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Last week, in an interview with Oprah, Lance Armstrong admitted what everybody already knew: that he took performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. Last year, the head of USADA (United States Anti-Doping Association) stated that under Armstrong’s direction the U.S. Postal Cycling Team “ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” In October, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from elite competition in Olympic sports.

According to the Wall Street Journal, his motivation for talking with Oprah may have more to do with returning to competition than with a heartfelt need to set things right. While it is difficult to say why people do this or that, it is also true, as Claudius reminds us in Hamlet, that confessing a crime that resulted in wrongful gains without some sort of restitution is no confession at all. Whatever his reason for talking to Oprah, his words will be weighed in the scale of public opinion, and forgiveness will be granted or judgment meted out.

For people who follow professional cycling, however, Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancing drugs is just the latest doping scandal to hit the sport. In 1998, there was l’affaire Festina, which revealed systematic doping in Festina and many other cycling teams. (Ironically, Armstrong’s first Tour win in 1999 was heralded as a new beginning for the sport. Why would a man, it was asked at the time, who had just recovered from cancer risk his life by taking performance-enhancing drugs?) Then, in 2006, there was Operación Puerto in which a number of cyclists were implicated, including the perennial Tour de France runner up, Jan Ulrich. In the past ten years, almost every star cyclist has either tested positive for banned substances or been implicated in some form of doping.

This is enough to make cycling aficionados the most pessimistic of all sporting fans, and it is not uncommon to hear exasperated faithful suggest that the sport’s ruling body simply allow the use of all performance-enhancing drugs. Other sports turn a blind eye to doping and make a lot of money by offering an entertaining event with a simple narrative. The narrative is often some version of this: The “human spirit” can accomplish great things, overcome all limitations, all odds, even the limitations of the body itself, with a little luck and a lot of hard work.

Cycling, however, regularly shoots itself in the foot (or leg)—first, by having doping controls regularly (though not always) administered by an outside agency, and second, by allowing those results to be leaked in newspapers like L’Equipe. (L’Equipe is owned by the same company that owns the Tour de France, which, as many readers may know, was started in 1903 for the sole purpose of selling papers.) Cycling, in other words, regularly reminds us that the narrative is not always so simple, even if it does this largely through incompetence and in-fighting (few modern sporting organizations are as corrupt as the International Cycling Union).

Oddly, I have come to appreciate this aspect of the sport. I love cycling. I remember watching the Tour de France in its entirety in 2000. What other sport combines beautiful vistas of the French country side, brief histories of quaint townships and eighteenth-century castles, and the suspense of a mountaintop finish, not to mention the danger, sometimes deadly, of narrow descents and finishing sprints? It is one of the most beautiful modern sports, but my viewing experience is regularly tarnished by the specter of doping that inevitably haunts every major tour. Cyclists I have loved watching, such as Ivan Basso, are banned for doping and never return, perhaps unsurprisingly, to their former level of greatness.

In short, cycling reminds us that all aspects of human nature and all human endeavors are tainted by sin. I don’t take pleasure in this, but given the choice between delusion and reality, however ugly that reality might be, reality is always preferable.

The numbers have never worked out right for Garrett Becker.

He was born four months early. His chance of living six months: 20%. Diagnosed at age 1 with cerebral palsy.

But he blew past the numbers and now, at age 19, you might say he has a number of things going against him.

"He's a quadriplegic. He's a little bit cognitively delayed," said his father, Dennis Becker, who stopped to think a moment and added: "He's legally blind without his glasses . . . "

All of that is true, but it also is true that Garrett Becker knows what he wants, and what he wants is to become an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouts. Until recently he was four merit badges and one community service project away from that. He's working on those badges but, wouldn't you know it, the numbers didn't work out on the service project he chose - collecting 200 pieces of clothing for the Hope Center in Waukesha. The center works to prevent homelessness.

On Thursday afternoon Garrett Becker delivered. Not 200 pieces of clothing. He delivered 2,700 pieces - wool coats, sweaters, socks, mittens, hats, more coats - packed up in plastic bags. They just kept coming. The executive director called the volunteer coordinator and asked for extra crews. And fast.

