CyclingFans:Friday's Giro del Trentino Stage 4 departs Castelletto Di Brenzone at 10:50am CET (4:50am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Passo Pordoi Val di Fassa at around 3:30pm CET (9:30am U.S. Eastern).  Giro del Trentino live streaming video should get underway at around 2:30pm CET (8:30am U.S. Eastern).

CyclingNews: Italian climbs into leader's jersey on mountain finish.

Giro del Trentino - April 17-20 (Stages),
Liège - Bastogne - Liège - April 22 (Start list),
La Flèche Wallonne - April 18 (Results),
La Flèche Wallonne Féminine - April 18 (Results),
Amstel Gold Race - April 15 (Results),
Tour of the Battenkill - April 15 (Start list),
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...

VeloNation: Astana leader and team will begin Presidential Tour of Turkey on Sunday.

InnerRing: Flèche Wallonne race with a first prize of €16,000 for the men’s race and just €1,128 for the women’s race.

CyclingIQ: Cycling is a relatively big deal in the Republic of Korea; especially in the capital city of Seoul, where the race will end on day one. Almost a quarter of the nation’s 48 million people call Seoul home, so it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of early-risers cycling alongside the mighty Han river – which enters Seoul from the East China Sea on a roughly north-east course – thanks to the excellent walking and cycling paths tracking both north and south sides.

road.cc: The Femto Drive will be available in a front (white) and rear (red) version as well as a front and rear pair. Lezyne say that the front version pumps out 15 lumens of light while the rear puts out seven. The power comes from a pair of replaceable CR2032 coin cell batteries that will be included.

VeloNews: Standard procedure when flatting is to remove the wheel and then shift to the smallest cog (11, 12) before inserting the new wheel.

VeloNews: Fort Collins, Colorado-based Feedback Sports has a new repair stand set to hit the market in June. Called the Sprint, it is modeled after European, fork-mounted repair stands favored by many mechanics in the pro ranks. The new sub-13-pound stand will retail for approximately $270, including a carrying bag.

“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

The big challenge with 29ers is to create a geometry that allows the bike to move nimbly. BMC went with a lower-than-some (most?) bottom bracket, which made the bike easy to lean into turns. In this regard it reminded me of the Specialized Stumpjumper 29er hard tail which was previously the best-handling hard tail I’d ridden.

The race will be shot by five high-definition video cameras, covering nearly the entire course. On Saturday the women's pro race will begin at 6:20pm (Central Daylight Savings Time), with the men's pro NCC event beginning at 7:30pm.

Steephill: Start time - Sunday April 22nd 10:40 CET (1:40 AM PDT);
Earliest live video - 14:00 CET (5:00 AM PDT);
Approximate finish - 17:06 CET (8:06 AM PDT).

VeloNews: Ryan Trebon has signed with Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com to race the 2012-2013 cyclocross season alongside Americans Tim Johnson, Jamey Driscoll, and Kaitlin Antonneau. Trebon was seen riding the latest Cannondale SuperSix EVO road bike at Spy Optic’s recent Belgian Waffle Ride in San Diego.

TwistedSpoke: Cipollini never advised him to take EPO, that the subject never even came up. However, the Russian says the aging Playboy was a bad influence.

VeloNation: Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro next targets for Spanish Classics victor.

VeloNews: With Liège-Bastogne-Liège on tap for Sunday, Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Barracuda) is thrilled to be back in the action at the hilly classics. Finishing in the front group at Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race was a personal confirmation that Dekker is back on track after a few years in the wilderness.

CyclingTips: Road racing doesn’t follow the typical format of most other sports. There are no quarters, periods or rounds but races often follow the same sequence of events. It might seem like a thousand different scenarios could exist with so many variables, but when you’ve been racing for a long time you’ll begin to understand its basic anatomy.

PEZ: A feature of season 2012 has been the strength of the Continental and Pro Continental teams – showing little regard for the strength and budgets of the Pro Tour behemoths. Scottish Continental team, Endura won the French Tours of the Mediterranean and Haut Var; German Pro Continental squad took out the Coppi e Bartali stage race in Italy, Europcar has been stunning, and Phil Southerland’s Team Type 1-Sanofi continues to rack up the podium placings and top tens.

BikeRumor: Gerard Vroomen and Andy Kessler are unveiling their Open mountain bike brand today at Sea Otter. Fortunately, they invited me to give it a spin yesterday and take a few photos.

Clara Hughes: There’s not much I fear in life but steep walls of paved road make me cringe.  I look at them and have an allergic reaction.  There is something inside of me that just can’t get over the damned things without detonating.

VeloNation: Game over for rider once considered future Tour de France winner.

VeloNews: Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-lululemon) climbed to her most important victory Wednesday by out-foxing Marianne Vos up the Mur de Huy to win Flèche Wallonne Femmes.

BikeRadar: Here's the sixth and final part of the series following British cross-country mountain bike racer Oli Beckingsale's rehabilitation from the broken leg he suffered on the circuit last season.

Cyclismas: “He has robotised himself. There are no aspirations,
no sense of destiny, just an awareness that he is set apart, unique.
So he has transformed himself into a machine with the utmost meticulousness.
He is half-man, half-bike.” ~ Lucien Bodard.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Short and shallow featherweight bar and stem combo with sublime performance."

BikeRumor: Raleigh has two new disc brake equipped cyclocross bikes. The RXC Pro is the top of the line carbon version that’ll get Cole carbon rimmed wheels (currently made exclusively for Raleigh), Shimano’s new ‘cross brakes and full Ultegra Di2 and ENVE fork, bar and stem.