2012 Tour of Portugal Results - Stage 1...

Thomson Solos to Stage Win and Yellow Jersey at Stage 1 of Volta a Portugal...

CyclingFas: Thursday's Tour of Portugal Stage 1 gets underway at 12:05pm local (7:05am U.S. Eastern) and is expected to finish at around 5:30pm local (12:30pm U.S. Eastern).  Tour of Portugal live streaming video should get underway at around 4:00pm local (11:00am U.S. Eastern).

CyclingNews: Philippe Gilbert (BMC) failed in his second attempt this year to retain a national jersey, this time at the Belgian Time Trial Championships on Wednesday. In June he also failed to defend his title of Belgian road champion.

CyclingNews: Races & Results.
Vuelta a España - August 18 - September 9 (Stages),
Tour du Limousin - August 14- 17 (Stages & Results),
Breck Epic - August 12- 17 (Stages & Results),
2012 Olympic Games - July 28 - August 12 (Races),
Eneco Tour - August 6- 12 (Stages & Results),
Tour of Utah - August 7- 12 (Stages & Results),
Tour de l'Ain - August 7- 11 (Stages & Results),
More...

Sarah Musick: "Today is filled with great success (said in a Borat accent) for the YetiBeti from Colorado Springs.  I go into the stage with words from my support crew taped to my handlebars."

VeloNation: Australian also hungry for first-ever stage win in three week race.

SBS: Alberto Contador is primed and ready to challenge for top honours in the Vuelta a Espana, says Australian DS Brad McGee, and a band of loyal Saxo Bank Tinkoff Bank recruits can only further his chances.

Off The Beaten Path: "Mike started the Vintage Racing Bicycle Newsletter and wrote about a strange bike that he had found, called a “René Herse.” As his passion for the French cyclotouring bikes developed, I lapped up every word."

BikeRadar verdict: "Wider, simpler, lighter and more secure even without a chain guide."

VeloNews: Water sitting in your frame is not a good thing no matter what your frame is made of. That water can ruin bearings, whether in your bottom bracket or your headset.

VeloNews: Amazing comfort and striking looks for a very reasonable price.

VeloNews: Watching Levi Leipheimer tear away from the front of the group on Utah’s steep Empire Pass and blister the snaking descent, easily holding off the chase, it was abundantly clear on Sunday that the defending USA Pro Challenge champ will be hard to dethrone in Colorado.

VeloNews: If the 2012 Tour de France was all about time trials and control, the Vuelta a España this year delivers a route unlike any seen in the modern era.

BoulderReport: Held alongside the USA Pro Challenge, the Blue Ribbon Alpine Challenge women’s race is a study in contrasts.

VeloNation: Sky Procycling rider fired up for Vuelta a España.

RedKitePrayer: Admit it, even with the Vuelta a Espana just around the corner, and whether or not Bradley Wiggins was your choice for the yellow jersey, the end of the Tour brings with it a state of dissatisfaction. There’s an ennui that no other race can fill, even with the epic showdown of this year’s Vuelta looming.

PEZ: The Olympic ‘amateur’ ideal is long dead if you wish to stand on the podium in London – or Rio. All of the GB cycling team are full time athletes, either with the Sky team or retained under lottery funding with just one goal in life – to win Olympic medals.

Sonya Loony: "100 milers are my favorite distance because anything can happen and you see so much. When I got the magic email from the Leadville Trail 100 notifying me that I got into the race, I admittedly had mixed emotions. I’m a certified singletrack addict. There is nothing quite like riding a sweet piece of trail except one thing – being in love."

road.cc: Superlight race shoes with a decent level of comfort thrown in.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Not the most high end, but the fit, performance and comfort outdo the budget price tag."

BikeEurope: Spybike created a GPS tracker hidden in the seat post of a bike which detects bike movement and sends text messages to mobiles, and tracks the bike whereabouts for up to 60 hours. This new anti-theft device or better said a track and trace systems when a bike is stolen is operated by SMS using GPS and GSM technology using a SIM card.

road.cc: New pedals with a super-light action.

BikeRumor: Measuring time, distance, speed, acceleration, cadence and slope grade, Velocomputer makes the claim it’s 360 times more accurate than other cycling sensors.

VeloNation: Frustrated BMC Racing Team rider to retun in 2013.

CyclingNews: Garmin-Sharp has announced its team for the Vuelta a Espana, and as expected Andrew Talansky will lead the team's overall ambitions. The recent winner of the Tour de l'Ain will be joined by a mix of experience and youth, including Christophe Le Mevel, Johan Van Summeren and Martijn Maaskant.

VeloNews: "Jonathan Vaughters’ recent doping confession in The New York Times revived a question that has ticked at my conscience since 2011, a year I spent with Vaughters and his riders while writing and photographing a book on his Garmin team."

VeloNation: Uncertainty about rider’s schedule.

VeloNation: Tour de France and/or Vuelta believed to be rider’s target in 2013.

InnerRing: AA Drink-Leontien.nl is stopping at the end of the year according to Wielerland.nl. Some good results and even an Olympic silver medallist in Lizzie Armitstead don’t seem to have helped, the sponsor AA Drink won’t renew and the management have decided they can’t find a replacement.

CyclingWeekly: Midnight finishes, kamikaze sheep on the road, careless drivers and even heart problems couldn't stop Steve Benton from completing Simon Warren's 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs in a mere thirteen days - without putting a foot down, naturally.

PodiumCafe: A large format photographic history of classic handbuilt bicycles. Beautiful images of 50 bicycles from 1910 to 2003.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Masses of fun and extremely capable, but wide bars and a dropper post would make it even better."

road.cc: The brand new De Rosa Merak Athena EPS is available now.

CyclingNews: After a couple years of crashes, 2012 brings national title and Olympic berth.

TwistedSpoke: Tyler Hamilton has a book coming out in September written by Armstrong’s War author Daniel Coyle. It promises to be a detailed, behind the curtain look at doping and what it takes to win in pro cycling. (Lance isn’t going to like the story but he’ll get advance copies for his legal team.)