Friday's Stage 13 start time: 14:25 CET (5:25 AM PDT);
Earliest live video: 14:35 CET (5:35 AM PDT);
Approximate finish: 17:13 CET (8:13 AM PDT).

Giro d'Italia - May 5-27 (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California - May 13-20 (Stages),
Tour de Picardie - May 11-13 (Stages & results),
Tour of Chongming Island - May 9-11 (Stages & results),
Tour de France - June 30 - July 22 (Stages),
2012 Olympic Games - July 28 - August 12 (Races),
Vuelta a España - August 18 - September 9 (Stages),
More...

CyclingNews: Former HTC-Highroad directeur sportif Valerio Piva has found a new role at Katusha: rather than targeting stage wins with the likes of Mark Cavendish, he now directs Joaquim Rodriguez in defence of the pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia. With nine days to go in the corsa rosa, he gives his Spanish protégé a 50 per cent chance of winning the overall classification in Milan.

road.cc: Lifetime ban bylaw formally rescinded.

Bicycling: You don't need a lot of tools—you just need the right tools. If you have these 16 in your home shop, you'll be able to fix anything.

road.cc: There's mountains, but it's a shorts stage - one for the sprinters says Team Sky's Geraint Thomas.

road.cc: Breakaway carries the day as race heads through spectacular scenery above the Cinque Terre.

VeloNews: The Giro d’Italia celebrates its pink, blue and red jerseys daily, but little attention is given to the other classifications. Categories like the fuga, the super team and the time gaps rankings go unnoticed, only spotted in the daily hand-outs to the journalists in the press room.

Bicycling: 25 solutions to vexing problems.

PodiumInsight: Stage 6 at the Amgen Tour of California marks a return of the Big Bear finish, first seen in 2010 – however this year, the stage includes less climbs before the final ascent to the Snow Summit ski area at over 7,000-foot elevation.

VeloNews: Defending champion Chris Horner (RadioShack-Nissan) found himself buried in rubble when the dust had settled after the 29.7km time trial in Bakersfield — BMC Racing’s Tejay van Garderen passed him early on and Horner ended up 2:50 off the winning pace of Garmin-Barracuda’s Dave Zabriskie. In the general classification, Horner now sits 2:50 back as well.

VeloNation: Olympic champion beats mainly domestic field as bid for London qualification continues.

TwistedSpoke: While Chris Horner (RadioShack Nissan Trek) has been openly suspicious of rival Levi Leipheimer’s form post-cracked fibula, the results of today’s stage 5 time trial certainly gave some weight to his “playing possum” claim.

VeloNation: Jens Voigt takes unexpected runner-up slot behind USA TT champ.

PodiumInsight: Defending Champion, Kristin Armstrong (Exergy TWENTY12), dominated the Bakersfield time trial course finishing in under 40 minutes. She easily won the Second Annual Amgen Tour of California Women’s Time Trial Invitational. The women’s field raced the same course as the men’s Stage 5 time trial, 29.7 km with an 8% climb at the end on the China Grade Loop.

PodiumInsight: The race of truth today at the Amgen Tour of California – the time trial. One rider, one bike and a clock. That’s it. And the 18.4-mile (29.7 km) course is definitely for the specialists.

VeloNation: Slovakian plays down time trial chances.

BikeRumor: ENVE Composites is considered one of (if not the) premier carbon fiber tube and component manufacturers, and we were given a chance to peek behind the curtain at their operation. Well, most of it anyway. There are a few things we couldn’t photograph or mention, but for the most part they opened their doors wide and gave us surprising amount of access.

Thursday's Tour of California Stage 5, a 29.7km Individual Time Trial at Bakersfield gets underway with the departure of the first rider at 1:00pm PDT (10:00pm CET). Tour of California live streaming video should get underway at around 1:45pm PDT (10:45pm CET).

InnerRing: There are names that stand out. Zoncolan. Angliru. Perhaps after the summer the Grand Colombier could join the club after the Tour de France climbs it for the first time. These are all steep climbs that are considered so hard that they are used sparingly in the big races, appearing only once every few years.

VeloNation: Superb ride for veteran RadioShack Nissan rider.

CyclingTips: "We all know that the fork is an important and integral part of the bike, but it's difficult to define what makes various forks different, what's marketing fluff, and how a fork can completely change the geometry and handling of a bike. I had a good long chat with Darren Baum about this topic where I bombarded him with my questions."

PodiumCafe: It was a beautiful day in Montecatini Terme Wednesday, perfect for a family outing.

SBS: World road race champion Mark Cavendish (Sky) has openly criticized key leadout man Geraint Thomas at the finish of Stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia in Montecatini overnight, after a mistake from the Welshman ruined his chances of what would have been his third stage win.

Off The Beaten Path: Whether it’s wide tires at lower pressures or front-end geometries, some of what we find to work best is not currently used by professional racers. Don’t professional teams do a lot of testing and development of their equipment? Isn’t it safe to assume that their equipment is optimized for the job at hand? I believe the answer is: “Not always.”

road.cc: RadioShack Nissan's two fortysomethings relive the past - and Jens has another story saved up for the grandkids.

BikeHugger: Spotted this LED turn signal prototype on a bike in a rack yesterday. It’s for bicycle running and turn signals.

RedKitePrayer: "So last week I laid my hands on a SRAM 2012 Red group. To use a more colloquial phrasing, you might say that my stock has risen enough with the folks in Chicago that they were willing to provide me with a group for review."