road.cc: Some gentler mountains on this stage ahead of some tougher ones on the next - a day for a break reckons Geraint Thomas.

EuroSport: Italian youngster Matteo Rabottini of Farnese Vini dramatically won stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia atop the Piani dei Resinelli ahead of new race leader Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain.

Peloton: Italian Matteo Rabottini won the 15th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, the 172km ride from Busto Arsizio.

Sunday' s Stage 15 start time: 12:30 CET (3:30 AM PDT);
Earliest live video: 14:00 CET (5:00 AM PDT);
Approximate finish: 17:19 CET (8:19 AM PDT).

VeloNation: Pain too much for Luxembourg champion despite strong finish on Cervinia mountaintop.

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...

CyclingNews: Julien Absalon (Orbea) won the elite men's cross country World Cup in front of a home crowd in La Bresse, France. Absalon, who lives about 10km away, rode a smart race tactically and managed to escape the bad luck that affected some of the other favorites. Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized) steadily worked his way up throughout the race and made a late bid to overtake Absalon, but finished second.

BikeRumor: The Minimoto is a compact V-brake designed to work with short pull levers, which includes standard drop bar road bike levers. This lets you run your standard brake/shift lever road group and get the right amount of leverage at the brakes without any force amplifying gizmos in between. It’s also way easier to install and set up than traditional ‘cross cantilevers.

road.cc: Another day in the high mountains and one for the big guns to fire says Geraint Thomas, while IG Sigma Sport's Dan Lloyd offers insights in to how they'll do it.

CyclingNews: Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) sprinted to his fifth stage win in the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday after a short, fast stage in downtown Los Angeles. His team set him up perfectly for the bunch sprint finish and he crossed the line ahead of Tom Boonen and Gerald Ciolek (both Omega Pharma-Quickstep).

PodiumInsight: The final stage of the Amgen Tour of California is a parade from Beverly Hills to Los Angeles (L.A. LIVE) where the sprinters take over, hoping to finally beat Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale).

VeloNews: “Today we’re going to attack; we’re going for the stage win.” A 20-year-old kid like Joe Dombrowski doesn’t know any better.

VeloNews: What else would you expect from Chris Horner? The defending champion went on the attack posthaste in Saturday’s queen stage at the Amgen Tour of California, at one point seizing the virtual race lead on the road between the Glendora Mountain Road and Mount Baldy climbs.

Bicycling: Sometimes, bicycle racing can be straightforward. Sometimes, despite tactics, strategy, and luck, the strongest rider does win the race.

road.cc: Sub 10kg road bike build for the re-named and re-engineered Gruber system.

RBAction: "We hired Mike Montgomery who knows all about going over backwards on a bike. We scoured the Internet until we found some clip of a guy on a road bike doing a small back-flip and once we saw that we knew it could be done."

Marijn de Vvries: "I have been on the road since 6.30 am when the start gun sounds for Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik at 2.30 pm. The long journey via train stations, airports and hotels proved to be a real threat to my well-being in general and my legs in particular. Exhausted, I stand at the start line hoping that this feeling will disappear once I hit the pedals and the road."

CyclingNews: The relationship between Johan Bruyneel and the Schleck brothers appears to have reached a new low when the RadioShack manager questioned whether Fränk Schleck's injuries had been sufficient enough to pull out of the Giro d'Italia.

VeloNation: Specialized-lululemon dominates Canadian time trial with four in the top five.

CyclingIQ: First held in 1996, Tour of Japan is less a “tour” of Japan than a series of circuit races taking place in, or close to, major civic centers on the main island of Honshu. The race has followed a fairly consistent format over the years, though a couple of additions along the way, namely the iconic Mt Fuji hill climb (a feature of Tour of Japan since 2005) and a prologue (since 2010), have shifted the balance of power back towards all-rounders – but not so significantly that sprinters are pushed out of the GC game.

CyclingNews: Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Multivan Merida) raced to victory at the fourth round of the 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in La Bresse, France on Sunday. Dahle Flesjaa took over the race lead on the final descent, overtaking eventual runner-up Katerina Nash (Luna). Julie Bresset (BH-Suntour) rode in for third place. It was Dahle-Flesjaa's first World Cup win since 2008 and her 27th career total.  It was also her first World Cup win since having a baby.

BikeRumor: Hammacher Schlemmer is out with a rearview camera to compete with Cerevellum’s Hindsight. Though it may be the epitome of visual bulk, Hammacher’s Bicycle Rearview Camera can be picked up for a tad cheaper than the tech-loaded Cerevellum. It retails at $180 compared to Cerevellum’s $299.

BikeRadar: Fox Racing Shox released information, today, of their new Float iCD electronic suspension project, previously seen in prototype form on the bikes of Geoff Kabush (Scott-3Rox Racing) and Catharine Pendrel (Luna). The new electronic damper will be available for sale in 2013 for both forks and rear shocks.

road.cc: Mail on Sunday speaks to couple involved in countryside altercation.