NEW YORK (AP) — New York City bicycle taxi regulations could be signed into law in August.

Industry advocates and Councilman Leroy Comrie are pushing for tougher safety measures. They want drug testing for pedicab operators and an added layer of verification of their licenses.

But Comrie — who heads the council’s Consumer Affairs Committee — says he would still support the bill without those measures.

The current proposal would require the three-wheeled vehicles to be licensed, have insurance and provide seatbelts for passengers.

PARIS (AP) Lance Armstrong says he’s capable of winning an eighth Tour de France but is ready, if necessary, to put his ambitions on hold for teammate and rival Alberto Contador.

Contador and Armstrong will ride for the Astana team at the three-week race that starts Saturday.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Armstrong says he’s willing to work as a support rider for Contador if the Spaniard proves likelier to win.

Armstrong says he would do so out of respect for Contador, Astana and cycling tradition and that “I would do it with pleasure.”

In the telephone interview, Armstrong says he isn’t sure he can win he Tour again at age 37 but that people would be wrong to underestimate him.

JAMEY KEATEN,Associated Press Writer, PARIS (AP)   France’s anti-doping crusaders are stockpiling needles for testing blood and cups for sampling urine, and two new books on Lance Armstrong have just been released in France.

Must be about time for the Tour de France.

The seven-time Tour champion is back from retirement, four years after his last victory. Teammate Alberto Contador, the 2007 winner and a top pre-race favorite, returns after Astana wasn’t allowed to compete last year.

They are allies, but could become rivals too.

The race starts July 4 with a challenging 9.6-mile prologue in Monaco, the tiny principality in southeast France. The pack will then head out along the Mediterranean, through the Pyrenees, across central France, into the Alps and then up the fabled Mont Ventoux a day before the July 26 finish in Paris.

Riders will dip into Spain, Switzerland and Italy during the 2,141-mile trek and face 20 major mountain climbs during the three weeks.

Tour designers have spiced up the route and revived some rules from the good old days in hopes that fans will have something — anything — to get their minds off the drug use that has marred cycling’s premier event in recent years.

Judges from UCI, the sport’s governing body, will be back, a year after they were kept out because of a bitter spat with Tour organizers over doping that has now been patched up.

The UCI has rolled out its “biological passport” anti-doping program, in which samples were taken from 840 professional riders to determine their body chemistry profiles. Any suspicious fluctuation from those levels could lead to penalties, even if no specific substance turns up in tests.

France’s anti-doping agency, the AFLD, says it’s going to target suspicious riders, rather than focus on random tests used in previous years, and will test for an unspecified new drug. The agency has also been authorized to freeze samples taken during the Tour. This allows them to be tested in the future for drugs that haven’t yet been identified as performance enhancers.

“We know there are some particular substances and methods, and we are going to try to detect them, sooner or later,” said Pierre Bordry, head of the AFLD, which helped nab six cheats at last year’s Tour.

“There are things that aren’t found in blood, but I’m not going to give an example, because I’ve learned over the years the people who advise athletes on doping adopt their programs based on drug-testers’ mindsets,” Bordry told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday.

For Armstrong, who famously insisted he was the world’s most-tested athlete during his glory years and has never tested positive, the welcome back to a still largely suspicious France may not be warm.

Just weeks before the Tour’s start, two books — “La Grande Imposture” (the Great Impostor) by anti-doping doctor Jean-Pierre Mondenard and “Le Sale Tour” (The Dirty Tour) by Pierre Ballester and David Walsh — have come out in France to capitalize on the media frenzy over the Texan’s comeback.

Both books lay out repeated suspicions about Armstrong over the years, though neither breaks significant new ground.

Doping allegations have already depleted the field this year: Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, the winner of the Dauphine Libere stage race and the top cyclist this year in the UCI rankings, has been forced to sit out because he is banned in Italy — which the Tour visits on July 21 — over doping allegations.

This Tour also offers some blasts from the past, including a team time trial in Stage 4 — the first since 2005. Injecting a taste of yesteryear from when riders didn’t enjoy high-tech communication, Tour organizers have banned the use of earpiece radios in the 10th and 13th stages — a controversial move that will alter strategies by stripping riders of their coaches’ advice during the stage.

Armstrong’s longtime mentor and coach, Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel, hates the idea.

“On the radio ban in 2 stages of the TdF?” Bruyneel wrote Thursday on his Twitter page. “I absolutely disagree. What’s the benefit of returning to the prehistory?”

