CyclingFans: Saturday's Tour de France Prologue (6.4km) at Liege gets underway at 2:00pm CET (8:00am U.S. Eastern) with the departure of the first rider and is expected to finish at around 5:25pm CET (11:25am U.S. Eastern).  Tour de France live streaming video should get underway at around 2:15pm CET (8:15am U.S. Eastern).

Boulder Report: Evans has accomplished the neat trick of being the first defending champion since 2008 to enter the race as underdog. The honor of the preemptive race favorite doesn’t go to Evans but, rather, Wiggins, who has won three major stage races this year in commanding fashion.

VeloNation: Defending champion takes first Maglia Rosa of 2012.

InnerRing: For one of the biggest sporting events in the world the prize list is surprisingly modest. A total of €2,022,900 in prizes will be paid out and teams also share a pot of over one million Euros in expenses.

CyclingNews: Races & Results.
Tour de France - June 30 - July 22 (Stages),
Giro d'Italia Femminile June 29 - July 7 (Stages),
Tour of Qinghai Lake June 29 - July 12 (Stages),
Tour of Americas Dairyland June 21 - July 1 (Stages),
2012 Olympic Games - July 28 - August 12 (Races),
Vuelta a España - August 18 - September 9 (Stages),
More...

StickyBottle: Dan Martin is to record his Tour de France debut with a daily diary in The Irish Times. Martin has agreed a deal with the paper, which begins with a preview tomorrow, Saturday, and will be followed by a diary every day for the duration of the three-week race.

Coverage News...

InnerRing: Each stage is analyzed, each jersey is explained and once more information is available there will be full list of riders and other content that’ll be updated every day so you can dip in and out during the next few weeks.

TwistedSpoke: "It’s the day before the start of the 2012 Tour de France and I feel a mixture of euphoria and despair. The happiness is that tomorrow the greatest, most beautiful and physically demanding bike race in the world begins. The terrible disappointment is, I won’t be there in person."

BikeRadar: Tony Martin shocked tubular tire aficionados when he won last year's UCI time trial world championships on Continental clinchers, and then repeated the feat to capture the German national title.

InnerRing: With the official start list available, the 22 teams of the the Tour de France are now confirmed. Here’s the list of each squad with info on the sponsors, bikes and some thoughts on what they might do in the race.

CyclingNews: Plus Dennis to Sky?, Grabsch targets final TT and Wiggins talks up Van Den Broeck.

CyclingNews: UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani has confirmed to members of the media that three riders of RadioShack-Nissan have not been paid their salaries since the month of May, L'Equipe has reported. These three riders have turned to the world governing body of cycling to signal the failure of payment, which in turn is currently seeking answers of the team manager Johan Bruyneel.

BikeRadar: Always at the cutting edge with gear, the Garmin-Sharp riders at this year’s Tour de France have their choice from a slew of bikes from team sponsor Cervélo, including the P5 and P4 time trial bikes, the S5 aero road bike, and the ultralight R5 and R5ca.

VeloNews: So, it turns out you didn’t make the 198 starters for this year’s Tour de France. You can still get a three-week tour in your legs, however, with the FasCat Tour de France training calendar.

CyclingNews: If you look at the start list for the Tour de France and top 10 of the Pro Cycling Index, the most striking fact is that the top two riders in the Index are not at the start line.

road.cc: Orica Greenedge's Matt White introduces team personnel, Garmin-Sharp mechanic and cooks talk through their day.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Super-lightweight, responsive, balanced and accurate, these are ecellent wheels but at a high price"

road.cc: Innovation aplenty on David Zabriskie's Tour de France time trial bike.

CyclingNews: Europcar team manager Jean-René Bernaudeau says he has no knowledge of any inquiry into his team's alleged use of corticosteroids and intravenous solutions of vitamins.

VeloNation: All eyes on the Olympic Games in the one women’s Grand Tour of the season.

PodiumCafe: Liquigas is withdrawing as sponsor at the end of the year and unless he team finds a new one then the riders are all free to go.

CyclingNews: A review board has recommended that the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) file anti-doping rule violations against Lance Armstrong, it was announced today. The agency claims to have evidence that the seven-time Tour de France champion conspired to boost his and his US Postal team's performance through the use of performance enhancing drugs.

CyclingNews: When he rolls down the prologue start ramp in Liège just after half past four on Saturday afternoon, George Hincapie (BMC) will set a new record for appearances in the Tour de France. Just a day after turning 39, the New Yorker will be embarking on his 17th Tour, which will also be his final appearance in a race that he admits has been the making of him.

VeloNews: The 99th Tour de France starts Saturday in Liège, Belgium. It’s kind of like our Super Bowl — both because it’s cycling’s biggest prize and because it attracts the interest and viewership of a larger audience than the rest of the season combined. I know some of you will find this hard to believe, but not everyone circles the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on the calendar.

PEZ: The Tour de France is one day off, but before we turn our heads entirely in the direction of Liege, let's take a moment to look at a rider who must be dreaming about his chances in the Grand Boucle someday... The 2012 Baby Giro winner, Joe Dombrowski (Bontrager Livestrong & USA), first came to our attention in 2011 when he won a stage and was second on GC in the Valle d’Aosta U23 stage race in Italy.

RedKitePrayer: Have you heard about the Rêve Tour? Six women are riding the entire route of the 2012 Tour de France, one day in advance of the actual race, to raise money for Bikes Belong. The ride is sponsored and supported, but my understanding is that they’ll be cleaning and maintaining their own bikes. Given that there are six of them, and not 198, they’ll have to really stick together and take care of each other to make it. I think it is fair to say that for the women involved it will be easily as massive an undertaking as it will be for the men who will race it, for money, in their wake.

Cyclismas: The Tour entered the Alps with a 275-kilometre trundle from Nice to Briançon, taking in the Col d’Allos (2,250m), the Col de Vars (2,110m), and the Col d’Izoard (2,361m). With a comfortable lead Ottavio Bottecchia (Automoto) could afford to take things easy.

road.cc: Cracking deal gives you 2 years of cover on your new hoops for nothing, even on budget and MTB hoops.

BikeRadar: With the start of the 2012 Tour de France just around the corner, we've decided to take a look back at the race's winning road bikes from the past 20 years. As expected, carbon fiber dominates the material landscape in more recent years, but you don't have to look too far back to find steel, aluminum and even metal matrices atop the podium.