CyclingFans:Friday's Tour of the Basque Country Stage 5 departs Bera at 12:35pm CET (6:35am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Onati at around 5:14pm CET (11:14am U.S. Eastern).  Tour of the Basque Country live streaming video should get underway at around 3:40pm CET (9:40am U.S. Eastern).

TwistedSpoke: Last season young Colombian rider Sergio Henao had his dream come true. He comes from a poor country but he trained hard and put his climbing talents to work for his Goberacion Antioquia team.

Rodriguez wins steep uphill battle to take stage 4 victory...

VeloNation: Sanchez takes second but concedes jersey, Horner loses 21 seconds.

VeloNation: Luke Durbridge holds his lead after the peloton shatters on a hilly finishing circuit.

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...

Bicycling: The American rider talks about motivation, learning Flemish, Wouter Weylandt, comparisons to Mark Cavendish, and, yes, winning bicycle races.

VeloNation: Great Britain wins the Team Pursuit Ashes again; Anna Meares on fire for the home nation.

EuroSport: Australia's Anna Meares threw down the gauntlet to her rivals by setting a world record in the first round of qualifying for the women's sprint at the track world championships in Melbourne.

CyclingNews: Things have not been going Lotto-Belisol's way in the spring classics, and the team's luck may have taken another turn for the worse. Star sprinter Andre Greipel headed to the hospital on Thursday to have his left hand x-rayed.

VeloNews: Peter Stetina (Garmin-Barracuda) is hoping 2012 will see him continue on the slow-but-steady trajectory that has confirmed his talent as a rider on the way up. Last year, the young American rode to an impressive 22nd at the Giro d’Italia in his grand tour debut in what was universally hailed one of the hardest editions ever of the Italian race.

Bicycling: The real sin isn't losing your shirt at the tables, but ignoring the one-of-a-kind desert rides.

BMC will debut new endurance road bike at Paris-Roubaix...

road.cc: Hitting the Paris Roubaix pave this Sunday and a sportive near you soon after.

BikeRadar verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars. "Superb titanium frame and nimble handling."

road.cc: Great quality Titanium headset for the same money as the more famous alloy one. "The finest headset in the world"? Well, It ain't bad.

CyclingNews: Endurance mountain bike pro Rebecca Rusch (Specialized Racing) is back in action with her SRAM Gold Rusch Tour for the second year in 2012 with the purpose of encouraging more participation of women in cycling. The three-time Leadville 100 winner and the three-time 24-hour solo World Champion will visit several US states, Canada and France as she spreads her love of mountain biking.

Filippo Pozzato trains this week in Monaco with his mind on winning Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. Tom Boonen narrowly beat him in the Tour of Flanders, but didn't crush his desire to win a big Classic.

CyclingWeekly: The Trouée d'Arenberg: 2400m of unpaved madness ready to smash the peloton to pieces.

VeloNation: “I still believe that I have a chance of winning.”

CompetitiveCyclist: - The NBC Sports TV coverage is predictably stuffed with commercials. It's bliss to turn that two-hour broadcast into an hour fifteen and to watch it properly but guilt-free (that is, drinking Belgian beer at 7pm rather than 7am).

CyclingNews: Vos steps into race lead.

Bicycling: A new breed of wheels promises better aerodynamics, handling, and ride quality. Do they live up to their billing?

Bicycling: Willow Rockwell shows you how to gun it for the finish line.

BikeRadar: The hydraulic braking scene has had a big shake-up in the past year, with new designs from the likes of Shimano, Magura and Hayes hitting the market, and significant tweaks to existing models from Avid, Hope and others.

BikeRadar: Mid-week Flanders Classics race Scheldeprijs is a worthy feather in the cap for the winner for sure but it also serves as the final opportunity to shake out gear for Paris-Roubaix in a race situation. We've seen teams on a mix of special and standard equipment in the past – keep in mind the cobbled sections aren't terribly demanding here – and this year's running was no different.

CyclingTips: We chased the 100 year old Semi-Classic Scheldeprijs around the countryside of Antwerp province and settled into a nice Belgian pub to watch the final 100kms. The race started and finished in the beautiful city of Antwerp where the peloton came past our pub four times before the finish. What a way to watch a race!

NYVeloCity: My BB30 bearings abruptly gave up the ghost yesterday so I stopped by IFIXBYX for some TLC. Of course, trips to Mark's place are quickly derailed by all the eye candy in there. Here's some quick and dirty iPhone shots of today's visit.

Bicycling: The New York Times reported that Anthony Weiner (back then still a rising political star and congressman rather than a disgraced sexter) said to Bloomberg at a reception, "When I become mayor, you know what I'm going to spend my first year doing? […] I'm going to have a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your [expletive] bike lanes."

CyclingFans: Thursday's Circuit de la Sarthe Stage 3 departs Angers at 10:50am CET (4:50am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Pre-en-Pail at around 3:33pm CET (9:33am U.S. Eastern).

 

VeloNation: Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s American captain in a rush to recover for Tour of California.

RedKitePrayer: Filippo Pozatto and Alessandro Ballan have each gone to bed four times since the 2012 Tour of Flanders has ended. Both riders turned in exceptional performances, rides worth remembering. They did not, however, turn in wins, which in the high-stakes poker of professional cycling is what matters. For some sponsors second might as well be no-show.

Today's Quote

“I am really disappointed, but the real victory here is that I survived the collision and that I’m alive to meet that challenge at all. It’s amazing that all I did was break my fibula.” - Levi Leipheimer VeloNation

InnerRing: Think of a crash in a bike race and it’s easy to imagine leg injuries given the sport is associated with the leg muscles and the exposed skin. But when it comes to broken bones, it seems riders seem to break and fracture their collarbones all the time.

CyclingNews: Riders also hurt in various crashes during rainy finale.

Bicycling: A few things to keep in mind the next time you tackle the big hills.

BikeRadar verdict: 5 out of 5 stars. "Lezyne bring their typical elegance, efficiency and styling to this design."

BikeRadar: Carbon specialists ENVE have announced details of a new five-year warranty policy on all their rims and components, effective immediately.

road.cc: Retailers across Britain's second city report rise in sales of hybrids especially - the weather helped too.

road.cc: Classy clothes, fancy wheels and more hot tech stuff than you can shake a stick at.

BicycleRetailer: The research company Leisure Trends is reporting that bike shop sales in February were up 12 percent over the same month in 2011, likely due to warmer weather nationwide this year.

Christine Vardaros: With only a month off since my last cyclocross race, I got back in the saddle for the Tour of Cyprus, held last week.  The Tour of Cyprus is a unique three-day stage race where the sexes battle each other as well as the racers of their own gender.

BikeRadar: Take one look at Aaron Chase's Cannondale Claymore and it's clearly a bike that is both well loved and well used.  Chase has been on his Claymore since last summer, and since he received it, it has become his go-to everyday bike.

Bicycling: A former champion revisits the victory that launched his career.

Cydelicious: Biking means not having to stop at a gas station except when you need a little extra air in your tires, this shirt celebrates this freedom from fossil fuel!

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!

American rider equal on time to race leader Sanchez.

VeloNation: Rodriguez and Horner net second and third.