Tuesday's Giro del Trentino Stage 1, a 14.3km Team Time Trial from Riva del Garda to Arco gets underway with the departure of the first team at 2:45pm CET (8:45am U.S. Eastern).  Giro del Trentino live streaming video should get underway at around 2:45pm CET (8:45am U.S. Eastern).

road.cc: Russian cycling federation hopes that proposed event could secure UCI WorldTour status.

VeloNews: UnitedHealthcare put on a clinic on “How To Control A Professional Criterium,” during Saturday night’s ninth annual Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium, the second stop on the National Criterium Calendar, and the third installment of the 2012 USA Crits Championship Series.

“This is the style of racing I think suits me best. It’s incredibly satisfying, and maybe a little bit unexpected, but I will take it.”  - Alex Howes VeloNews

VeloNation: Sinus infection means Australian will return home,

Giro del Trentino - April 17-20 (Stages),
Amstel Gold Race - April 15 (Results),
Tour of the Battenkill - April 15 (Start list),
Vuelta a Castilla y Leon - April 13-15 (Stages),
MTB World Cup Cross Country #2 April 13-15 (Races),
Giro d'Italia - May 5-27 (Stages),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages),
Tour de France - June 30 - July 22 (Stages),
2012 Olympic Games - July 28 - August 12 (Races),
Vuelta a España - August 18 - September 9 (Stages),
More...

VeloNews: Fränk Schleck hoped to celebrate his 32nd birthday with a win in the Amstel Gold Race yesterday, but only managed 12th.

CyclingNews: Despite not having taken part in the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday, Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) has maintained his first placing in the UCI WorldTour rankings. The Belgian, winner of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix amongst other wins in 2012, has a considerable lead on his rivals: 366 points. Peter Sagan (Liquigas), who finished third at Amstel and therefore added 50 points to his tally, moved up to second place and now has 229 points.

Observations from Amstel. What’s wrong with Edvald?

TwistedSpoke: What’s wrong with Edvald? We’ll admit we’re a bit baffled by the shy young man from Norway. At one point two years ago his teammates were calling him Eddy Junior after the Cannibal himself. They don’t call him that anymore.

VeloNation: Slovakian frustrated by result yet encouraged for future.

PEZ: The 2012 TIME RXRS Ulteam blends a shockingly smooth ride with agility that belies the bike’s exceptional high-speed stability. Its balanced character could find a home on nearly any road.

BikeRadar: Feedback Sports – makers of the superb Pro Ultralight repair stand – have added a new Euro-style model to their line-up that's similar to the models used by the best professional road mechanics. The new Sprint weighs in at just 5.9kg (13lb), it's impressively stable and best of all, offers a more comprehensive feature set than is currently available.

Josh Schwiesow: How will I convince my wife to let me get a cyclocross bike?

CyclingNews: Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) has been provisionally suspended after returning an adverse analytical finding for EPO in an out-of-competition test taken on March 22.

VeloNation: The big news is that the mountains jersey will turn blue in 2012, having been various shades of green since its inception in 1974.

CyclingNews: Two younger Americans raced to impressive performances at the second round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Houffalize, Belgium this weekend. First-year elite rider Stephen Ettinger (BMC) was the top-placed American in the elite men's race while Keegan Swenson (Cannondale Factory Racing) made the podium in the junior men's race.

Tour De José: In the country where everyone rides a bike, there are more bikes than inhabitants, the infrastructure of the roads makes for nervous racing. Turning, dodging road furniture and 31 rated climbs. That’s the Amstel Gold Race, the only classic this country has. Even though the 256,5 kilometres long course is very demanding, it didn’t really lead to a spectacular race.

BikeRadar: Giant Bicycles today confirmed what we'd suspected: the release of a new higher-performance carbon fiber version of the Anthem X 29er cross-country bike. The composite version is lighter and stiffer as expected, and it's accompanied by a new women's-specific aluminum version for 2013 as well.

