A French-flavored festival on bicycles

Montreal puts the sizzle on its status as a cycling and cultural beehive with a bike festival over May 29-June 5.

It's anchored by a bicycle tour of the city-island that rivals New York's Five Boro cycling extravaganza in size, adds a distinctive French twist and shows Americans how very far their dollar can go in Canada these days.

Tour de l'lle de Montreal is the iconic event for a bicycle-mad city that Joelle Sevigny of Velo Quebec, the province's bicycle association and festival organizer, calls "little Copenhagen in North America".