But Bruyneel should be comforted by the team time trial, because his Astana squad has four of the world’s best riders: Armstrong, Contador, Levi Leipheimer of the United States, and Germany’s Andreas Kloeden.

Other innovations include an uphill finish at the moonscape-like Mont Ventoux in the next-to-last stage — an effort to dangle sporting suspense all the way up to the traditional cruise on Paris’ Champs-Elysees for the finish.

Mont Ventoux’s inclusion almost seems tailor-made for Armstrong, who has called it the toughest Tour climb “bar none” — and one he has never won at cycling’s showpiece event.

With Valverde out, the smart money will be on Contador. He sat out last year because Astana was barred from racing because of a doping scandal in 2007. Other pre-race favorites include fellow Spaniard and 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre; Cadel Evans of Australia, runner-up both last year and in 2007; and Denis Menchov, a Russian who won the Italian Giro in May.

Other riders with outside shots include Leipheimer, Kloeden, Sastre’s Saxo Bank teammate Frank Schleck and American Christian Vande Velde, the leader of Garmin-Slipstream who crashed out of the Giro with two broken ribs.

And even though he’s 37, and consigned by Bruyneel to be a support rider for Contador at least from the start, Armstrong can never be counted out. He finished a strong 12th in the Giro, and his rivals know that the man once known simply as “The Boss” has an unparalleled ability to dominate minds in the pack.

CLIFTON ADCOCK,Tulsa World,  (AP) / The cyclists’ path won’t be easy, but it’s one they are willing to take for a chance to learn about their ancestors and themselves.

Eight young Cherokee bicyclists will tackle a nearly 1,000-mile Remember the Removal Ride, which follows one of the Trail of Tears routes, in the searing summer heat. But it’s a chance for them to see the same countryside their ancestors saw when they were forced at gunpoint to abandon everything.

The riders, ranging in age from 15 to 24, will begin in Rome, Ga., near the old Cherokee capital of New Echota, following the northern Trail of Tears route through parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma before ending in Tahlequah.

Along the way, the cyclists will camp at night, visit and learn about historical sites intertwined with the forced march, and visit the known graves of those who could not complete the journey.

The Trail of Tears was the result of the forced removal of American Indian tribes in the southeastern United States in the 1830s to what was then Indian Territory. Although the Choctaws, Seminoles, Creeks, Chickasaws and Cherokees all had different circumstances surrounding their removal, some more brutal than others, thousands of American Indians died on the way to what is now Oklahoma.

The Cherokees, who were removed from their lands about 176 years ago, experienced brutal conditions and were put into concentration camps where disease, misery and death were rampant before being forced to march through snow and ice to a land most had never seen before.

The riders, who went through a rigorous selection process, have trained for about a month to make the estimated 20-day trip. Most have ridden almost daily in preparation for the average 55-mile per day ride, said Todd Enlow, a trip chaperone.

“This is about teaching this group of riders about themselves as well as the history,” Enlow said. “They might not have ever considered doing something like this, but when they’re finished with this, they’ll know what they thought was their limit they can go beyond and dream.”

The route the cyclists will take stays with the northern Trail of Tears route about 95 percent of the time, Enlow said.

For the only woman in the group, 20-year-old Sarah Holcomb of Vian, the ride is not only about tracing her distant ancestors’ steps, but more recent ones, as well. Her mother made a similar ride in 1984.

“It means a lot to be able to ride where my ancestors walked,” Holcomb said. “I know it’s going to be hard. I’m a very determined person. I want to be able to make it through. I’m ready to start riding.”

Holcomb said that, despite intimidating terrain and forecasts of terrible heat along the way, the thing she is most worried about is missing her family.

“Not being around my family, I get homesick,” she said. But, “I’m learning to do something on my own.”

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith will join the riders, probably near the Nashville area, said tribal spokeswoman LeeAnn Dreadfulwater.

“We’re really excited,” Dreadfulwater said. “It’s not only a revival of the ride done (25) years ago, this is also a chance for them to go out and really discover their roots.”

The tribe is planning a return party for the group once they near the Tahlequah area, Dreadfulwater said.

“I want to learn more about my ancestors and take the route they took,” said rider Dallas Smith, 16, of Peggs. In addition, he said, “I’m looking forward to going to Nashville. I’ve always wanted to see Nashville.”

Smith’s grandmother Debra Smith said she was worried about his going on the ride at first and that she and her grandson were both shaken when they heard news recently about two cyclists who were killed by a motorist near Sand Springs.