He doesn't know the number of extra workers. "All I told her is get people in here," said the director, Ralph Zick.

It is the largest donation from a single source, he said.

Garrett watched as the clothing came out, and out, and out of the family's wheelchair-equipped van and another van driven by his mother, Connie Schmidt-Becker, who came home one day from a school meeting with the idea that maybe Garrett might like scouting.

"My first thought was, 'I'm not so sure he can do it,' " Dennis Becker concedes.

After the unloading was over, Garrett was all smiles and satisfaction.

"I'm happy to get this done so I can go back to school tomorrow," he said.

A big part of being an Eagle Scout is demonstrating leadership, Dennis Becker noted, and he believes his son learned quite a bit about that.

Asked about the most important part about being leader, Garrett said without hesitation, "To tell people what to do." And he did.

Garrett got the idea for the project from Scott Kleba, a counselor for Garrett's computer merit badge - one of the 21 badges he'll need to make Eagle Scout. Garrett had another service project planned. He was going to organize and plan the painting of a fence at a horseback riding place he frequented. But he received stunning news: the organization had shut down.

"At the time, they were kind of in shock," said Kleba, a leader for 16 years of Boy Scout Troop 64 in Elm Grove. "He even showed me the brochure he'd made up and printed out."

Kleba mentioned that his wife, Leslie, is president of the Hope Center board of directors.

Dennis Becker called him back a few days later about finding a project with the center.

The Klebas talked it over. Leslie Kleba knew the Hope Center could especially use winter coats. It would be some work, Scott Kleba said, but he figured Garrett could do it.
Barrels kept filling

The way he did it has a lot to do with barrels that were set out and kept getting filled up. It called for a lot of driving, dropping off and picking up by Dennis Becker, and a lot of supervision from Garrett. That worked out just fine.

Collection barrels were set out at the couple's church, Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hartland."Most of the congregation has known him since before he was born," his father said, recalling the three weeks his wife spent in the hospital before Garrett was born.

Another barrel was stationed at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Delafield, where his troop, Troop 20 of the Potawatomi Area Council, is based.

Twice a week, Dennis Becker checked the barrels at the churches. "And they were always full," he said. Barrels filled up at the office where he works, and at Kettle Moraine High School, where Garrett is a student.

The clothes piled up and the Beckers found a space to sort it all at Christ the King Lutheran Church. They enlisted help to organize and bag it up. "We sent out emails to people and whoever showed up, showed up," Dennis Becker said.

So why is this so important to Garrett Becker? Ask him why he wants to be an Eagle Scout, and he has one answer: "Because my Dad is." Dennis Becker has his Eagle Scout pin, given to him on Feb. 16, 1961, and the plan is to give it to Garrett when he becomes an Eagle Scout. They're hoping that happens at the end of April.

To get there, a number of exceptions have been made to some requirements for Garrett. He'll be able to get alternate badges, in computers and scouting heritage, in place of the personal fitness badge and the one for swimming, hiking or cycling. He's gotten an extension on the age requirement, too, so he can complete Eagle Scout requirements after his 18th birthday.

The community service task completed, father and son will keep working on those last badges. Sure, there were lessons of leadership with this project.

AUSTRALIAN rider Chloe Hosking has praised British star Nicole Cooke for condemning dopers such as Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton in her retirement speech on Monday.

In her last comments as an elite cyclist, Cooke, 29, the 2008 Olympic road champion, spoke about doping and, specifically, Armstrong and his former US Postal Services teammate. ''I do despair that the sport will ever clean itself up when rewards of stealing are greater than riding clean,'' she said.

''If that remains the case, the temptation for those with no morals will always be too great.''

After confessing to doping, Hamilton wrote a best-seller with Daniel Coyle titled The Secret Race, that detailed doping on Armstrong's US Postal Services and other teams.

It is not known if Armstrong plans to write his version of his doping case and the events that led to him to confess to drug use in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday (AEDT time), which is due to air on Friday.

It was reported that Armstrong confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs in the 2?-hour interview, recorded in his home town of Austin, Texas.

