The final act in the Shakespearean drama of cycling great Lance Armstrong is about to begin, with the airing this week of his admission to who else but Oprah Winfrey--the celebrity confessor--that he indeed took performance enhancing drugs during his professional career.

This is news only in that Armstrong seems to have finally realized that he has no other card to play. After so many years of denials, after his retaliation against Greg LeMond and his litigation and threats of litigation, even after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's explosive report which called his doping operation the most sophisticated sport has ever seen, even after a number of his teammates flipped on him, even after he lost his titles and was banned from competition, he still tried to keep up the Big Lie.

In the Oprah show, which was taped yesterday, he finally admits to what everyone already knew, the Associated Press is reporting. On Sunday, he held what was supposedly an emotional meeting with employees of Livestrong, the cancer foundation he started after he survived testicular cancer, and admitted he had let them down.

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The Daily News jumped the gun with its cover this morning -- no, Lance Armstrong has not been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Not yet, anyway.

Last night, Armstrong threw in the towel with a defensive statement posted to the Internet, saying that he was no longer going to fight the doping charges being leveled at him by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

But as Bicycling magazine editor Peter Flax pointed out on CNN this morning, USADA doesn't have the power to strip Armstrong's Tour titles -- that will be decided by a couple of international sporting bodies, and Flax is right to point out that they may not go along with what USADA wants.

Still, this is not a good day for those of us who cheered on Lance Armstrong during his amazing comeback from cancer and then string of Tour victories.

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A New York Civil Court has decided today that Abraham Soldaner is responsible for the 2008 death of cyclist Rasha Shamoon.

Shamoon was killed on the corner of Delancey and Bowery on Aug. 5, 2008. More than 20 witnesses called 911 to report the accident, but cops didn't interview anyone, according to Michael Murphy, Transportation Alternatives' spokesman, who just got word of the decision.

"They had over 20 witnesses calling in about the crash and didn't try to interview any of them," Murphy told Runnin' Scared.

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David Edgar

Now you finally have a reason to belch one Queen song at the top of your lungs. (And no, it's not "Bohemian Rhapsody.")

New York's plans to let loose 10,000 free (or super-duper-cheap-to-rent) bikes on the streets are slowly taking shape. In November, the Department of Transportation announced a plan to develop a bike-sharing program in Brooklyn and Manhattan, reports Greening the Apple. (All the specs haven't been released).

But now, the City wants your help figuring out where the bikes should go.

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Lance Armstrong, flanked by two guys accusing him of nothing. Yet.

During Lance Armstrong's recent comeback, the Voice kept a fairly close eye on him. Despite what some commenters seemed to believe, we actually have admired the man and his incredible cycling exploits.

For years, of course, Armstrong has been dogged by accusations of cheating with performance-enhancing drugs. In particular, I have for years heard from my colleague Matt Smith, who is SF Weekly's news columnist and a former professional cyclist, that Armstrong was dirty and that because he had been sponsored by a federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service, it would make him vulnerable to exhaustive investigations.

Over the last several years, I have generally maintained confidence in Armstrong's record of negative drug tests. Smith, meanwhile, has always assured me that Armstrong's doomsday was coming.

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"City bike numbers unwheel," is how the New York Post headlines a story today about competing surveys counting New York City's cyclists. The tabloid's war on bikes is long-running and why should this time be any different, with negative words crammed near the top of the article aimed at cyclists and the city's bike lanes: "...they won't come... aggressively... controversial... paltry." At the heart of it, a new U.S. Census-based study says that only .06 percent of New Yorkers, or 22,686, ride a bike to work, less than in 2007, while NYC says "the number of cyclists is skyrocketing." As the Post sort of explains -- eventually -- both can be true.

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Even though our friends at City Hall recently had to fork over $965,000 in taxpayer money to Critical Mass riders arrested by the NYPD under questionable circumstances, police keep monitoring the rides.

Last month, only 10 cyclists showed up at Union Square for the monthly ride, but they were monitored by 20 police officers, including a captain, says Time's Up! spokeswoman Barbara Ross.

This week, the city finally sent out settlement checks to 83 Critical Mass cyclists who had sued the city for false arrest between 2004 and 2006. (The lawyers representing the riders got $550,000 of that money.)

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Cyclists in Central Park have been issued over 200 tickets so far in 2011 for traffic violations as the city works to crack down on riders not stopping for red lights. But on Tuesday morning, the NYPD took it to a new level, setting up a speed trap, radar gun and all, at the bottom of a Central Park hill, where they gave ten tickets to cyclists traveling over 15 mph. (The speed limit is actually 25 mph, says Central Park's official website.) By Tuesday night, police were already backtracking.

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Brooklyn Downtown Star

​Listen, Prospect Park. The generous, benevolent Department of Transportation has bestowed upon you a big, green bike lane to keep you safe from all of those scary, lycra-clad cyclists. Big Brother (i.e., the city) says it keeps your babies safe and your Subarus dent-free, so stop being so ungrateful and like the damn thing, okay?More »

Discord is brewing in the streets of New York. Or so the New York Times would have you believe, with its piece today on the latest urban conflict that plagues the people of our fair city: bike lanes.

Last week, cyclists on Staten Island were mourning the loss of a local bike lane, which they say the city removed to appease a growing anti-bike sentiment from motorists and pedestrians. That strife, it seems, has spread, and factions on all sides of the bike debate are readying. For war.

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