A state senator in Missouri has submitted a bill that would require motorists to pass cyclists and pedestrians at a distance of at least 3 feet.

Legislation similar to the bill — SB372 — has failed in the past, but the current bill leaves out controversial provisions, sponsor Kevin Engler told the Springfield News-Leader.

A similar measure that appeared destined for a smooth ride in Utah this year has been dumped and replaced with a watered-down version. Other states considering bicycle bills include Idaho, Colorado, and California.

The Missouri bill also prohibits motorists from parking or idling in bicycle lanes and requires bicyclists to use hand signals, unless both hands are required to control the bicycle.

A sore throat and developing fever has sidelined Lance Armstrong from the snowy Paris-Nice bicycle race.

Johan Bruyneel, manager of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, said Armstrong would not report to Thursday’s stage of the week-long race in France and would return immediately to his home in Girona, Spain.

Armstrong was listed in 62th place in the general classification at the end of stage 3 on Wednesday, one minute and 35 seconds behind Quick Step’s Tom Boonen of Belgium. Armstrong had said earlier that he would use the 765-mile race as a training ride in preparation for his attempt to win the Tour de France for an unprecedented seventh time this summer.

The first of the spring classics of Euro pro cycling, the so-called Race to the Sun this year has been beset with cold and snowy weather. The second and third stages have been shortened and rerouted because of the road conditions (see race pictures at the official Paris-Nice website).

Bruyneel said Armstrong awoke with a sore throat on Wednesday and felt worse after the race. When he began showing signs of a fever, the decision was made to return to Girona.

“I had finally adjusted to the jet lag of the trip but woke up this morning with a sore throat that seemed to get worse all day,” Armstrong told the Discovery team’s fan website, The Paceline. “I will return to Spain to rest up and be back on the bike in a couple of days.”

Armstrong had a busy few days in the US before leaving for France. Onstage at Hollywood’s Academy Awards presentations on Feb. 27, Armstrong and girlfriend Sheryl Crow were still on the party circuit that Tuesday night (March 2) when he received the 2005 Courage Award at a cancer fund-raiser in Beverly Hills. The Paris-Nice began with a prologue on Sunday.

Cycling News put Armstrong in 62nd place, out of 161 riders, after three stages. He finished 99th on Wednesday, but the pack finished together so everyone received the same time.

Overall, Armstrong’s Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team is in 13th place out of 21 teams. Armstrong’s teammate Jose Luis Rubiera leads the team in the general classification at 47th place, one minute and 17 seconds behind the leader. Yaroslav Popovych, Ukraine, was the first Discovery team member across the finish line on Wednesday, finishing in 45th place.

The Canadian conglomerate that now produces Schwinn brand bicycles reports it had a record year in 2004.

Dorel Industries said its revenues for the fourth quarter were up 42% over the previous fourth quarter period; profits were up 69%. The company credited the jump to its acquisitions over the previous year.

Consumer brands propeled sales, “predominantly Schwinn’s reborn Sting-Ray bicycle, which generated unprecedented sales for a single Dorel product,” said Martin Schwartz, Dorel’s president and CEO.

The Montreal-based company also makes ready-to-assemble children’s furniture.

The Pacific Cycle division, acquired in early 2004, makes Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, Murray, Dyno, and Roadmaster bicycles. Sold in the US through such mass merchants as Target, Toys “R” Us, and Wal-Mart, the bikes are inexpensively made in the Far East, according to the division’s website.

The company recently announced it would stick the Schwinn brand name on a motor scooter it is producing.

Can’t afford to see the conclusion of this year’s Tour de France in Paris this year? The Bartlesville (OK) Examiner Enterprise suggests riding the Oklahoma FreeWheel, which starts in Paris, Texas, this year.

The 400-mile, week-long ride is now in its 27th year, making it one of the oldest in the US. It goes clear across the state, beginning June 12 in Paris, Texas, and finishing in Caldwell, Kansas. Some 1,000 riders are expected.

The cost is just $80 for adults ($90 after May 1), but riders are responsible for feeding themselves at the host communities. More information is available at Oklahoma FreeWheel or the Bartlesville newspaper article. Also, Bikin’ Bis lists more than 30 other week-long bicycle rides here.

And yes, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, TX, is topped with a cowboy hat.

Bicycle tourists who have ridden the Bikecentennial route through Virginia have surely met June Curry, the “Cookie Lady.”

She has dispensed cool water and cookies to thousands of weary bicyclists struggling up the steep climb to Rockfish Gap in the Shenandoah Mountains.

The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that June, 84, suffered a stroke on Feb. 20 and is undergoing therapy at a skilled nursing facility. She hopes to reopen the bike house this spring, but admits that she’ll need help.

When I visited the Cookie Lady on my TransAmerica bicycle ride in 1984, and again during Bike Virginia in 2000, I was struck by all the cards that papered the walls of her bike house. As I recall, she doesn’t have any surviving close family members; she considers all of us bicycle tourists as her family. If anyone would like to wish her well, I’m sure she’d like to hear from you. Her home address is:

June Curry
3252 Afton Mountain Road
Afton, VA 22920

Also, her address at the hospital (the Times Dispatch reports she’ll be out Friday) is:

June Curry
Augusta Medical Center
Room 240
96 Medical Center Drive
Fishersville, VA 22939

Some Colorado lawmakers don’t trust cyclists’ judgment, and that could puncture passage of a bill that would allow cyclists to ride side by side.

