CyclingFans: Sunday's Tour of Turkey Stage 1 departs Alanya at 12:20pm CET or 6:20am U.S. Eastern and is expected at the finish at Alanya at around 3:20pm CET or 9:20am U.S. Eastern.  Tour of Turkey live streaming video should get underway at around 2:00pm CET or 8:00am U.S. Eastern.

Watch the Sunny King criterium live.

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.

TwistedSpoke: In light of the terrible news that Levi Leipheimer will barely make it to the Tour of California in mid May after his life-threatening crash, the odds of Chris Horner (RadioShack Nissan-Trek) repeating as champion jus went up significantly.

Liège - Bastogne - Liège - April 22 (Start list),
Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey - April 22-29 (Stages),
Tour de Romandie - April 24-29 (Stages),
Giro del Trentino - April 17-20 (Stages & results),
La Flèche Wallonne - April 18 (Results),
La Flèche Wallonne Féminine - April 18 (Results),
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...

CyclingNews: Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) showed signs of improvement as the Giro del Trentino drew to a close on Friday, but the Italian said that he will only race the Giro d’Italia if he is certain that can compete for the pink jersey. Basso will make a final decision on his participation in the corsa rosa after he competes at the Tour de Romandie from April 24-29.

road.cc: Is it a box? Is it a shed? Actually it’s a pretty handy thing to put your bike in if you have to keep it outside. It’s a waist-height box with room for two bikes, which also has shelves for all your helmets, pumps, tools etc.

Pedal: Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) won the women’s  75.32km Stage 2 road race and continues to lead the women’s race.

VeloNews: The form of Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing), after his podium finish at Wednesday’s Flèche Wallone, seems to be improving just in time for the Belgian to defend his title at Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège – the oldest classic race on the calendar, dating back to 1892.

CyclingFans: Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege departs Liege at 10:25am CET (4:25am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Ans at around 5:06pm CET (11:06am U.S. Eastern).  Liege-Bastogne-Liege live streaming video should get underway at around 2:15pm CET (8:15am U.S. Eastern).

PEZ: Frank Schleck has hopefully learned that image is, in fact, not everything. As he propelled the 2007 edition of the race known as La Doyenne towards the finish, Schleck, lean and powerful and in full command, methodically charged up the final 500 meter incline. The silver chalice on the podium glistened where his name would soon be etched among the list of greats. As the television camera panned back, a second rider came into view.

CyclingNews: Andy Schleck is determined to be a factor in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, even if the 2009 winner acknowledged that his brother Fränk and Chris Horner will be the natural leaders of the RadioShack-Nissan team on Sunday.

VeloNews: Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Sky) is a success story nearly 10 years in the making.

CyclingWeekly: "At this year's Sea Otter Classic, BikeRadar had an exclusive opportunity to test ride the new Colnago C59 Disc – one of the first of a new breed of road bikes equipped with hydraulic disc brakes. We borrowed the personal bike of Formula engineer Giancarlo Vezzoli, creator of the bike's brake levers."

TwistedSpoke: Stijn Devolder. Remember him? He won the Tour of Flanders in 2008 and 2009. He was once described by CycleSport magazine as “a rider with legs that feel no pain, and a brain that knows no tactics.”

Bicycling: Chasing the elusive idea of what it means to ride well.

RedKitePrayer: When the UCI’s experiment with the old “ProTour” began in the 2005 season, the rules did include an additional two-year exclusion for riders suspended for doping violations. The additional ban has never been part of the “UCI Anti-Doping Rules,” but rather it was incorporated in the “ProTour Teams’ Code of Ethics.” Unfortunately, like the ProTour itself, the code began to unravel almost as soon as it was started.

TwistedSpoke: Philippe Gilbert’s form is somewhere between 90 and 100%. Given his talent, that may be enough to take his second Liege-Bastogne-Liege in a row. But as he’s said, he’ll have to ride as much with the head as the legs.

InnerRing: Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the hilliest of the one day classics. Glance at the race profile and you’ll note 11 climbs on the route, plus the climb to the finish. These are described as côtes répertoriées, or “catalogued climbs.”

InnerRing: Track racing has a big debt to the USA and in particular New York. The sport was so popular a century ago with urban audiences that today’s Madison race, where pairs of riders take it in turn to compete in a sort of relay race got its name from the Madison Square Garden.

road.cc: World champion also looks back on early months of season with Team Sky.

VeloNation: Flèche Wallonne winner speaks about ambition for his ‘favourite race.’

BikeRadar: Felt launched their first full-suspension 29er at the Sea Otter Classic today – a big-wheeled variant of the Edict cross-country platform. The new Edict Nine will offer the same 100mm of rear wheel travel as the 26in bikes and according to Felt, similar pedaling and handling characteristics for what should be a peppy-feeling machine.