New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has voiced support for a private plan to commit more than $21 million to create cross-country mountain-bike trails and BMX courses as part of the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics.

The plan is part of a much large proposal to convert the former Staten Island landfill – known as Fresh Kills – into a large public park with an extensive trail network.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg and other city officials held a news conference on the Fresh Kills site, asking reporters and others assembled to imagine the one-time-garbage dump as hub around which a large portion of the 2012 Summer Games’ cycling events will revolve.

According to the New York Times the Bloomberg administration is hoping to rework the 2200-acre landfill, which closed in 2001, into a large park featuring 30 miles of bike trails and more than 20 miles of walking paths. The city said acceptance of its Olympics bid would speed up the project, partly because the private committee sponsoring the bid, NYC2012, has pledged $21 million to create the mountain bike trails and an elaborate BMX facility.

"Should we be awarded the 2012 Olympic Games, a deadline will be in place," said Mr. Bloomberg, calling the project "a spectacular example of how existing city initiatives will benefit from the focus and deadlines imposed by the bid."

In choosing the Fresh Kills site, the administration abandoned an earlier plan to stage the two cycling events at another Staten Island site known as the “Greenbelt.” Environmentalists and other community activists opposed that idea.

Hincapie a father
Eight-times Tour de France veteran and this country’s top classics racer George Hincapie has a new title to add to his résumé: “Dad.”

Hincapie’s fiancé, Melanie Simonneau, gave birth to the couple’s first child, a baby girl named Julia Paris Hincapie.

The baby, weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces and 20.5 inches long, was born in a Greenville, South Carolina, hospital Wednesday at 5:04 PM. Mother and daughter were said to be doing fine.

George met Melanie, a native of the eastern French city of Dijon, during the 2003 Tour de France where she was one of the models accompanying the race entourage.

"I was mesmerized by her," Hincapie said. "When I first saw her I thought, 'Wow, she's beautiful!' and I wanted to ask her out on a date to have this beautiful girl with me. But that was it; I didn't think it would go anywhere."

Now, nearly a year and a half later the two are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl.

Along with being a new dad at 31, Hincapie is entering the period of his career where many male riders find their peak. He recently signed a contract calling for him to ride with Lance Armstrong’s new Discovery Channel-sponsored team through 2007. And it’s quite possible that he’ll compete in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, in what would be his fifth Olympiad.