Yet she remains proud of his commitment to learning more about his heritage.

“He said, ‘That’s scary, but I’m still going,’ “Smith said. “It’s scary, but he’s in the Lord’s hands, so I’m not going to worry. It’s the trip of a lifetime. I told him about his ancestry, but I can’t wait for him to experience it. It will make it more real.

“I’m as proud of him as I can be.”

JOHN MILLER,Associated Press Writer, BOISE, Idaho / Whether commuter or racer, cyclists dread the telltale clunk-and-spin of a dropped chain.

At minimum, it’s an inconvenience. For professional cyclists, however, one errant shift that throws their links into limbo can mean the difference between climbing the podium and also-ran status.

In this year’s Tour de France, at least one team, U.S.-based Garmin-Slipstream, will use a “chain catcher” first employed by former world champion Kristin Armstrong when she won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics time trial.

In a sport where components like Armstrong’s “K-Edge Chain Catcher” are traditionally tested in professional cycling’s macho male peloton, this elegant innovation was put through the paces by a woman who pays attention to the tiniest details of bike racing.

“Everything you do to your bike adds up as free speed,” the Boise resident told The Associated Press in mid-June from Minnesota, where she won the Nature Valley Grand Prix stage race. “It’s what you’re doing above and beyond what everyone else is doing that’s going to give you the five- to 10-second advantage you need to win.”

She’s given one of the devices to Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner, and Levi Leipheimer, the bronze medalist in the Beijing Olympic men’s time trial. However, Philippe Maertens, a spokesman for their Astana team, said in an e-mail that it was “never on their bikes in a race” and won’t be used by them when the Tour begins July 4 in Monaco.

Riders have long jury-rigged their own chain catchers. Others that clamp around the seat tube are available commercially. But Kristin Armstrong’s 10-gram aluminum version bolts onto the front derailleur, making it suitable for modern carbon-fiber racing bicycles with large, unconventionally shaped frame tubes.

A self-described aggressive shifter, she nearly lost the 2006 World Championship time trial in Salzburg, Austria, when she dropped her chain.

Fearing a repeat in Beijing, Armstrong’s engineer husband, Joe Savola, sketched out the idea on a napkin. Boise-based AceCo Precision Manufacturing, whose main products include knives that chop McDonald’s French fries, refined it.

Her chain stayed on. She won by 24 seconds.

In addition to Garmin-Slipstream, at least two American domestic women’s teams — Jelly Belly and Kenda — are using them, said AceCo vice president Eric Jensen, a cycling enthusiast and a friend of Kristin Armstrong.

“As a fan of cycling, I’d like to see the Americans have every advantage,” said Legan, whose company has produced about 3,000 chain catchers and is selling them for $45 each.

The U.S. Olympic team’s head mechanic, Nick Legan, also wrenches for the Garmin-Slipstream squad. After Armstrong’s victory, he ordered 45 chain catchers from Jensen before the pro team’s 160-mile race from Paris to Roubaix, a famed race in April over bone- and chain-jarring cobblestones.

Legan said it amounts to “an insurance policy.”

British rider Bradley Wiggins used one during his second-place ride in the final stage of the Giro d’Italia in May. Now, the team’s nine-member Tour de France contingent will use them on all time trial bikes, and some road bikes.

“In the heat of the moment, with lactic acid boiling out of their ears, a racer will sometimes wait too long to shift, or shift over some cobbles,” Legan told the AP from his home in Girona, Spain. “And that can spell catastrophe.”

One of Garmin-Slipstream’s riders, Briton David Millar, knows that well.

Riding for a different team in the 2003 Tour, Millar was about to win the opening prologue when his chain fell off on the final corner. He lost by less than a second and cursed team officials in a well-publicized post-finish blowup. In this year’s Tour, his bikes will be outfitted with Armstrong’s chain catcher.

“We can’t win bike races for them, but we can lose them if we aren’t careful,” Legan said. “The K-Edge takes one more issue out of the equation.”

Lloyd Castillo an avid rider with the Rockland Bicycling Club left this comment about the Chain Catcher. Thanks for the great info Lloyd.

I installed one of these last month when I finally tired of dropping my chain, which usually happens every other ride. I always thought it was the result of poor drivetrain adjustment, but I’ve had several expert wrenches try their hand at adjusting my front derailleur, with no improvement. I am a cyclist that frequntly shifts gears to maintain a decent high cadence and this chain catcher works wonders. Not a single dropped chain since I installed it! Make sure you consider the “Hard to Fit” kit if you have a unorthodox frame. The company will help you determine if you need it.

