VeloNation: Hesjedal, Nibali, Contador, Cavendish and Rodriguez speak.

CyclingNews: Lachlan Norris has scored Drapac Professional Cycling’s second stage win of the Tour of Tasmania with the 25-year-old besting a three-man battle to decide Stage 4.

CyclingNews: Rubiano, Rabottini round out top three.

VeloNews: Three-time world champion Oscar Freire has finally brought the curtain down on his illustrious career and retired from cycling, his Katusha team confirmed on Thursday.

VeloNews: Although the Page family bought a house in Utah this summer and Jonathan raced in the U.S. during the early part of the season, Page will spend the majority of the season in Belgium, and will kick off his campaign at the first round of the Superprestige series in Ruddervoorde on Sunday.

VeloNation: Frank, Cummings and Lodewyck also earmarked as protected riders.

Races & Results.
Tour of Tasmania - Oct 2-7 (Stages & Results),
Giro d'Italia - May 4-26 (Stages),
Giro del Piemonte -  Sept 27 (Results),
Giro di Lombardia -  Sept 29 (Results),
Tour de Wallonie Picarde -  Sept 27-30 (Stages & Results),
CyclingNews: More...

BikeRadar: GoPro launched the impressive Wi-Fi BacPac and Wi-Fi Remote ($59 for the BacPac only, or $99 for both) accessories for its popular HD Hero 2 camera earlier this year.

Helen Wyman: "I promised I would write an update midway through my #Merican trip but time has just seemed to fly away from me. We are now in our final week here in the great U.S. of A. and I'm actually a little sad that we go home in less than a week."

VeloNews: By the time the last of the confetti hit the floor at Sky’s post-Tour de France party, it was accepted as fact that Mark Cavendish would leave the team at the end of the season. His contract may have booked him through 2014, but the Tour-winning squad’s less-than-secret desire to focus solely on GC wins at the grand tours means there isn’t much of a life to be had there for a top-tier sprinter – even one that is bandied about as a potential best-ever.

CyclingNews: The International Association of Professional Cycling teams (AIGCP) will need a new president as of March 2013 after Jonathan Vaughters confirmed that he would not stand for re-election once his current term expires.

VeloNews: The second edition of the Tour of Beijing unfolds next week much like it did last year: under a cloud of suspicion and controversy.

TwistedSpoke: Shuddup! No! That pretty much nutshells the seismic shift in power happening right now between the UCI and the rest of the cycling world. Well, world is an exaggeration but it sure feels like it.

RBAction: You don't know the name Bob Tetzlaff, but he was the real deal.

CyclingNews: Jürgen Roelandts has finished his season as he began it: in hospital with a fractured bone. The Lotto Belisol ride broke a cervical vertebra in his first race of the season, the Tour Down Under, and has now fractured collarbone at the Binche-Tournai-Binche.

Peloton: The Italian version of the world's premiere track bike criterium returns once again to the streets of Milano. The race will consist of 100 elite road cyclists, track racers, bike messengers, and urban athletes competing over 22 laps.

VeloNews: The new clincher is much wider, utilizing a shortened version of Zipp’s fat Firecrest rim shape designed to lop off grams of drag, improve crosswind stability, and widen the tire bed for lower rolling resistance.

InnerRing: The wrong side of thirty? Not as fast as you once were? Felt strong in some big races this year? But you’ve not been offered a new contract. It’s got to hurt, you were always in the service of the team, carrying bottles, punching a hole in the wind for someone else and often there when the team got a result. So what do you do?

CyclingNews: Although a court in Switzerland has ruled that Floyd Landis is unable to call UCI officials corrupt, attempts by the UCI to silence Greg LeMond’s similar allegations have proven unsuccessful. In an email to Cyclingnews, LeMond cited emails he had received from UCI president Pat McQuaid in 2006 and in 2008 in which the sport’s governing body asked LeMond to retract allegations of corruption he levelled at them.

VeloNation: Rabobank calls at least two witnesses in case over rider’s expulsion while leading 2007 Tour.

<European Cross – Week 4 Predictions.

Michele Acquarone: "The route of the 2013 Giro d'Italia has been presented, the secrets of the stages are out and I've realised yet again how affectionate and caring people are about the Corsa Rosa."

BikeRadar verdict: 3 out of 5 stars. "Has the potential to be a really fast aero ride if you can capitalize on its aerodynamics and precision control."

Retail Price: $1,809.90
You Save: $10.00
from: Cambria Bicycle Outfitter

InnerRing: The UCI won its case against Floyd Landis but as victories go, this is a weak one. Floyd is now forbidden to state that the UCI, Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid are no different to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.