Armstrong was not spared Cooke's wrath. ''Tyler Hamilton will make more money from his book describing how he cheated than I will make in all my years of honest labour,'' Cooke said. ''Please don't reward people like Hamilton with money … there are many places infinitely more deserving than the filthy hands of Hamilton.

''All these 'born again' champions of a clean sport. They could be more accurately described as criminals who stole other's livelihoods [and] who are only ever genuinely sorry about one thing - they are very sorry they were caught.''

''When Lance 'cries' on Oprah later this week and she passes him the tissue, spare a thought for all those genuine people who walked away with no rewards - just shattered dreams.''

Hosking, 22, and a member of the Hitec Products team, says that she has no view of Armstrong in particular because she is ''far removed'' from his era. Asked if she will watch his interview with Winfrey, Hosking said: ''I won't watch it. I am just not interested. It's a saga and not good for the sport.

''There is going to be huge repercussions. People say it needs to be talked about. Maybe it does. But how long has it been going on for? I don't know what I can offer to the discussion. It was before my time. I am from a new generation of cycling now. We are the future of cycling.''

But Hosking agrees with Cooke that riders who confess to doping don't deserve to profit from it. ''What she said about Tyler Hamilton really resonated with me,'' she said. ''He's going to make a lot of money off his book. I have always said to people, 'they give him a pat on the back for coming out and telling it how it is'. But he still cheated!''

On Tuesday, Armstrong was left gauging fall-out from the developments in his case on a day that began with him addressing staff at the Livestrong Foundation he had helped to create after his comeback from testicular cancer, and apologising for ''letting them down''.

The bombs exploded across hundreds of miles of Corsican coastline, gutting two dozen villas nearly simultaneously on some of Europe's most beautiful - and valuable - land. Elsewhere on the same French island off the Mediterranean coast, a young man was shot to death in his car, his stepson wounded beside him.

The night of violence in early December epitomized the problems of Napoleon's native island today: Organized crime is gaining ground, spreading beyond the usual vices on the mainland to real estate, tourism and politics back home. And separatists, who extinguished themselves in a spasm of deadly infighting in the late 1990s, have come back with a vengeance, as they wage a desperate battle to prevent mob-dominated mass tourism from dooming their dreams of self-rule.

Corsican coastal land prices have risen as much as five times in as many years, and the number of tourists also has shot up as a once-exclusive haven for the wealthy and their yachts and private vacation homes became a destination for cruise ships and budget flights. Corsican mobsters - infamous in mainland France and the United States for their ties to gambling, nightclubs and drugs - saw a killing to be made back home.

 Gang warfare over Corsican spoils and the separatist bombing campaign have created a climate of lawlessness, although the combatants have been careful not to turn the violence on the tourists themselves.

"The state has completely failed," said Dominique Bianchi, a former nationalist leader who recently stepped down as mayor of the southern village of Villanova. "In this world, there's only one thing that counts: how to divide the loot."

Shaken by the bombings, and the recent assassinations of a defense lawyer and community leader, the Paris government is making new promises to clean things up on an island where separatist sentiment has simmered ever since France officially took charge in 1769. Corsica has emerged as a jewel of French mass tourism only recently: More than 4.2 million tourists visited the island last year, compared to 2.4 million in 1992. The 2013 Tour de France, the world's premier cycling competition, will begin here - adding to the sense that Corsica has joined the big leagues as a top travel destination.

Of the 85 gangland killings and attempted assassinations in Corsica in the past eight years, only one case - a plot against a former nationalist turned president of Corsica's biggest soccer team - has ended in conviction.

Both the mob violence and the bombings claimed by militant nationalists have the same root, Corsicans say: the land.

Three-quarters of the coastline is untouched, the beaches and Mediterranean views achingly empty of a human presence just a 90-minute flight from Paris - as developers were scared off by gangland warfare and separatist militancy. "Where else could you go and have this kind of virgin land? It doesn't exist anymore," said Dominique Yvon, who is part of an anti-corruption group on Corsica.

Through the 1990s, the island was rocked by more than 1,000 separatist bombings of vacation homes and construction sites. For mainstream investors, France's Cote d'Azur, much more stable despite its own mob presence, was the place to be.

