Saturday's Stage 14 start time: Saturday 11:35 CET (2:35 AM PDT);
Earliest live video: 13:30 CET (4:30 AM PDT);
Approximate finish: 17:18 CET (8:18 AM PDT);

road.cc: A day for the GC contendors as the race heads in to the high mountains says Geraint Thomas.

VeloNews: A pair of mountain stages this weekend might not crown the 2012 Giro d’Italia champion, but it will knock a few GC pretenders off the path to the throne.

Giro d'Italia - May 5-27 (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages),
Tour de Picardie - May 11-13 (Stages & results),
Tour of Chongming Island - May 9-11 (Stages & results),
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...

road.cc: Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish took another win today in stage 13 – the shortest stage in the 2012 Giro d’Italia this year, a 122 km route from Savona to Cervere.

VeloNews: Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda) is ready for more in this Giro d’Italia. Still poised at second at 17 seconds behind Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha), many in the peloton continue to overlook the Canadian who held the pink jersey for three days.

Michal Golas the first Pole in Giro d’Italia mountains jersey.

VeloNation: Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider determined to hold on to blue jersey classification.

CyclingNews: Former HTC-Highroad directeur sportif Valerio Piva has found a new role at Katusha: rather than targeting stage wins with the likes of Mark Cavendish, he now directs Joaquim Rodriguez in defence of the pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia. With nine days to go in the corsa rosa, he gives his Spanish protégé a 50 per cent chance of winning the overall classification in Milan.

road.cc: Lifetime ban bylaw formally rescinded.

Bicycling: You don't need a lot of tools—you just need the right tools. If you have these 16 in your home shop, you'll be able to fix anything.

Bicycling: 25 solutions to vexing problems.

SBS: Sylvain Georges (AG2R) rode the final 35 kilometres of Amgen Tour of California's sixth stage to Big Bear Lake solo, to take a gutsy victory denying the chase of the Liquigas-Cannondale and Garmin-Barracuda teams, which were led home by Peter Sagan some 30 seconds later.

PodiumInsight: Stage 6 at the Amgen Tour of California marks a return of the Big Bear finish, first seen in 2010 – however this year, the stage includes less climbs before the final ascent to the Snow Summit ski area at over 7,000-foot elevation.

PodiumCafe: Yesterday we got a good look at who among the conventionally identified contenders actually arrived in the Golden State to win. We also got a very good look at the human missile that is Dave Zabriskie. The only way he could be faster is if he cut some spiral grooves into his body and managed to get his torso and head spinning like a bullet. That would be faster. Until then,... respect.

VeloNews: Defending champion Chris Horner (RadioShack-Nissan) found himself buried in rubble when the dust had settled after the 29.7km time trial in Bakersfield — BMC Racing’s Tejay van Garderen passed him early on and Horner ended up 2:50 off the winning pace of Garmin-Barracuda’s Dave Zabriskie. In the general classification, Horner now sits 2:50 back as well.

VeloNation: Olympic champion beats mainly domestic field as bid for London qualification continues.

TwistedSpoke: While Chris Horner (RadioShack Nissan Trek) has been openly suspicious of rival Levi Leipheimer’s form post-cracked fibula, the results of today’s stage 5 time trial certainly gave some weight to his “playing possum” claim.

TwistedSpoke: Captain America put on a show in the Bakersfield time trial yesterday. Maybe the best part was the audience: his wife Randi and two sons Waylon and Bo. A lot has been written by journalists about the quirky and idioscycratic Zabriskie but Twisted Spoke thinks there’s always room for real characters.

BikeRumor: Parlee’s Z5 line, which includes this standard model and an SL/SLi option that has full ti hardware, and lighter tubes and fork, is their top of the line “stock” offering. The frames are available in 12 sizes, ranging from XS, S, M, ML, L to XL in both standard and tall configurations.

BikeRumor: Following their introduction of the fully integrated crankset power meter for the new SRAM Red, Quarq has added specific models to work with Specialized and Cannondale cranksets. They’ll be available in both 130 and 110 BCDs for standard and compact chainrings.

Friday's Tour of California Stage 6 departs Palmdale at 10:25am PDT (7:25pm CET) and is expected at the finish at Big Bear Lake at around 3:22pm PDT (00:22am CET).  Tour of California live streaming video should get underway at around 2:00pm PDT (11:00pm CET).

VeloNation: Hinault and Georges turn things around for French squad.

CyclingWeekly: Fränk Schleck is struggling on through the Giro while suffering from a dislocated shoulder, the result of a crash two days ago in Tuscany.

CyclingNews: Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) brought the curtain down on his Giro d’Italia with 6th place in the bunch sprint on stage 13, but the Australian leaves the race with his morale intact and with his sights set firmly on the Tour de France and London 2012 Olympics.

InnerRing: There are names that stand out. Zoncolan. Angliru. Perhaps after the summer the Grand Colombier could join the club after the Tour de France climbs it for the first time. These are all steep climbs that are considered so hard that they are used sparingly in the big races, appearing only once every few years.

VeloNation: Superb ride for veteran RadioShack Nissan rider.

CyclingTips: "We all know that the fork is an important and integral part of the bike, but it's difficult to define what makes various forks different, what's marketing fluff, and how a fork can completely change the geometry and handling of a bike. I had a good long chat with Darren Baum about this topic where I bombarded him with my questions."

PodiumCafe: It was a beautiful day in Montecatini Terme Wednesday, perfect for a family outing.

road.cc: Inexpensive solution to carrying additional bottles on bikes without resorting to frame alteration.

Cyclelicious: "I’ve seen several battery packs on the bikes used for the 2012 Amgen Tour of California, but Liquigas Cannondale, Omega Pharma-Quick-Step and United Healthcare teams have non-electroic SRAM Red. So far, SRAM 2012 Red has been the winningest group during the 2012 Tour of California, with Peter Sagan riding Red to four consecutive stage victories this week. Kristin Armstrong also achieved victory on Thursday using 2012 Red at the women’s time trial in Bakersfield."