CyclingFans: Thursday's Tour de Romandie Stage 2 departs Montbéliard at 1:30pm CET (7:30am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Moutier at around 5:23pm CET (11:23am U.S. Eastern).  Tour de Romandie live video streaming should get underway at around 4:05pm CET (10:05am U.S. Eastern).

EuroSport: Bradley Wiggins stormed to a superb sprint victory in the first stage of the Tour de Romandie in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Tour of Turkey - April 22-29 (Stages & results),
Tour de Romandie - April 24-29 (Stages & results),
Liège - Bastogne - Liège - April 22 (Results),
Giro del Trentino - April 17-20 (Stages & 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...

TwistedSpoke: Now that the big Spring classics are over, the grades have been issued for riders and teams. At the top of the UCI rankings is the King of the Cobblestones, Flanders and Paris-Roubaix winner, Tom Boonen.

CyclingIQ: With a ’100% possibility of rain’ forecast on local media channels last night, there was never any doubt about the wet conditions riders would face today. Still, the downpour at the start area only revealed its impact on the roads once the race was active. Less than three kilometres outside of the neutral zone, officials were forced to cancel this stage.

Lee Rodgers: “Chief Comrade… sorry I meant Commissaire. The workers… dammit I mean the riders — they are refusing to work… sorry, to ride.”
“My dear Head of Police, what do you mean, ‘refusing?’”
“Refusing. They’ve downed tools. Sat up. Gone on strike. The air, it’s murderous…”
“What reason do they give?”
“Chief Comrade, they… I mean… oh whatever – they say it’s raining too hard.”
“Oh, come on! WTF…!”

Peloton: Next time you are on a flight, grab a window seat. As you taxi down the runway look at the wing tip. Is it bouncing up and down? Of course it is. It’s bouncing up and down so much you might think, ‘Is that normal?’. It is, perfectly normal.

"I want four days off the bike and will then start again slowly. After mid-May I will concentrate on altitude training in Sierra Nevada before participating in the Tour de Suisse in preparation for the Tour."

Nicole Duke: "I admit, it’s a bit hard to write this as my brain is still foggy from the physical abuse I just put myself through.  I asked for it, wanted the challenge, and certainly got it."

Cyclismas: "There’s a scene in Mark Johnson’s Argyle Armada that, for me, just about sums up what’s so cool about Jonathan Vaughters’ Garmin. It’s not a scene that’s unique to Garmin, you’ll see it all the time in this strange sport of ours. And it’s a scene that appears, in modified forms, throughout Argyle Armada, at races in France, in America, in Canada. The repetition of the scene probably helps explain why some people like the team that Doug Ellis bankrolls and which Jonathan Vaughters has built. And helps explain why we like the sport of cycling."

CyclingWeekly: The engineers have designed the frame with slots in the down tube to take advantage of the Venturi-effect that rotates the air as it comes off of a surface thus reducing drag.

CyclingFans: Thursday's Tour of Turkey Stage 5 departs Marmaris at 9:15am CET or 3:15am U.S. Eastern and is expected at the finish at Turgutreis at around 1:49pm CET or 7:49am U.S. Eastern. Tour of Turkey live streaming video should get underway at around 12:00pm CET or 6:00am U.S. Eastern.

CyclingNews: Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) silenced some of his critics by defeating his fellow Australian Matthew Goss (GreenEdge) in a thrilling tussle in the sprint finale to stage four of the 2012 Tour of Turkey.

VeloNews: After spending much of his career developing into the preeminent setup man in the game, the Aussie took the chance to try his own luck as the closer for Rabobank in the wake of the closure of the High Road franchise last year.

CyclingNews: The UCI announced today the final allotment of places for the track cycling events in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Great Britain and Australia were the only countries to qualify spots for all ten races on the schedule.

CyclingNews: Niki Terpstra is the first rider named to the Dutch team for the cycling road race at the London 2012 Olympics. Olympic coach Leo van Vliet announced the selection of the Dwars door Vlaanderen-Waregem winner on Wednesday.

CyclingNews: Chris Froome of Team Sky is once again battling bilharzia (schistosomiasis), a disease caused by parasitic worms. He suffered from the disease for much of 2011, recovering in time to finish second overall in the Vuelta a Espana, and had hoped to be rid of it for good. But blood tests this year revealed he still had the parasites in his system.

VeloNation: Australian gives his thoughts on team’s successful start to first season.

RedKitePrayer: As is typical of SRAM’s visit to Laguna Seca, there was a ride Friday morning on new gear followed by a tech presentation on the parts before lunch. The loop took 1.5 hrs. and gave us a chance to do some climbing and descending along with a bit of flat-pounding.

CXMagazine: The first Dirty Deeds [the cyclocross series that's growing the sport in Australia] women’s skills session was held last Saturday at Darebin Parklands. For a misty Melbourne morning, it was great to have a bunch of enthusiastic women arrive all kitted up and ready to go. Some were experienced riders who had participated in last year’s season. Others were brand new to cyclocross and were sporting nervous smiles.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Good range of adjustment options but adds half a kilo to your bike."

Boulder Report: Johan Bruyneel - All-Star?

One of the winningest Tours directors of all time faces his biggest test.

VeloNation: ‘Standard’ biological passport controls were carried out.

InnerRing: What is going on inside Radioshack-Nissan? There’s been some bizarre debate in public between riders and management over who gets to be the directeur sportif during the Tour de France. But this seems to be about more than just picking a manager for one month.

VeloNation: WorldTour race launched in capital, Warsaw aimed at pre-Olympic preparation.

CyclingNews: With social media becoming more and more ubiquitous in sport and the wider world, Omega Pharma-QuickStep sporting director Brian Holm has moved to impose some level of control on the way his riders use Twitter and Facebook.

RedKitePrayer: "A friend of mine owns a couple of bike shops. He’s one of those rare guys who is both soulfully passionate about cycling AND has the business sense to keep his shops afloat and moving forward in a variety of cool ways. He’s generous with his time (and his bikes), and he’s a guy you’d want to ride with and then probably go eat a whole table full of Mexican food afterwards. He’s one of the good guys."

"Now BikeRadar Training is up and running, we thought it'd be an ideal time for a video series on improving your road biking skills."

SBS: Ivan Basso says his participation in next month's Giro d'Italia is still not certain, with the setback from his crash at the Volta a Catalunya still playing on his mind and creating doubts that he'll be ready to compete in the Corsa Rosa.

VeloNews: Lampre-ISD will start the Giro d’Italia with two captains, defending champion Michele Scarponi and Damiano Cunego. However, neither Italian is clear about his plans or what the other’s role will be.

VeloNews: Benjamín Noval says Alberto Contador will be a man on a mission when he returns from his controversial clenbuterol ban in August.