoulder but on the left of the image you can see Fabian Cancellara about to make his move. It would be wrong to distil a 300km race into one camera flash but the image above does capture the most strategic moment of the day.

The Daily Distraction.

Chilean Cycling's plans for the London 2012 Olympics have been thrown into disarray with the news that star rider Luis Mansilla tested positive for EPO after stage five of the 2012 Tour of Chile last January. The shock news comes more than two months after the race, where Mansilla won two stages.

Today's Quote

“Yesterdays race gets filed in my #worstdaysofmycareer list. Something was VERY wrong. No explanation, but I let down an incredible group." - Mark Cavendish VeloNation

VeloNation: Mørkøv in main break, Sorensen best placed.

Radioshack stays on top of team list, Italy now leads countries’ table.

EuroSrort: Arnaud Demare claimed his fourth victory of the season by taking a sprint finish in the Cholet-Pays de Loire day race in France.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Smooth and quiet, with decent spin, subtle resistance changes and a natural bouncy feel."

TwistedSpoke: Occasionally people email Twisted Spoke asking if we can help spread the word for their saddle bag company, bamboo underwear or new porn site. Generally we ignore those requests but the folks at Fyxation have a cool little vid of their 2012 accessories for total fixie joy-ification. It’s worth a look if only for the music and lime green handlebar tape.

CyclingNews: Australian holds his nerve to win Milan-San Remo.

VeloNews: For a few moments Saturday afternoon it looked like cycling was facing another worst-case scenario when the Colombia-Coldeportes rider crashed heavily on the descent of Le Mànie. Also, Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) suffered facial trauma and heavy cuts and scrapes to his chest and arms. He was transported to a local hospital for observation.