CyclingFans: Sunday's Paris-Tours departs Châteauneuf en Thymerais at 10:30am CET (4:30am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Tours at around 4:00pm CET (10:00am U.S. Eastern).  Paris-Tours live streaming video should get underway at around *2:40pm CET (*8:40am U.S. Eastern).

VeloNation: Colombian jumps away in the final kilometre to take seventh victory in debut season at the top level.

Races & Results.
Paris - Tours - Oct 7 (Start List),
Tour of Tasmania - Oct 2-7 (Stages & Results),
Tour of Beijing - Oct 9-13 (Stages),
Giro d'Italia - May 4-26 (Stages),
Giro di Lombardia -  Sept 29 (Results),
CyclingNews: More...

CyclingNews: Campbell Flakemore (Genesys) has won the final road stage of the Tour of Tasmania by winning a two-man sprint against Bradley Linfield (Plan B Racing). Sam McCallum (Polygon) outsprinted Neil Van Der Ploeg (Search2Retain) for the final podium spot.

VeloNation: American team determined ahead of tomorrow’s semi-Classic.

PodiumInsight: Once again, there are only two UCI races on the schedule for the fifth weekend of the North American cyclocross season as we stay in New England for the Providence Cyclocross Festival, round #3 and #4 of the Shimano New England Professional Cyclocross Series.

CyclingNews: American U23 standouts Ian Boswell and Joe Dombrowski may have independently reached their decisions to sign their first UCI ProTeam contracts with Team Sky, but the Bontrager-Livestrong teammates, who have become fast friends over the past two years on the US-based development team, agree it's a move that should benefit them both.

Dave Moulton: "I find the current news stories that are dominating the sport of cycling these days, extremely disturbing; namely the whole issue of doping in professional cycling."

CyclingNews: Triple world champion Oscar Freire has officially retired from the sport. He will not be at the start line in Sunday's Paris-Tours, his Katusha team announced.

InnerRing: Labelled “the sprinters’ classic”, this Sunday’s race might have a flat route and a long finishing straight but in fact most of the winners since 2000 have come from breakaways and attacks. Since the majority of bike races end in a bunch sprint, it means the race is far from the foregone conclusion its title suggests and it can offer an action-packed final half-hour.

CyclingNews: North America has a new UCI-ranked stage race for 2013 with the debut of Canada's Tour of Alberta, slated for September 3-8. 

CyclingFans: The 2012 Superprestige Cyclocross - Ruddervoorde is Sunday, October 7.  This is the first race in the season's superprestige series. Live streaming video: 4:45pm CET (10:45am U.S. Eastern).

CyclingNews: Former UCI anti-doping chief Anne Gripper, who played a major role in the introduction of the blood passport system as well as a number of doping cases during her tenure from 2006 to early 2012, says she is satisfied with the USADA investigation, charges, subsequent lifetime ban and stripping of Lance Armstong’s seven Tour de France titles.

BikeRadar: It has an atomic number of 22 and its chemical element symbol is Ti – which is fitting, as many people in the bike industry often refer to titanium as ‘ti’.

Off The Beaten Path : It was  a glorious morning, but as we started the climb toward Washington Pass, we could see clouds over the mountains. Did this mean that it was raining on the other side of the Cascades?

Peanut: In Belgium, a country that seemingly revolves around cyclocross, the first big weekend of the season is always filled with much anticipation for both the riders and fans.

VeloNews: The 2013 Tour de France might not finish on the Champs-Élysées next summer.

RedKitePrayer: There is actually now a court order in place that forbids Floyd Landis from saying that “Hein Verbruggen is full of shit.” But, where does the Swiss court get the authority to impose such an order?

VeloNation: Urges UCI to work with USADA in Armstrong case, Parisotto wants impartial enquiry of UCI if evidence is there.

TwistedSpoke: "Little Levi is on my mind. Though he’s just about ready to retire in a season or two, we’ve been reminded the last few days that he might be the template for stage racing in the future. That may not be too thrilling."

Blazin' Saddles: "It's that time of the season as the races wind up and the focus shifts to who will be riding where next year. With that in mind, Saddles took a look at the main transfers on the World Tour and main Pro Continental ranks to bring you this handy recruitment round-up."

BikeRadar verdict: 5 out of 5 stars. "The speed and handling of a true super bike, with the glide of a cyclocross machine over the rough stuff."

CyclingNews: The cyclo-cross season is getting into full swing with the first race in the Belgian Superprestige series. The 31st edition of the series gets underway in Ruddervoorde on Sunday, and the top favourites took part in a non-UCI classified event in Laarne today as a tune up. There, they found deep puddles of muck and mud in what veteran Bart Wellens called "old school".

VeloNews: Professional road cycling enters its offseason after Sunday’s Paris-Tours and next week’s Tour of Beijing, but the international cycling federation, the UCI, is busy with Irish journalist Paul Kimmage and other legalities.

VeloNation: Former WADA president speaks on doping, Landis, USPS and a range of topics.

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