The bicycle bill (HB1218) is one of several bills involving cycling that are on the dockets in state capitols across the West that were covered here last week.

The Colorado bill, which has passed the House, allows cyclists to ride two abreast when it wouldn’t impede the normal flow of traffic. That’s the rule in most states, according to the Durango Herald, which is covering the story. Currently, cyclists in Colorado have to more over when a vehicle is within 300 feet.

“I have serious concerns … allowing cyclists to use their own discretion when deciding to ride two abreast,” state Sen. James Isgar told the Herald. The Senate gets the bill next.

Michael Carroll, head of the Durango Wheel Club, said, “It’s difficult to gauge exact distances” with cars and bicycles moving along the road at different speeds. The 300-foot rule, he told the Herald, is “archaic.”

Texan Lance Armstrong climbs back on the saddle for his first Euro pro cycling race Sunday since he left Paris wearing the yellow jersey last summer.

The 63rd Paris-Nice won’t see Armstrong as a major contender though. With his unprecedented attempt to win 7 Tours de France in the offing, the 765-mile stage race is basically a training ride for him.

Others, like last year’s winner Joerg Jaksche or Alexander Vinokourov, are considered among the favorites. More about Armstrong, who hasn’t ridden Paris-Nice since 1999, and his part in the race can be seen at the Discovery Channel team website.

Outdoor Life Network is providing limited coverage this year. OLN is scheduled to broadcast tape-delayed highlights this Sunday from 5-6:30 p.m. Eastern time; Saturday March 12, Sunday March 13, and Wednesday March 16. Naturally, check OLN for times or schedule changes.

Early risers can catch live reports of Sunday’s short prologue at CyclingNews or the Paris-Nice website beginning at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern time) on Sunday. They’ll carry reports through the week through the race’s completion next Sunday in Nice.

When bicycle tourists ride through North Dakota, they’ll pass the small town of Washburn. It’s near the site where the Lewis and Clark expedition erected a fort to survive the harsh winter on the Missouri River near two Mandan villages.

Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark had been cooling their heels at the fort since October 24 and would remain until April 7. They’d already met and hired French trapper Toussaint Carbonneau, whose wife, Sacagawea, would later that year play a crucial role in the expedition’s success. On this very day, cloudy in the morning, chiefs Black Cat and Big White visited the fort with some meat. Some members of the Assiniboine tried to steal horses from the Minitaris, who fired on them.

Because Lewis and Clark kept journals of their trip, which still survive, we know such details of what happened on a day to day basis.

A blog of the Lewis and Clark journals takes that one step further. “Lewis and Clark: What Else Happened” quotes daily from the journals and fills in the perspective of what else was happening in the world that day. We can see the microscopic picture of Lewis & Clark getting meat from friendly chiefs, and at the same time see the big picture of Thomas Jefferson giving his second inaugural address and expressing sympathy for the plight of Native Americans.

Any bicycle tourist on the Lewis and Clark route with a laptop or access to computers in libraries along the way might enjoy learning what else was happening as the explorers trudged to their goal. It would certainly add another dimension to their cycling trip into time.

I’ve included links to the “what else happened” blog, journals, maps and other resources for bicycling the Lewis & Clark trail here. There also is information for taking the trip on your own, or going through a tour operator.

Also, organized nonprofit bicycle tours in Missouri, North Dakota, and Oregon are including parts of the Lewis & Clark trail on their itineraries this year.

I was mildly surprised when I first learned that the bicycle Lance Armstrong rides in the Tour de France is available for sale to mere mortals like me.

I thought there must be secret technology involved in manufacturing the bike. Lance wouldn’t want Trek Bicycles to make the bike available to possible competitors, just like the US didn’t let Lockheed sell missiles to the Soviets. But there it is on the Trek website, the Madone 5.9, on sale for $5,000-plus.

Now Trek is selling 600 exact replicas of the bicycle Lance rode into Paris last summer. In addition to sporting Bontrager components, each Madone is numbered and autographed by Lance. The list price is $9,499.99, but $500 goes to the LiveStrong cancer charity.

As for me, I’d be too nervous to ride it outside. It might get dirty, scratched, or otherwise messed up. If I saved it for indoor riding on a trainer, then the sweat would drip off my nose right onto Lance’s autograph.

I think I’ll stick to my Lemond bike. It’s already scratched and a little dirty, so I don’t have to worry about it.

John Aeby’s column in the Register Guard (Eugene, Oregon) nails the reason behind taking weeklong bicycle rides:

“I still think it’s hard to beat a weeklong bicycle tour for disconnecting yourself from your workaday life and experiencing the simplicity, joy and challenge of riding a route that may approach 500 miles.”

I couldn’t agree more. There’s so much to think about — the scenery, the bike, will the tent hold up in the rain — that I quickly forget my mundane workaday life.

I’ve been amassing a list of weeklong state bicycle rides for 2005. So far I’ve tallied 52 rides in 35 states, from the venerable RAGBRAI in Iowa to the new kid on the block, LAGBRAU, in Utah’s picturesque redrock country. Recently I’ve added California, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Check the list at left under “Bikin’ Bis Web Pages” or click here. I’ll be adding more in coming days, but email me if you know about one that I’ve missed.