This item seems a little expensive (over $50,with shipping), but if you jury-rig something (which many do), it will take more time and energy.

CHICAGO (AP)  Dave Mirra won the BMX park finals and four-time Dew Cup champion Jamie Bestwick won the BMX vert finals on Saturday at the Dew Tour’s Nike 6.0 BMX Open.

With a score of 93.38, Mirra received his first Dew Tour park win since the 2005 Toyota Challenge. Garrett Reynolds placed second with a 92.63 and Marcus Tooker followed in third with a 92.38.

Mirra’s run included a flawless air traffic controller — his signature move — a flair whip and a 720 over the box.

Jamie Bestwick, the only BMX vert Dew Cup champion in the Dew Tour’s five-year history, started off the 2009 season with a first place-podium finish with a score of 92.88. Simon Tabron came in second with a 91.50 and Steven McCann rounded out the podium in third with a score of 91.25.

Bestwick reached the top podium spot by landing tricks like an alley oop downside tailwhip, an alley oop 540 and an opposite no hander.

Westchester Country will be closing the Bronx River Parkway this coming Sunday, June 28 from 10:00am to 2:00pm.

The section is from the Westchester County Center in White Plains south to Scarsdale Road in Yonkers. It’s a 13.1 mile loop.

One of the rules listed on the website linked to below.

8. Bicyclists must obey posted parkway speed limit of 40 m.p.h. SO, NO SPEEDING

For more information click here.

CLEVELAND (AP)  Commuters in Cleveland must share the road with people riding rental bicycles that are part of a new downtown venture.

With Friday’s launch of the program called City Bikes, the business-supported Downtown Cleveland Alliance eventually hopes to offer a permanent bike station. It will have indoor and outdoor parking, showers, lockers and changing rooms.

The station, a $370,000 project, could open next spring.

For now, there are 17 bikes for rent. It costs $6 for a one-hour lunchtime rental.

The rentals will run through Aug. 31 and continue during on weekends during the fall if business is strong. ( AP Photo )

The World Cup might be coming to Windham Mountain next summer but this weekend the resort will host the Gravity East Series on June 27th and 28th. This is the premiere mountain bike series in the east and is a USA Cycling sanctioned event. There will be classes for all ages and class categories for licensed racers.  The races include downhill and dual slalom . Last year over 1,200 racers participated.

There’s still time to go up tomorrow and ride the World Cup course. It’s free to registered racers or $20 bucks for non racers.

Head on up to the Catskill and check it out. Click here for more info.

PARIS (AP)  Astana’s Tour de France challenge will be built around 2007 winner Alberto Contador as its

leader and seven-time champion Lance Armstrong.

In a glitzy presentation on its Web site, the Kazakh team announced Thursday the two stars will be backed by past Tour podium finishers including Andreas Kloeden of Germany and American Levi Leipheimer.

The selection has been widely awaited by cycling fans because it suggests who team manager Johan Bruyneel believes Astana should build its team around for this year’s Tour. Bruyneel coached Armstrong and Contador during their Tour wins.

Contador, who has five stage wins this season, “has worked very hard, earning the right to represent our team as the leader this July,” Bruyneel said on the Web site.

Bruyneel said he was “very happy” with Armstrong’s form during his comeback season, adding: “I know he is extremely motivated for the Tour de France.”

On his Twitter page Thursday, Armstrong wrote “This is not 2004 or 2005. I’m not the leader of the team.”

Astana, seen as one of the strongest teams this year, had already announced a list of six Tour riders, including Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych, the 2005 Tour’s best young rider, and veteran mountain specialist Haimar Zubeldia of Spain.

The three additions Thursday were Dmitriy Muravyev, the only Kazakh rider on the squad and a Tour newcomer; Portugal’s Sergio Paulinho — a strong Contador ally; and Gregory Rast of Switzerland.

The name missing from this squad is Chris Horner, here’s what Armstrong had to say about that on twitter, “Horner is the man and we’ll miss him. Period,”

The three-week race starts July 4 in Monaco.

Ed’s note – This team shows why Bruyneel is a master team director. Lance has two main domestics in Levi and Pop, while Contador has Zubedldia and Paulinho. Kolden and Rast are wild cards and may ride for themselves are just do what is asked for in the moemnt of the race. Muravyev was a gift to the Kazakh sponsor I’d guess. The one name missing is American Chris Horner who has battled back from a crash and would have tilted the team towards Armstong.