Then the separatists imploded in the late 1990s. And organized crime came home, seeing an opening to make new profits laundering drug money, much of it during three decades of heroin sales in the United States - spearheading the so-called "French Connection" drug ring - and on the Cote d'Azur, according to Thierry Colombie, who has written a book about the Corsican mob.

Most of the tourists who stayed overnight on the island in 2012 stayed in villas, many of them suspected of links to mob money, that popped up on the coastline when the bombing wave of the 1980s and 1990s finally ended. The number of cruise ship day visitors has also risen from 298,000 in 2001 to 1.1 million in 2011; they spend money in stores, restaurants and clubs before returning to their ships.

Each summer, the population of Corsica doubles from its 300,000 residents. Visitors pay a premium for ocean views and spend money in restaurants and nightclubs. They fly in by plane or sail into harbors like Ajaccio, outfitted for yachts and cruise ships. They come despite a murder rate about eight times higher than the rest of France, largely thanks to the fact that no tourists have been killed in Corsican gangland or separatist violence.

For most of the 20th century, the French government's driving focus was on ending nationalist sentiment, even as Corsica's problem with feeding the global criminal underworld grew. The "French Connection" brought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of heroin into the United States. And Corsican mobsters dominated the gambling and prostitution houses of Paris.

As president of the chamber of commerce, Jacques Nacer was in charge of the air- and seaports that are the island's link to the outside world, and the government money that keeps both up and running. Authorities have not said why they think he was gunned down, beyond noting that it was a professional killing.

More than 15 years ago, the chamber's president used the airport as a helicopter base for drug running between Africa and Europe. His successor was convicted in a fraud scheme involving government contracts.

The slain defense lawyer, Antoine Sollacaro, was best known for representing the nationalist who killed the island's highest ranking official, prefect Claude Erignac, in 1998. Police have offered no theories on his death, beyond noting that it had the same professional hallmarks as all of Corsica's gangland murders.

These killings finally caught the attention of France's top security and justice officials, who stood before the cameras to vow that this time, things would be different. "In Corsica, those who give the orders are known. Everyone knows and no one speaks," said French Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

THE birth of Australia's trailblazing professional cycling team has made it infinitely more difficult - some say nigh on impossible - for non-members to become national road race champions.

Certainly if anyone other than an Orica-GreenEDGE cyclist becomes king or queen in the headline events at Ballarat this weekend it will be considered an upset.

For as long as the now one-year-old team exists, and is populated predominantly by Australians, logic says the green army will dominate at the national titles.

Last year's male road champion, Simon Gerrans, is upfront about how he and 10 teammates will combine to deliver victory to one of their own. The numerical advantage they have, Gerrans says, is simply tough luck for those who don't have the same luxury.

And while GreenEDGE's female team and its manager, David McPartland, were put on notice at last week's Bay Classic after accusations of collusion from a rival team, there's no question that they, like the men, will bring an all-for-one approach to Ballarat.

McPartland's comments trumpeting how his ''well-organised'' five-woman team had been critical in assisting Tiffany Cromwell - normally a GreenEDGE rider, but technically racing as an individual at the Bay Classic - to a stage victory are still on the team's website.

The remarks sparked a complaint from the Specialized Securitor team, which led to McPartland receiving a rebuke from the chief commissaire, who said: ''It doesn't paint a very good picture for women's cycling. It's actually doing a lot of harm.''

No man or woman contesting the road races this weekend would declare themselves out of the running before racing has started. But the impressions of those outside the GreenEDGE camp - former men's road race champions Matthew Lloyd, Darren Lapthorne and Jack Bobridge to name three - will be fascinating once the results are posted.

Eleven of the 15 Australians on GreenEDGE's male roster of 28 are entered in the 195.6-kilometre road race. Stuart O'Grady, Michael Hepburn, Brett Lancaster and Allan Davis are missing, while Gerrans, Simon Clarke and Matthew Goss are considered the men most likely to have the condition to win it.

''Of course we're going to race together,'' Gerrans told Fairfax Media.

