CyclingFans: Tuesday's Tour of the Basque Country Stage 2 departs Güeñes at 1:05pm CET (7:05am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Vitoria-Gasteiz at around 5:18pm CET (11:18am U.S. Eastern).  Tour of the Basque Country live streaming video should get underway at around 3:40pm CET (9:40am U.S. Eastern). 

VeloNation: German rider drops five minutes on day one.

VeloNation: Sprint decides first leader’s jersey in tough WorldTour event.

VeloNation: Cummings back in action after fractured pelvis.

Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco - April 2-7 (Stages & results),
Scheldeprijs - April 4 (Start list),
Tour of Flanders - Women - April 1 (Results),
Tour of Flanders - Men - April 1 (Results),
Cape Epic - March 25-April 1 (Races & results),
Paris - Roubaix - April 8 (Start list),
De Panne-Koksijde - March 27-29 (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages ),
More...

CyclingNews: Kenda/5-Hour Energy team leader Phil Gaimon, perhaps equally as well known for his quick wit as he is for his speed on the bike, took an indirect path to the top of the USA Cycling National Race Calendar standings.

Cyclismas: Twenty five years ago this year, Irish cycling was on top of the world. We had a World Champion. We had the winner of the Tour de France. We had the winner of the Giro d’Italia. We’d come within a cat’s whisker of winning the Vuelta d’España. Irish cycling rocked like it had never rocked before. Oh, we’d had a World Champion before, away back in 1896 when Harry Reynolds won the amateur sprint title. But in the Grand Tours … before 1987, there was nothing, save a podium place, some stage wins, a few days in yellow, and a few green jerseys. No, in the Grand Tours, before 1987, Ireland hadn’t hit the high notes. Or had we?

Mad Fiber is a Seattle-based company founded on the concept of advancing wheel technology. To do that they built a team around company president Ric Hjertberg, the founder of Wheelsmith and former technology manager at Full Speed Ahead.

CyclingNews: American Kristin Armstrong left her mark at the 2012 edition of the Tour of Flanders. The 38 year-old teamed up with eventual winner Judith Arndt (GreenEdge - AIS) to hold off the rest of the field on the Flemish cobbles and climbs. In the sprint Armstrong was no match for the German rider but the Olympic gold medalist of Beijing 2008 didn't have any regrets after the race. Armstrong aims to claim a spot in the London Olympics team in both the time trial and the road race where there are respectively two and three spots available for American riders.

"It’s been 8 years since I first saw the cobbled classics live and in person with our good friends at Velo Classic Tours, so it was high time I found my way back to Belgium for a week of riding and chasing cycling’s ‘Holy Week’. This past Sunday I was back in the action as we went deep into de Ronde – roadside and in style."

SBS: "We worked hard for this stage and the overall," said Stander. "We will never say no to the opportunity of winning a stage. Twenty-seven minutes is big, but not only thanks to us. Our whole team and our equipment played a role. We learnt our lessons in previous years.

SingleTrack: I was talking with world cup cyclocross racer Amy Dombroski who may have put it best, “It’s like getting ready for battle.” And it’s true. With all the course holds and the spectators lining it, you’re making your way through chaos at times. The first World Cup in South Africa this year was kinda a good example of it all.

VeloNation: Rules that Bjarne Riis’ team shouldn’t be demoted after Contador sanction.

VeloNation: Swiss rider likely to be out of competition for a month and a half.

Today's Quote

“I am happy to be alive — absolutely. At first I was in shock. Then I was thinking, ‘now I am going to be hurt for the race.’ Then I thought, ‘maybe I cannot race at all.’ Then I thought, ‘I could be dead right now.’ I can feel for all those people who have been involved in accidents.” - Levi Leipheimer VeloNews

VeloNews:  It was as if the schoolyard bully, who had been kept in check by a protective older brother, suddenly had full reign to pick on the rest of the class. A race that was already being ridden tentatively, due to its new, demanding course, had suddenly became a death march towards the inevitable.

Miffyg: No less than 1 hr from peeling my butt of the aeroplane seat I was at the team hotel for the start of the Cittiglio World cup which was being held that day, equipped with a new bike and loads of team swag.

VeloNews: The six women of the U.S. National Team’s Tour of Flanders squad filter out of the warmth of their hotel, a multi-storied box of a structure down the road from the house USA Cycling maintains for development riders. It’s 10 a.m. on March 31, the day before Flanders.

BikeRadar verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars. "A different take on the GPS computer that’s easy to use with neat features." Purchase the MOTOACTV 8 GB GPS Fitness Tracker and Music Player Here.

VeloNews: Leipheimer was on a two-hour training ride ahead of Monday’s start of the Vuelta al País Vasco when disaster struck: a car drove directly into him at full speed as he was riding on the right side of the shoulder on a Spanish road.

Bicycling: New York City has its drivers. Colorado suffers from an oxygen shortage. Portland is a monsoon. California can’t afford to fix its potholes. New England won’t thaw till May. The Midwest is a wind tunnel. And the Southeast, my current training ground, has dogs. Every workout is interrupted, or enhanced, by canines looking for a quick meal.

CyclingNews: Heinrich Haussler, the Australian who had a storming Classics campaign in 2009, is closing in on a third straight spring of disappointment in 2012. The 28-year-old finished second in both the Tour of Flanders and Milan-San Remo in 2009 but those performances have been replaced by three years of injury, illness and a lack of competitive form.

CyclingNews: Mark Cavendish (Sky), a three-time Scheldeprijs winner and the defending champion, will not start the 2012 edition on Wednesday due to the imminent birth of his first child. Cavendish and girlfriend Peta Todd are expecting their daughter to be born on April 5, one day after Scheldeprijs takes place.

 

BrowneEye: Check out the spectator that gets spun around by Sebastian Langeveld. He steps away from the crash like he wasn’t involved. He starts to approach Langeveld, but then turns around and returns to his group.

CyclingWeekly: Tom Boonen has moved into pole position at the head of the latest Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) WorldTour ranking after winning the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.

InnerRing: You might have heard of Amaury Sport Organisation, the company behind the Tour de France. Maybe you know RCS , the Italian company behind the Giro d’Italia too. But what about Flanders Classics, the company behind several of the Belgian classics?

VeloNews: Despite a broken collarbone early in the season, Filippo Pozzato has shown fine form in the past few weeks, and was perhaps the strongest man in the race on Sunday.

CyclingNews: It's no secret that the best rider of 2011, Philippe Gilbert (BMC), isn't enjoying good form so far in 2012. This time last year Gilbert had three wins in the bag and proved to be one of the candidates in the Tour of Flanders. After finishing third in 2009 and 2010 he finished ninth in 2011.

VeloNation: NetApp, Ag2R-La Mondiale, Lampre-ISD and Saxo Bank voice their experiences.

BikingBis: It’s no secret that some women can suffer the same numbness in the genital area as some men do from riding a bicycle.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "The XtC Composite 29er 1 is so smooth and carries so much speed it almost feels like cheating."

CyclingWeekly: Being ushered away from the back of a team truck usually means something is being hidden from us. A thorough going over of our snatched pictures proved instinct correct with a new Specialized model clearly visible.

CXMagazine: Now is actually a good time to be thinking about upgrade parts.  There’s generally more options available right now in the used and discount categories because everyone else isn’t scrambling to get their parts together.

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

InnerRing: The first 210km of the race were dominated by a series of crashes, accidents and bizarre incidents. Riders fell, most notably Fabian Cancellara. It was not until the final 40km that the race came alive.