CyclingFans: Sunday's Tour of Flanders departs Brugge at 10:00am CET (4:00am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Oudenaarde at around 4:22pm CET (10:22am U.S. Eastern).  Tour of Flanders live streaming video should get underway at around *12:00pm CET (6:00am U.S. Eastern). *Sporza will be LIVE at the race start in Brugge from 9am CET through the official start, then again at 12:00pm CET with pre-coverage commentary.  Other feeds are expected to go live at around 12:20pm CET (6:20am U.S. Eastern), and still others a bit later.

VeloNation: Dutchman names two ‘second line’ riders as his big tips.

PodiumCafe: Filippo Pozzato is a wonderfully gifted cyclist, in a class very close to the two big favorites, but he stopped taking chances right about when he left Quick Step. From then on, with Liquigas and Katusha, he built a reputation as a calculating wheel-sucker, one who had the ability to win but spent his time dogging the favorites, often to the detriment of the race itself.

Tour of Flanders - Women - April 1 (Start list),
Tour of Flanders - Men - April 1 (Start list),
Cape Epic - March 25-April 1 (Races & results),
Paris - Roubaix - April 8 (History),
De Panne-Koksijde - March 27-29 (Stages & results),
Volta a Catalunya - March 19-25 (Stages & results),
Critérium International - March 24-25 (Stages & results),
Tour de Normandie - March 19-25 (Stages & results),
Vuelta Mexico  - March 18-25 (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages ),
More...

VeloNation: MTN-Qhubeka dominating African race with seven stage victories.

CyclingNews: Sauser & Stander keep lead while Bigham & Süss still at head women's field.

BikeRadar verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars. "A fresh new attitude for 2012 boosts the budget Trek EX’s fun factor."

InnerRing: What’s the biggest one day race of the year? The World Championships? The Olympic road race? There’s plenty to say this Sunday’s Tour of Flanders is the biggest and the best. A combination of the route, the prestige, the history and the roadside crowds make this race unmissable.

VeloNews: For a rider who has won the Tour of Flanders just once, Fabian Cancellara carries a heavy burden of expectation heading into Sunday’s race.

VeloNation: Belgian ready for major battle on new race course.

EuroSport: The Russian beat Simon Geschke (1t4i) and Daniel Schorn (NetApp) to the line at the end of the 198km route.

VeloNation: Dani Moreno and Pavel Brutt score for Russian squad in opposite ends of Europe.

PodiumCafe: The biggest race favorite for the women's Ronde van Vlaanderen (and pretty much every other race on the planet, really), won't be starting tomorrow. Rabo informs us that she is ill.

VeloNation: Garmin Barracuda rider takes more laid-back approach to Indurain and Pais Vasco.

VeloNation: Dutchwoman now says she was previously able to stand prior to ‘miracle recovery’.

BikeRadar verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars. "For the money you simply can’t do better than these."

VeloNation: Multi-billion Euro energy company to power team for next three years.

road.cc: The seatpost and the main frame are separate. Spartacus himself has been heavily involved with the design process, and the bike "specifically addresses the challenges of rough road conditions found throughout the spring classics courses with a collection of key innovations unlike any available before today", according to Trek.

 

InnerRing: Tomorrow sees the greatest one day race of the year, the Tour of Flanders. Organisers say 600,000 to 800,000 people will line the roads, L’Equipe even says one million could turn out, making one tenth of the Belgian population.

PEZ: On the eve of Belgium’s greatest race, speculation is rampant as to how considerable course changes and the improved form of certain perennial race favorites will play on what many are calling the most challenging Tour of Flanders of the modern era. One such rider is 2010 winner Fabian Cancellara who believes the more difficult course will prove to be a better overall race that favors the strongest and smartest riders.

Today's Quote

“There’s no engine, there’s just something to give you a bit more comfort.” - Fabian Cancellara CyclingNews

BMC Cycling heads into the 96th Tour of Flanders with a classics squad that, on paper, at least, should be the envy of the peloton.

Peloton: Trek’s launch plan for the new classics inspired Domane involved plenty of ride time over the famed cobblestones of Flanders. That in its self is a real indication of how confident Trek is about the bikes performance. Nothing tests brute force power transfer and compliance like steep pitches of cobblestones.

BikeRumor: When using the CO2 system, you screw the CO2 cartridge into the brass fitting until it’s tight. The cartridge is punctured and activated at this point. To inflate your tire you attach the pump to your presta valve and loosen the cartridge a quarter-turn. To stop simply tighten the cartridge again, this makes the Second Wind Road Mini a controllable CO2/pump inflation system, brilliant! Purchase the Innovations Second Wind Road Carbon Here

Brand New 2012 Wilier Cento 1, Size XL 57 top tube.  Frame fork headset integrated seatpost: $2300.
Bike as pictured with Campy Chorus 11 speed front and rear deraileurs, Revel Hove carbon brakes, FSA carbon bars (44), Fizik Kurve saddle, and 2012 Reynolds 46 carbon clinchers: $4900
Bike as pictured WITHOUT Reynolds wheels:  $3500. Purchase this bike via email Here

VeloNews: Óscar Sevilla — the Spanish rider once hailed as a grand tour contender before being implicated in the Operación Puerto doping ring — has found new legs in a move to Colombia. Known as “El Niño” for his youthful looks, Sevilla won last week’s Tour of Mexico racing for a Mexican amateur team called Emepacadora San Marcos.