''I think there's going to be five Garmin guys there, there's going to be three Sky guys, a couple of SaxoBank guys and, of course, there's a lot of GreenEDGE guys, and all the GreenEDGE guys want a GreenEDGE rider to be Australian champion.

''They'd be fools to think we're going to race against each other. The trade teams all work together in the national champions.''

There are just four GreenEDGE riders in the elite women's road race, where Amanda Spratt's hopes of defending her title should be helped considerably by having teammates Shara Gillow, Jessie MacLean and Gracie Elvin on the start line.

''It is an army, and so be it,'' veteran Victorian Institute of Sport cycling coach Dave Sanders said of the force that is GreenEDGE.

''But they only just pulled it off last year with Simon. They spent their bickies early last year and really committed early and blew up a lot of guys. There was only Simon left at the end. One little error and it could have been all over.''

Cycling could certainly do with a fillip and Dubai appears perfectly placed to provide it following the announcement the emirate will host a stage race in the spring of 2014 as part of a long-term strategy to develop the sport in the UAE.

Courtesy of recent doping scandals - most prominently that of last October which saw Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles - there are few sports with a reputation quite as tainted.

Yet Dubai, keen to become a two-wheels-and-no-engine racing destination, launched its cycling course close to Bab Al Shams resort on Friday.

Officials say they plan to make the 2014 Dubai Tour event "bigger and better" than that of their Gulf neighbours Qatar and Oman.

"Dubai always does things in the best manner possible and I assure you that the Dubai Tour will be a force," said Rashid Al Kamali, head of marketing and communication at Dubai Sports Council. "It will be something greater than what's been seen anywhere else in the world."

On Friday, Alberto Contador, Ryder Hesjedal and Vincenzo Nibali - all three of whom have triumphed at a grand tour event - took to the 68km circuit for a one kilometre time trial, which Contador won.

Osama Al Shafar, president of the UAE Cycling Federation, said attracting such high-profile cyclists will benefit the emirate's quest.

"By bringing here world champions it is going to push the sport of cycling big time in this country," he said. "I'm looking forward to the next step, which is the Tour of Dubai. That will be something huge for the sport here."

The event will mark the first time the UAE has appeared on the International Cycling Union calendar and although specific dates and details are not expected to be decided until later this year, Contador said he expects it to provide "a big boost for the sport in Dubai".

Nibali, the Italian rider who won the 2010 Vuelta a Espana, said he is anticipating a successful staging.

"In Dubai, we have seen all sports being held and it is nice to see that cycling, too, will make its mark soon," he said. "It is a good start right away by deciding to bring in top stars."

Al Kamali clarified that while the new Dubai Cycling Course was created to appeal to families rather than elite athletes, the target remains to one day produce a cyclist who can dominate globally.

"Our objective is to create Olympic champions here in the UAE and we would like to create the next Contador, Hesjedal or Nibali," he said. "That's our long-term goal.

This will be JoyRide's second location after it opened in Westport in 2011. The Darien location is expected to open in late May or early June, according to Rhodie Lorenz, who co-founded JoyRide with Amy Hochhauser and Debbie Katz.

JoyRide is Darien's first fitness boutique dedicated to indoor cycling. Lorenz, a cycling and Pilates instructor for 10 years, designed the specific JoyRide training method by combining core elements of Pilates with indoor cycling.

"It's a little addictive," said Lorenz of the high-intensity workouts. "We go all out. It's an escape for people who have busy, stressful lives. This offers a disconnect from that. You get fit, you get stronger, you feel better, it enhances your mood.

"People often think of yoga as improving your mind and spirit, but you can get that from spinning. You can forget about everything. After a while you find that you're stronger than you thought you were, so you're building confidence."

Rather than taking place in a bright room with lots of mirrors, the exercises are held in the dark with loud music.

"Nobody's watching the other riders, everyone's in their own place," Lorenz said. "People feel a very emotional connection to the music. And we have such a wide variety that we play, we hope that we can find music people relate to in each class."

