It's not breast cancer. It's not stroke. It's heart disease.

Deborah Ladner was at a cardiovascular health summit when she first heard the data: heart disease is the number one killer of women in Maine (and in the nation as well). Ladner, the Health Education Coordinator for the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, says, "I never had anything hit me so hard."

Ladner began to think about how she could involve bicycling to address the modifiable factors of heart health. Thus the Women's Ride for Heart Health was born. For the first ride, six years ago in Wiscasset, about 60 women came to ride, get lung capacity screenings, and learn more about how to improve their heart health by exercising, eating well, reducing stress and quitting smoking.

This year, for the Women's Ride on June 3 in Freeport, Ladner expects about 200 women of all ages and, she says, there are more cyclists pre-registered than ever before. Many women will be riding for the first time, she says, while others will be there for the camaraderie, scenery and to support the cause.

Great news: I just heard that the Community Bicycle Center in Biddeford just got funding to the tune of $78,400 from the Maine Department of Transportation Biennial Capital Workplan for 2008-2009. If you haven't heard about the CBC, stop in for a visit. Andy Greif, the director, is making miracles happen there, teaching kids about bike safety, getting them access to bike helmets and showing them how to maintain a bike. The bike shop in Biddeford is a crowded, noisy, messy, joyful place where kids can learn to more or less build a bike from scratch, either to fix theirs or to earn themselves a cheap bike.

I recently gave a talk and slide show about family-friendly bike rides in Maine and the rest of New England, as part of the L.L.Bean Bike Into Spring weekend. A Portland dad with two kids asked me a question that I was hard pressed to answer. He wondered if there are any family bike clubs, or bike clubs that organize family rides. I was stumped, and so were the other bike enthusiasts there.

Are there any clubs that organize family rides on a regular basis? If not, why not? If you bike with kids, would you like doing a group ride? I've heard rumors that a few organizations have started to talk about organizing family bike events and I'll be looking into this more, possibly for an upcoming column. Personally, I love the idea. Maybe it's once a month at a different place each time. Your kids get to meet other kids who like to ride, you get to swap stories and tips about places to ride, and, in my ideal ride, there's ice cream at the end.