VeloNews: BMC Racing staff confirmed the Norwegian’s plan to skip the Tour as he continues to recover from a viral infection that plagued him throughout the spring classics. Hushovd abandoned the Giro d’Italia on the fifth day.

VeloNation: Tour de France champion fastest of a late three-man move; Bradley Wiggins moves into the lead.

StickyBotytle: Dan Martin (Garmin Barracuda) has suffered a major setback in today’s opening road stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné in France, falling very hard and finishing among the back markers, effectively ending his chances of a high overall placing.

Critérium du Dauphiné - June 3-10 (Races & results),
Tour de Luxembourg - May 30-June3 (Races & results),
USA Road Championships - May 26-28 (Races & results),
Giro d'Italia - May 5-27 (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...

CyclingFans: Monday's Criterium du Dauphine Stage 1 departs Seyssins at 11:30am CET (5:30am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Saint-Vallier at around 4:17pm CET (10:17am U.S. Eastern). Criterium du Dauphine live streaming video should get underway at around 3:00pm CET (9:00am U.S. Eastern).

Pedal: Deprived of the title last year, Kazakhstan’s Arman Kamyshev was finally crowned champion of the Coupe des Nations – Ville de Saguenay. Second in the overall ranking at the 2011 edition, the athlete defended the leader’s jersey with verve. The stage victory was however claimed by Sebastian Lander, from Danemark.

Rambling Man: "How about racing in the wind? Well, I’ve had to do some of that too, like last week at the Tour of Somerville in New Jersey, the country’s oldest bike race and a gusty affair. It provided an opportunity to hone a different set of wind-defying tactics."

VeloNews: Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) is back at his best after a serious training crash two months ago. He won the Tour of Belgium last week and on Sunday placed fifth in the Critérium du Dauphiné prologue.

CyclingIQ: First held in 2009, Tour de Singkarak takes place in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. The provincial government is a major partner in the race, providing prize money, media coverage, facilities in the start/finish towns as well as traffic enforcement.

VeloNews: Following hot on the heels its classics-themed Domane endurance frame release, Trek showed a brand new, wholly redesigned Madone at the first road stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Monday. Most of the RadioShack-Nissan team started the day aboard the new bike, the Madone 7, including likely Tour de France starters Andy Schleck, Yaroslav Popovich and Haimar Zubeldia.

Prologue Results: Durbridge 1st, Wiggans 2nd, Evans 9th, Schleck 102nd.

VeloNews: “We talked, there was an offer [from Liquigas at a reported $2.2 million annually], but we said, ‘No.’ It was a significant offer, but there are many other aspects that need to be looked over,” said Nibali. “Maybe in the future we will have a chance to talk again.”

CyclingNews: Euskaltel-Euskadi - albeit with a single sponsor, Euskaltel, and without the Euskadi foundation which has been part of its unique structure since 1994 - will continue as a team into 2013 , Basque newspaper El Diario Vasco has reported.

road.cc: Yorkshireman arrives in Greenwich after taking two weeks off previous mark.

CycleBordom: First thoughts upon witnessing the Mavic Zxellium Ultimates: “OMG, those shoes are hide… no, wait—they’re MAGNIFICENT!!” I’m guessing that part of my initial revulsion to their color has to do with LA humping the fabled hue into submission.

Michele Acquarone: "Now that the Giro d’Italia has finished, I’ll try to make the first assessment with you. Today I’ll begin with the ten things that worked (and which satisfied me the most). Next week, we’ll instead touch upon the ten questions that I’ve taken away with me and which we will look to answer together in the months that separate us from the 2013 edition."

CXMagazine: If you imagine your bike’s cables like a set tunnels, then imagine an army of little people running back and forth delivering the messages from your shifters and brake levers to their appropriate derailleurs and brakes. Sometimes, those people get tired.

VeloNation: Plays down overall GC while Lelangue suggests it could be an aim.

CyclingTips: "I've always thought that much more can be done than is currently available to visualise and analyse race results. As cyclists, looking through race results is probably the number one thing we like to do aside from riding our bikes."

BikeRadar: Winner: American Classic All Mountain. The most obvious aspect of these wheels is a very low weight that’s comparable to carbon fibre wheels at a much lower cost. While freewheel pickup can lag, they light up very quickly once locked in. They flick and lift around effortlessly on the trail to giving an instant sense that you’ve installed a serious speed and responsiveness upgrade.

BikeRumor: Spotted by VeloNews editor Caley Fretz at Dauphine is a new Trek Madone road bike. While not particularly called out as an aero road bike, it gets Shimano’s new Dura-Ace aero road brake under the bottom bracket. It definitely gives the bike a sleeker overall appearance, and moves weight downward for a lower center of gravity.

IronMan: It is a sign of just how good an athlete Lance Armstrong is that he broke the course record in Honu despite the toughest conditions ever experienced at the event.

CompetitiveCyclist: With rare exceptions, the Giro is the best race of the year. The 2012 edition surpassed all requirements for drama and beauty by a long shot. Despite all the gritty portraiture and jawdropping landscapes, my favorite images are always of the tools of the trade. That is, the bikes themselves. Nothing spawned more conversation here than this photo of Damiano Cunego's bike--

Bill Strickland: Missing the important moves sometimes can be shrugged off—but missing authenticity can't.

Cycling Resurrected: "Most people do little things to maintain the upkeep of their lives. Get an oil change when you need it. Clean out the closet when it looks like an unrecognizable pile. I respect those people because I am not like that. I usually wait until the last minute and then reserve a few days to get as much of what I can that I've been putting off done. Someone I know referred to it as "domestics" this week was a good one for it not to mention some pretty good riding as well."

VeloNation: RadioShack Nissan chief confirms last year’s runner-up will definitely ride Tour.

CyclingTips: On the surface it certainly appears like team Radioshack-Nissan-Trek is imploding at an irreversible rate and is becoming a complete farce. Is this a motivation tactic being used by Bruyneel? Or has he completely lost control?

CyclingNews: Andy Schleck criticized Bruyneel's outspokenness, saying that if he was team manager, he "wouldn't try to solve problems with my riders through the press, but discuss them internally."

SBS: After a tough few weeks for RadioShack-Nissan in which the team has enjoyed the limelight for all the wrong reasons, and at times resembled the cast of a soap opera, Jakob Fuglsang brought the conversation firmly back to the sporting elements by winning the SKODA Tour of Luxembourg.

VeloNews: It’s 1985 on the Manayunk Wall. Never mind the fact no one knows about it yet; they will. This road, its confluence of steepness, heat and the teeming mass at its edges, will soon become one of the most revered places in American cycling.

BikeRadar: Converting your mountain bike wheels to tubeless can save you hassle in the long run, but does require a bit of effort initially.

Eddy Merckx partners with Lexus for TT bike.

BikeRadar: Eddy Merckx Cycles recently went to a wind tunnel belonging to TMG, the Cologne-based motorsport division of Toyota. In addition to using the resources of the major automotive company, Edddy Merckx Cycles could also incorporate some of the technology used in cars in their bikes.

InnerRing: Bjarne Riis won the 1996 Tour de France and later confessed to doping. This alone makes his autobiography of interest because few have won the race, admitted they cheated and then wrote a book about the experience. But there’s more since as Riis has since become an influential team owner and the book covers a lot of his time in management.