Rather than buying a monthly membership, participants can pay as they go with individual classes or buy bulk packages of five, 10, 20 or 50 classes. Members also can go online beforehand and reserve specific bikes that they want to use. JoyRide will be open daily.

The number is perhaps surprising given that recent trends have been impressive indeed. Growth averaged approximately 11 percent per year during mayor Boris Johnson’s first term, which came to an end with his re-election in May 2012. One media commentator claimed that "by the end of 2011, more people were cycling in London than at any time since the beginning of mass car ownership".

Of course, it’s dangerous to draw hasty conclusions from figures. As this TfL map shows, cycling levels are monitored on only the most major roads, so the drop could simply mean riders are turning away from main roads onto quieter routes.

There were also some exceptional circumstances at play from April to September 2012. In the first quarter (January to March 2012) growth was above the levels seen in the same period of the previous year, but the second quarter saw a slump, very likely because spring 2012 was the wettest in recorded weather history.

The third quarter (July to September) saw a mini revival of 3.7 percent growth, though this was well below target. Figures for the final quarter are awaited but it seems unlikely to rescue the stats from a slight dip, as winter months are less statistically significant than spring and summer, when most cycle trips are made.

The Olympics will also have affected levels, but quite how remains a puzzle. Of course, there was a large influx of visitors to the capital, sending bike hire usage to record levels. But bikes themselves weren't allowed on or around the main Olympic site at Stratford, and off-road commuter routes in the area were shut for security reasons.

Is this the start of a trend or a statistical anomaly? Of course, only time will tell, but, if it is the start of London falling out of love with the bike, recent history suggests major new developments may be needed to reverse any such trend.

The previous big boosts to cycling levels were the introduction of the congestion charge in 2003 and ‘Boris Bikes’ in 2010. So, irrespective of the underlying causes of the latest disappointing figures, it will be interesting to see if Mayor Johnson’s promised investment in infrastructure over the next decade provides a welcome shot in the arm for cycling levels.

The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle is the kind of book you hate and yet can’t put down. Instead of being an entertaining and relaxing read about a sport I love by an athlete I once admired, it is a depressing book by someone whose character and motives, after reading the book, I question.

First, the book is well-written. Coyle has done an excellent job of taking his numerous and lengthy interviews with Tyler and crafting them into an excellent first person narrative of how Hamilton became caught up in doping and blood boosting, and about this “secret” race to see who could do it best. I liked how the chapters were broken up and titled, with clearly delineated breaks in each chapter when there was a shift in the narrative. The book is evenly paced, never moving too quickly nor getting bogged down. In terms of the reading experience, it is captivating. Only the content is depressing.

The subtitle on the dust jacket describes the book perfectly: “Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs”. I have avidly followed the Tour and professional European bike racing for years. I knew doping was part of the sport. That was apparent. And as time passed, I came to understand it was more widespread than anyone let on. Yet Hamilton’s book showed me a shocking world in which doping was epidemic and necessary to perform and win at the highest levels.

Hamilton’s narrative takes the reader on a ride through his professional racing career. In it, he details his innocence as a neo-pro in Europe, his introduction to doping, his rationalizations, getting “popped” and finding his career crashing down, his decision to write this book in conjunction with and at the suggestion of Coyle, and his involvement with the grand jury, and subsequent USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) investigation of Lance Armstrong. He relates the role Armstrong played in organizing the doping practices in the US Postal team. He describes well the doping culture that existed within the sport throughout his career. He is frank about how he and others reacted to this culture and the decisions they made.

I read this book during the recent time period in which USADA’s report detailing this dark and corrupt component of professional cycling and Lance Armstrong’s role in it, and the many simultaneous public confessions it spurred, came out. The book gave substantive and substantial background, context and (dare I say it?) understanding to USADA’s report and the confessions of the many American riders I had followed over the years.

In a sense, I was grateful for that. I know Levi Leipheimer and spoke with him on several occasions when he raced here in Utah. I also know David Zabriskie quite well and have interviewed him on a couple of occasions. I like them both, and believe them, despite their confessions, to be good, honest and upright people. Tyler’s book showed the culture aspiring professional riders faced, the nearly superhuman demands of the sport, and the intensity of the dreams these riders had to surrender if they walked away from professionally cycling. It gave understanding to why people, good people such as Zabriskie and Leipheimer, chose to cheat.