CyclingIQ: An important part of stage racing had been missing prior to today’s third Tour de Filipinas stage; the peloton’s arrival into categorised mountains territory meant one rider would finally be able to mount the podium wearing the King of the Mountains polka-dot jersey. And then there was the one who got away.

CyclingNews: Spanish rider Alberto Contador (Team Saxo Bank) could make his return to cycling in the 2012 Eneco Tour according to sources at his Saxo Bank team. In February, the 29-year-old received a backdated two-year ban for a positive Clenbuterol test at the 2010 Tour de France. The ban ends on August 5.

Bicycling: Protect your noggin with one of these sweet lids.

CXMagazine: Cyclocross is a sport that requires a wide variety of equipment. Each week, we load our cars to the breaking point with trainers, wheels, tools, buckets, pumps, and clothes. Our race days are filled with distractions and keeping track of all that stuff can become an issue, especially for an amateur racer that doesn’t have the luxury of a handler who takes care of all the little details.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "A small, neat, effective and relatively cheap way to keep your chain on."

Marijn de Vries: Tailwind, slightly downhill and we storm from Terlet in the direction of Arnhem. Kilometers without turns on the wide road that runs parallel to the highway. The speed goes up and so does the level of nervousness in the peloton. We almost reach the hill zone and everyone who’s not at the front of the race yet, tries to get there. Plus, everyone who’s already at the front, tries to stay there.

VeloNews: On Sunday, Howes, 24, rode with strength that continued to defy the chasing peloton late on the approach to Valkenburg. He proved his durability is longer than his years; after being caught, he took a few pulls to help his teammates in the group, including local Thomas Dekker, and still managed to have the legs to finish 30th, at 47 seconds back.

Dave Moulton: I was amazed when I arrived in the US and found there were absolutely no rules for cyclists; people pretty much rode anywhere and in any way they pleased. I remember my first ride with the bike club in New Jersey, a traffic light turned red, I stopped, and everyone else just kept on riding.

InnerRing: In March this blog looked at the award of the 2013 track world championships to Belarus, a decision taken with input from a senior UCI official with a significant financial interest in a giant construction project in the capital, Minsk. Whether coincidental or not, the awarding of the worlds served to highlight the significant conflict of interest between the UCI’s sporting interests and the business activities of Igor Makarov, the Russian oligarch behind the Katusha team who now sits at the UCI’s top table, the Management Committee.

Cyclismas: Some useless statistics for you about Paris-Nice: though it is often used as a warm-up for Milan-Sanremo, only four men have doubled la course au soleil and la primaverain the same season 1; only four men have followed success in the race to the sun with a win in the Ronde van Vlaanderen 2; only five have doubled it with Liège-Bastogne-Liège 3; and only five men have taken the victory salute at the end of Paris-Nice and again at the end of the Tour de France 4. In all, only twelve men have pulled off even one of those doubles. And only one man has managed all four. That man is Eddy Merckx and 1969 was the year he did it.

VeloNews: According to Sottas, in 1996 over “80 percent of the riders were drugged. That was when Bjarne Riis won the Tour de France. Now we know he was the best in a race of blood zombies.”

Bicycling: A heart-rate monitor is still a smart training tool—as long as you listen to your body.

Bicycling: What comfort foods do pro cyclists take on months-long road trips?

Off The Beaten Path: Should one grease the tapers of bottom bracket spindles before installing the cranks? Few topics spur as much controversy among bike mechanics as this question.

RedKitePrayer: They retail for $69.95. That may seem a lot until you ask yourself about the price of safety.

Cyclismas: In an unfortunate incident at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, Team RadioShack-Nissan superstar Andy Schleck was forced to finish the race after his SchleckChute™ failed to deploy.

VeloNation: Liquigas-Cannondale unsure of Corsa Rosa chances after a spring disrupted by crashes.

Peloton: SelleSMP Saddles always standout from the crowd. The massive, open channel, the ‘eagle-beak’ nose, and all around aggressive look will never be mistaken for the carbon-copy saddles flooding your local bike shop.

road.cc: Super-comfy mid-weight jersey that provides a little more warmth than normal in spring/autumn conditions.