CyclingFans: Thursday's Tour of the Basque Country Stage 4 departs Eibar at 1:25pm CET (7:25am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Bera (Ibardin) at around 5:16pm CET (11:16am U.S. Eastern).  Tour of the Basque Country live streaming video should get underway at around 3:40pm CET (9:40am U.S. Eastern).

American rider equal on time to race leader Sanchez.

VeloNation: Rodriguez and Horner net second and third.

Pedal: Kristen Armstrong (USA) Exergy Twenty12 won the 15.3km TT on Stage 1 of the Energiewacht Tour UCI women’s stage race in the Netherlands.

Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco - April 2-7 (Stages & results),
Scheldeprijs - April 4 (Start list),
Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - April 3-6 (Stages & results),
UCI Track World Championships - April 4-8 (Races & results),
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...

EuroSport: Germany broke the world record twice in the space of an hour to win the women's team sprint title at the track cycling world championships in Melbourne.

road.cc: Well made, but real world performance doesn't match their on paper promise.

PEZ: Greg Lemond famously said about cycling:” It doesn’t get any easier. You just get faster.” And for a sport that values the ability to suffer, the least easy of all races is Paris-Roubaix, variously feted as “the Queen of the Classics” and cursed as “the Hell of the North.”

BikeRadar: More akin to a field of bowling balls dropped into the middle of the woods than a road, the mere thought of them conjures images of unrecognizable faces caked with mud, broken men defeated on the side of the road, brutal and unspeakable suffering – and not just on the men who are tasked with hurtling themselves across the pavé but also the machines they all hope will carry them across the line in victory, if at all.

EuroSport: The GreenEdge rider timed his move to perfection, just after the Flamme Rouge, and crossed the line comfortably ahead of team-mate Allan Davis and Davide Appollonio of Team Sky.

CyclingNews: Defending Tour of Basque Country champion Andreas Klöden must bury his hopes of winning again this year. The RadioShack-Nissan rider lost over five minutes on the first stage not being at the top of his form following illnesses that prevented him from racing. The good news for the team however was Oliver Zaugg's escape attempt near the end of the race, and veteran Jens Voigt said he was pleased with the work he did on his suntan during the stage.

PodiumCafe: After years and years of well, pretty much guessing who is going to win the next important race, I have found a new way. No, not ouija boards. That went terribly wrong that one day. Never again. No, I am going the way of... statistics!

CyclingNews: Rain makes for risky racing.

CyclingNews: Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) came out second best in Scheldeprijs on Wednesday but the American sprinter was determined to look on the bright side after a mixed spring campaign. Farrar has yet to win an individual race this year, and this was his 14th top-ten of the season, but with his form good enough to push him into potentially winning positions it should only be a matter of time before he breaks his duck.

VeloNation: Modolo takes over race lead after Galymzyanov crashes out.

BikeRumor: Fabian Cancellara’s broken collarbone before and after surgery. He fell in a feed zone during the 2012 Tour of Flanders and did a real doozy on the bone.

CyclingNews: The 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge will take the peloton to an altitude of 12,000 feet, “not once, but three separate times, and will include a finish on iconic Flagstaff Mountain on the penultimate day.” The race, which takes places in Colorado, USA, from August 20-26, “will take riders on a heart-pounding journey throughout the breathtaking Colorado Rockies.”

Peloton: Some of the folks at Specialized offered the bike for a spin over the cobbled climbs Tommeke raced, and won on, Sunday.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "A simple, inexpensive way to add extra fluid-carrying capability on your aero bike."

VeloNews: Marcel Kittel's Felt F1, still wet from the rain-soaked finish at Schledeprijs.

 

CyclingNews: Gerard Vroomen has lamented the news that Dr. Michael Ashenden has resigned from his position an independent member of the UCI's panel of experts that reviews the blood passport data.

InnerRing: Apologies if I upset anyone but Roubaix and the surrounding places are grim. Tourist rarely visit and the French have negative myths about the place. Even the cycling is not great, despite the famous race. You’re better heading across the border into Belgium for the bergs.

Cyclismas: The phrase “What would Jonathan Vaughters do?” (often abbreviated to WWJVD) became popular in the United States in the 2010’s and as a personal motto for adherents of Pro Cycling who used the phrase as a reminder of their belief in a moral imperative to act in a manner that would demonstrate the love of wine, clean racing, argyle and Star Trek®-esque sideburns through the actions of the adherents.

VeloNews: After winning Flanders for a third time on Sunday, tying Achiel Buysse, Eric Leman, Fiorenzi Magni and Johan Museeuw, Tom Boonen hasn’t had much time to daydream. He is back to racing on Wednesday, taking the start line at Scheldeprijs.

Marijn de Vries: Instead of a start pistol, the piercing noice of a referee’s whistle sounds. I placed my bike boldly at the front of the start area so when the race director whistles, I am off. An Italian rider takes the wheel of the motor in front of us and from the corner of my eye I see teammate Marieke take my wheel.

VeloNation: Great Britain breaks own Team Pursuit record; France and Germany interfere in pre-Olympic “Ashes” battle.

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

VeloCast: Professional cycling teams each contribute €120,000 to the biological passport programme. Is that really enough to ensure effective testing and provide faith in the UCI's flagship anti-doping initiative?

RedKitePrayer: Here in New England the spring has not yet sprung, but a recent week of summery warmth turned everyone out of their houses in shorts and t-shirts, maniacal grins plastered across their pasty mugs, such is the influence of sunlight on the normally turgid New England psyche.

VeloNation: Says there were clear differences to usual biological passport profile.