I said at the outset that I question Hamilton’s character are motives. I don’t doubt that he considers himself sincere and acting in professional cycling’s best interests this book. However, there are several telling moments in the book. First, Hamilton quite easily accepted and slipped into the world of doping. There is little indication that he was seriously conflicted when faced with the decision to dope. Of his first time doping, Hamilton relates how Dr. Pedro Celaya, the team doctor, came to him after the 1997 Tour of Valencia and offered him , “A tiny red egg [testosterone]. ‘This is not doping,’ he said. ‘This is for your health.’ . . . I put out my hand, and he tipped the capsule into my palm.”

Later, Hamilton states, “Still, I didn’t do anything. Pedro gave me an occasional red egg at races, but that was it. I would not have dreamed of asking [Adriano] Baffi or another teammate for EPO. It felt like something that was above my station, that had to be earned.” Both before and after these instances, Hamilton also relates how team doctors gave the preferred riders on the team a little white sack, which he knew contained drugs, and tells of the “sinking feeling” and “sinking sensation” of not being one of the riders deserving of that.

He also relates how easy it was to lie to his father, a defiantly honest man, about his doping. “One afternoon my father came to me with that question. He sat me down. He brought up Festina [the entire Festina team was busted in 1998 and kicked out of the Tour when Willie Voet, a team soigneur, was caught with a trunk full of drugs while crossing the French border]. . . I didn’t hesitate. ‘Dad, if I ever have to take that stuff to compete, I’ll retire.’ I’d thought it would be hard to lie to my dad; it turned out it was easy. I looked him right in the eye; the words popped out so effortlessly that I’m ashamed to think of it now.”

Also, it is apparent from the book that Hamilton developed a real competition with, and bitterness toward, Lance Armstrong. Hamilton tells of the preferential treatment that Lance exercised as the team leader of US Postal. He also speaks of the fear of Lance that others had. You didn’t want to cross him or make him mad. To those who paid attention, it become apparent that Lance Armstong was not a particularly nice person. You did not challenge Armstrong. If you did, you quickly found yourself on the outside. That happened with Hamilton, particularly as he approached Armstrong’s level, both as a rider and a doper. He got on Armstrong’s bad side, realized he was being marginalized, and ended up leaving US Postal as a result.

When the sun sets on San Francisco's Valencia Street, the corridor comes alive with cars and bicycles - and with the resulting friction between them.

Regular bicycle commuters see the scenario play out each evening: A car driving slowly along Valencia darts suddenly across the bike lane to nab a coveted parking spot or to double-park, forcing a cyclist to swerve into vehicle traffic.

"At night, after dark especially, it's dangerous," said Emily Babiak, 29, who does data entry at a nonprofit and commutes daily along the stretch. "Sometimes it happens really suddenly, so it's hard to handle and causes me some anxiety. Last night I was riding between (16th Street) and 26th and I saw at least four to six double-parked cars blocking the lane."

Other riders feel that even when they alert drivers to the rules about blocking the lane, they're ignored.

"It happens all the time," said Kyle Walsh, 36, a registered nurse who has ridden in the city for 10 years. "The other day I had a pickup truck swerve right in front of me. When I told him what he did, his response was to blast his horn. If you're a biker, you're used to getting disrespected."

San Francisco city officials transformed Valencia Street into a bicycle-friendly corridor in 1999 by eliminating two traffic lanes and adding two bicycle lanes plus a series of left-turn lanes down the center of the street.

An uptick in bike traffic followed, but as the street expanded into a popular evening dining destination, car traffic grew as well. Cars and taxis block the bike lanes to drop people off or to run a quick errand, and drivers looking for a parking spot often drift into the bike lanes.

Cyclists say they still want to use Valencia as a commuting route because of the bike lanes and its relatively flat grade. But they said careless driving, especially after dark, makes it a harrowing experience, and they rarely or never see tickets being issued, even though parking in the bike lane is illegal if it impedes bike traffic.

