On July 18, the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports debuted a web site (www.presidentschallenge.org) intended to help Americans become more physically active, which should not be difficult, since many of our countrymen are softer than the sofas upon which they sprawl like beached manatees.

  Six days later, the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee approved a 2004 transportation budget that snuffed the Transportation Enhancements program, erasing all funding for bike and pedestrian paths. The $600 million — about 15 percent of our monthly mortgage payment on Iraq — was redirected to highway construction. Now, the presidential council's web site approves of bicycling — in part, no doubt, because Trek's John Burke is one of the presidential councilors and reputedly a force behind the site. Indeed, cycling ranks fourth among 10 suggestions for adults seeking to become more active ("Bike to work, to run errands or to visit friends.") and seventh for kids ("Ride your bike to school.")

  But Bush's hatchet men in the House apparently want these newbie cyclists to do their riding in the streets, where they will shed pounds by sweating them off in sheer terror, soiling themselves or losing a limb to a Land Rover.

  You think Karl Rove knows that the American peloton has a few prickly lefties infesting its collective chamois, and hopes to engage in some pest control before November 2004?

  Fear Isn't Fun. Hyperbole? Sure. You and I ride in the streets, and we're OK, aside from a touch of paranoia reminiscent of a plump Chihuahua in a roomful of unfed huskies. But the Freds don't like it. For a newcomer to cycling, or even a former cyclist making a comeback, sharing the streets with motor vehicles is like paddling a kayak through the shipping lanes with an honor guard of great white sharks.

  Twenty years ago, when I was getting back into cycling for weight-loss purposes, I did my first rides on the bike trails around Pueblo and Denver. Today, when my wife cycles, she pedals along the Pikes Peak Greenway onto the New Santa Fe Trail, from Monument Valley Park to the north gate of the Air Force Academy and back.

  Sometimes I join her, or wander off on my own in some other direction to see where the trail goes. As vicious, suspicious and malicious as I am, even I need a respite from pointless conflict from time to time.

  Hitting the Trail. The other day, I broke out a 'cross bike and rode south down the Greenway to the Fountain Creek Trail. It's a pleasant ride, especially after three weeks of 90-plus temperatures. Lots of shady tree cover, no stoplights, no smirking CEOs in Hummers.

  Like the rest of the country these days, the trail needs a little work — and whether it will get done now is anybody's guess. Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.) hopes to restore the Transportation Enhancement funding when the measure comes before the full House in September. But he already tried to save it in committee, and unless he can figure some national-security angle, or fold it into Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service sponsorship, I'm less than optimistic.

  You don't see many Lance Armstrongs on bike paths. What you do see are average folks taking some exercise. Many could stand to lose a few pounds, and some of them will. I don't know how many of them have computers, DSL hookups and ISPs.