The French CyclisMag profiles 21-year-old Dan Martin as one of the outsiders for the Route du Sud this week. Please note that this article is in French.

Translated from the article: “I am going well right now (7th overall GP Correios in Portual). It will be interesting to see where I am at in the mountains. This is the first time that I will be doing a pro race in the high mountains… Also I love the Pyrenees. I spent vacations with my parents there when I was little. I know the climbs well.”

CyclingNews.com interviews Jonathan Vaughters on the team’s new Garmin sponsorship and also the changing paradigm in team sponsorships in general.

From the article: “From an objective standpoint, cycling is a very effective marketing tool, and they just needed an excuse to get back in. We showed that we had some real empirical evidence that doping is no longer occurring, and as soon as that evidence was given a year to percolate, the sponsors came back,” said Vaughters.

“In fact, the CEO of Garmin had never been to a bike race or seen a bike race - it wasn’t out of the love of the sport that he approved the deal, he did it based solely on the numbers,” he continued

The UK’s Cycling Weekly talks to David Millar’s about new title sponsor Garmin and his hopes for the fast approaching Tour de France.

From the story: “I got to use the Garmin 705 during the Giro and it was pretty new experience for me. When people ask me what information I want to be told during time trials, I’ve always said just give me as much info as possible,” said Millar.

The DenverPost.com covered the announcement that Garmin International, Inc. will be the title sponsor for the newly named Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O.

From the article: “Garmin will provide the cyclists with the latest in navigation mechanics. Each cyclist will have an Edge 705, a bicycle computerwhich will not only provide location but heart rate, cadence and turn-by-turn navigation among other data.

The team car will be equipped with a nuvi 770, which Garmin spokesman Jon Cassat said, will be “the best GPS technology on tour.”

The New York Times featured Garmin’s sponsorship of the newly named Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O.

From the article: “The sport of cycling, left for dead by some sponsors, fans and news media organizations because of doping scandals, received a breath of life Wednesday when Garmin announced it would be the title sponsor of Team Slipstream-Chipotle, one of two American-based teams competing in next month’s Tour de France.”

Well, it’s time for Route du Sud. This is a very important race for me. I need to show myself here and I am very motivated to do so. I’m especially looking forward to the mountain time trial on Friday.

Some riders from my team have been here by my house for a small training camp. I have really enjoyed riding with them and showing them my favorite climbs. I always blab so much about the riding here, so it’s nice to actually have a chance to back it up. I even took them to my favorite restaurant that my friend Sean owns. It’s ironic because Sean is American and also from Colorado living here in a tiny town near Puigcerda. He made some amazing food for all of us to enjoy.

Well, time for the game face. My Powertap was smoking as I led the guys up La Molina 4 times today, so let’s now do it in the race! -Tom

In his regular VeloNews column, Will Frischkorn talks about life on the road as a pro cyclist. The key, he says, to survival is living very, very fluidly.

“There are cyclists that can plan out their entire season in advance. They have names like Alberto, Tom, Levi, Cadel, Gilberto, and Sylvain…Everybody else? Well … Fluidly is my choice descriptor for the way we live: very, very fluidly.”

Velonews.com features Taylor Phinney and his world record setting ride at the ADT Event Center velodrome in Carson, California. His time of 3:16.589 in the 3000-meter individual pursuit set a new world junior record for the event.

From the article: “Achieving this mark was one of my goals when I started my Olympic training this year,” Phinney said. “As our team prepares for Beijing, I couldn’t be more proud to set this record. I’m excited to represent the United States in the Olympics.”