Double-parking is not a moving violation, so parking control officers and police can both write tickets for it, said Paul Rose, an MTA spokesman. Any careless driving, however, has to be handled by police.

Despite the perceived danger, the corridor doesn't see very many accidents, said Capt. Denis O'Leary, head of SFPD's traffic division. Police usually go for a verbal warning if someone is caught blocking the bike lane when cyclists need it, he said.

But if a driver cuts a cyclist off suddenly, "that's an infraction, and a traffic stop should follow," O'Leary said.

MTA also changed Valencia in 2011 to a "green wave" system, in which intersection traffic lights are synchronized for vehicles traveling at 13 mph, a moderate cycling speed. Rose said the agency hopes that the SFpark pilot program, which allows drivers to go online or use a smartphone to see where empty spots are available, will help ease needless prowling for parking. The program was put into place along Valencia from 15th to 24th streets in 2011, Rose said.

In the meantime, though, cyclists feel that heightened enforcement, especially during the evening hours, could help send the message that cars and bikes need to share the road and make all parties more aware of each other.

"I don't think they're doing enough to protect cyclists," said Walsh, the registered nurse. "Why don't they hang a sign on every stoplight telling drivers to share the lane?"

Leaders of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition said they hope eventually to have separated bikeways on Valencia like the city already has in Golden Gate Park and is establishing along Fell and Oak streets.

"Simple white posts are really easy for the city to install," said Leah Shahum, the bicycle coalition's executive director. "Anything to have full separation between moving car traffic. We hear anecdotally from folks it's a big difference."

No doubt many regular readers of this column will be expecting me to tee off on last week’s inexplicable and unannounced closure of a very busy part of the Custis Trail — with no detour.

It sent cyclists and pedestrians onto Lee Highway against traffic. The drivers themselves had no warning that the lane in front of them would be filled with cyclists and pedestrians simply trying to get to their own destinations. It was more than half a day before the county, in response to complaints, put a detour in place.

Some, quite understandably, see this as a failing of Arlington County to follow through on its promise to be a cycling- and walking-friendly community. And, I suppose, in a way it is a failure. But it’s not a failure of intent. I’m sure no one in the county offices planning the curb replacement considered, and then affirmatively rejected, putting a safe detour in place. I suspect, rather, that the need for a detour never even occurred to whoever planned the replacement.

People who don’t ride or walk much simply don’t appreciate what an important role infrastructure makes to those who do.

When you’re encased in a climate-controlled box that is insulated from sound, buffered from surface conditions, and protected against impact, you tend to get what’s called a “windshield perspective.”

While the windshield perspective is certainly common — most people in this country have it, I’d say — it’s also isolating. It tends to reduce empathy to those using the streets in different ways. It limits the ability to fully appreciate the considerations that go not just into using our streets, but also into planning, building and maintaining a fully functioning transportation network.

So the lack of a detour on the Custis? I’m sure it wasn’t a conscious choice. Instead, it was almost certainly the product of a collection of individuals who don’t ride or walk much. Just like the construction crew that doesn’t think twice about leaving a dangerous lip on the road, this crew apparently didn’t think that closing a small section of sidewalk was a big deal.

So how does that change? Well, there’s the obvious approach — improved project management, in which mandatory consideration of the impact of a project on cyclists and pedestrians is part of every construction project.

There’s also the long term — and much more difficult — approach. It's the one that gets real results. It’s about making sure that staff who work on our transportation infrastructure don’t just understand that it’s for different modes of travel, but also actually use those different modes of travel from time to time.

There is no substitute for getting out from behind the windshield. This is especially true when you’re working on infrastructure that serves thousands of daily users who have already gotten out from behind theirs.

Finally, I want to thank Arlington Parks and Recreation's Susan Kalish for responding to last week's piece on snow removal here. As a small point, I don't think anyone's asking for salting — though it may not be inappropriate in the concrete canyon leading through Rosslyn. And while I take and appreciate the point that Parks and Recreation is still looking for solutions, it's been more than two years since this issue was formally raised with Arlington County. Perhaps the recent change in leadership will finally bring action.