TwistedSpoke: The Pitbull learns fast. In his second Vuelta a Espana, Garmin-Sharp’s Andrew Talansky, nicknamed for Pitbull for his tenacity, also showed another trait of grand tour winners. The ability to learn fast. In one year he jumped from 79th to 7th in the Helta Skelta Vuelta.

CyclingNews: John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) is just 23 but he became the German with the most victories in a single Vuelta a España on Sunday, clinching one more than André Greipel’s total of four in 2009, with an all-out surge for the line in Madrid.

VeloNation: Olympic champion outsprints Evie Stevens to take fourth straight Ladies Toer.

CyclingNews: John Degenkolb’s won the final stage of the 2012 Vuelta a Espana from Cercedilla to Madrid to take his fifth win on the race. The German sprinter beat Ella Viviani (Liquigas Cannondale) and Daniele Bennati (RadioShack Nissan) on the streets of the Spanish capital to bring down the curtain on the final grand tour of the season.

Races & Results.
Vuelta a España -  Aug 18 - Sept 9 (Stages & Results),
Tour of Britain -  Sept 9 - 16 (Stages & Results),
Tour of China -  Sept 7 - 13 (Stages & Results),
Mountain Bike Championships - Aug 31 - Sept 9 (Races),
CyclingNews: More...

CyclingNews: Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha) could have won the Vuelta a España and finally concluded the race in third place, but the Catalan all-rounder says he is still satisfied with a season which is far from over and in which he’s been the only rider to take two podium finishes in grand tours.

The roadside was absolutely packed full of crazies on the exciting Bola Del Mundo altitude finish yesterday - two of whom worked for Pez! Ed Hood runs us through all the action of the last mountain stage of the Vuelta'12 - Roadside!

CyclingFans: Sunday's Grand Prix de Fourmies Live streaming video: 3:00pm CET (9:00am U.S. Eastern)

CyclingFans: Sunday's Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal starts at 11:00am EDT (17:00 CET) and is expected to finish at around 4:15pm EDT (22:15 CET). GP de Montreal live streaming video should get underway at around 2:00pm EDT (20:00 CET).

CyclingNews: Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) is now on the point of claiming his second Vuelta a España and his fifth Grand Tour.

VeloNation: Outduels Moser and Kolobnev in late break.

InnerRing: Alberto Contador attacked 55km from the finish on Stage 17 and rode on to win the stage and claimed the overall lead. If three weeks of racing are reduced to one moment, it was this audacious attack that won the 2012 Vuelta.

CyclingNews: Luke Rowe (Sky) won the opening stage of the Tour of Britain, taking the sprint in Norfolk, which was overshadowed by a huge crash just before the final km. Boy von Poppel (UnitedHealthcare) was second. The stage winner also took the overall lead.

SoCalCycling: The 2012 USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships moved to downtown Bend on Saturday for the first of two days of criterium racing. The technical one-kilometer course featured six turns and was lined with enthusiastic crowds throughout the day.

PodiumInsight: Riders from all around the world will converge on New England, the epicenter of American cyclocross, for the second edition of the Shimano New England Professional Cyclocross Series. The series will include races held in four of the most prestigious U.S. venues: Gloucester, Providence, Northampton and Warwick.

BikeRadar verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars. "Cheaper, lighter and less damaging than the K-Edge, but there's room for improvement."

Video: The race for seconds at the Tour of Britain...

CyclingFans: Sunday's Tour of Britain Stage 1 departs Ipswich at 10:00am BST (5:00am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Norfolk Showground at around 3:15pm BST (10:15am U.S. Eastern). Tour of Britain live streaming video should get underway at around 1:45pm BST (8:45am U.S. Eastern).

VeloNation: World champion hopes for an amicable separation and that British team doesn’t demand a release fee.

Stella Yu: "Each saddle is created for a specific type of cycling and cyclist, with unique shapes and designs to fit every saddle need. Saddles for the recreational cyclist tend be broader, providing greater cushioned comfort in a traditional sense. Performance and competition saddles emphasize high-tech comfort; meaning materials and saddle construction are optimized for weight, aerodynamics and comfortable support over the long haul."

CyclingNews: Ivan Basso has declined to follow Tyler Hamilton’s lead in naming former CSC boss Bjarne Riis as the man who pointed him towards Operacion Puerto doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

CyclingNews: Lance Armstrong may or may not be able to keep the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, according to an IOC official who said that the situation was unclear.

VeloNews: Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) takes motivation and confidence out of the Vuelta a España after riding into the top 10 in just the second grand tour of his brief, yet promising career.

VeloNews: Nicholas Bazin (BigMat-Auber) and Helen Wyman (Kona) won Saturday’s kickoff to the Ellison Park Cyclocross weekend in Rochester.

CyclingNews: After Julie Bresset (France) won the Olympic women's cross country mountain bike race three weeks ago, there wasn't much time to get ready for the world championship race, held this weekend in Saalfelden, Austria.

RBAction: It’s a funny thing about the bike industry that, while very few of us would ever consider a $4000 bike inexpensive, a carbon bike spec’d with Shimano’s electronic Ultegra Di2 components is now deemed a “budget bike.”

SBS: Chicago Marathon director Carey Pinkowski confirmed Friday that the ban meted out to Lance Armstrong by the US Anti-Doping Agency means the cyclist can't run in the race.