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Source: Houston ChronicleJuly 12--Lawson Craddock's recent work days have started around 7 a.迷你倉沙田m. at Mozart's, the cool coffee joint on Lake Austin Boulevard not far from his apartment. There, after a good jolt of java, he'll pedal off into the hills west of town or perhaps in the other direction to Bastrop, 40 miles away. It's not unusual for him to turn the crank hard for four-plus hours, arriving back in Austin just in time to catch the televised finish of the latest Tour de France stage with his fellow cycling crazies at Mellow Johnny's bike shop.Those who gather all share the same passion for the sport. Austin's cycling culture rivals any you'll find in Europe. Craddock points out how "a hundred guys show up for the Driveway Men's Open on a Thursday night when it's 110 degrees." But there's a chasm of difference between the 21-year-old Craddock and the other Mellow Johnny's regulars. He's a fan, too, but he's also an aspiring member of the Tour peloton.If everything breaks right for the 2010 Cypress Springs graduate who happens to be the top cycling prospect ever to come out of the Houston area, he'll be climbing and time-trialing around France with the big boys in the not-too-distant future. But as he closes out the under-23 chapter of his career, that's hardly a be-all, end-all goal. He's not putting in all these miles -- close to 400 per week in the sweltering Texas heat -- just so he can trade Mozart's Joe for a cup in cycling's "Show.""I want to be successful," Craddock said, "not just get there so I can get my teeth kicked in."But getting his teeth kicked on occasion will be part of his cycling life going forward, of course. Look at the Tour that Tejay van Garderen is having. America's best and brightest young cyclist, a surprise fifth-place finisher in Paris 12 months ago when he claimed Best Young Rider honors, is mired in 50th place, more than 35 minutes behind the yellow jersey. If that can happen to van Garderen, who looked invincible as recently as May when he won the Amgen Tour of California, it will surely happen to Craddock at some point."There's no other sport in the world like ours," he said. "One day you're riding great in first place; the next day you're blowing up and hanging on for dear life."That can even be a one-minute-to-the-next progression, as Craddock was reminded on the road going to the top of a cruel hump called Mount Diablo east of San Francisco on the penultimate day of the Tour of California. It speaks to the nature of cycling that the Diablo climb revealed both his strength and exposed his weakness almost simultaneously.Craddock's Bontrager teammates were working for him and his legs felt like pistons. For an added incentive, his parents, Tom and Ellen, his brother Parker and his girlfriend Chelsie were waiting on the summit. Figuring there was little to lose and a lot to be gained -- perhaps even a top-three overall finish -- he went on the attack. And lo, suddenly nobody was on his wheel."I wanted to power my way up there and finish it off right for my guys," he said. "They'd worked hard to get me in that position, and I was feeling great, way exceeding my expectations. It was really cool. So I took the bull by the horns."Unwelcome surpriseBut Craddock hadn't studied the course profile beforehand. He admitted he had no idea the asphalt hooked around a blind corner with about 300 meters to go and suddenly pitched skyward at a 20 percent grade."It was like, 'Whoa!'?" he said. "I didn't think it was so cool after that. I held on for as long as I could, but I was totally destroyed at the finish."Six riders -- including van Garderen -- blew past him, and he collapsed in an emotional scrum with Chelsie and his family, undecided for the moment if it was the best or the worst moment of his life. Once he'd caught his breath, though, he concluded it was far closer to the former than the latter. He hadn't closed the deal, but his gut-busting effort didn't go for naught. It let him lock up the Best Young Rider's white jersey and an eighth-place finish overall."Thinking about it still gives me goose bumps," said his father, a former professional racer himself. "It was very, very exciting. I think that day gave him a huge confidence boost."Against junior competition, Craddock had been a dominant time-trialer with two top-three finishes in the World Championships. He also enjoyed a measure of general class-ification success because he had more horsepower than most kids his age. But two years spent riding for a paycheck with the Bontrager team had provided enough humbling interludes for him to make significant course corrections.For starters ... "I stopped eating ice cream every night," he said. Now he's 7 pounds lighter, a gargantuan change for an elite cyclist.He also hired a new coach, USA Cycling vice president for athletics Jim Miller, who had groomed van Garderen's skills for a decade."Lawson has been in our program since he was 15 years old," Miller said. "When he asked if I'd work with him, it was a no-brainer. I knew what he was capable of."Craddock's time-trialing skills are "similar" to van Garderen's, Miller contends, and although "Tejay's a better climber," he said, "that's not to say Lawson can't climb, and he's probably got a little more punch than Tejay."Craddock's upcoming starts are the Tour of Utah (Aug. 6-11) and the USA Pro Challenge (Aug. 19-25), races he hopes to use to seal a deal with a Pro Tour team so he can "just focus on training" for the season's apex, the Under-23 World Championships in Italy, in late September. Garmin-Sharp and current Tour de France leader Chris Froome's powerful Sky team are possible suitors for Craddock's services, and RadioShack-Leopard maintains a loose affiliation with the Bontrager team, which was Trek-Livestrong before Lance Armstrong's precipitous fall."Lawson ended last season by setting some goals, and he went right to work," his father said. "One of them was to finish in the top 10 in California, which I thought was too lofty. But he set his mind to it and did it. I'd say he's got a good plan. Everything is on target. But he's got a big decision to make this summer."How good can Craddock be? To put his results in perspective, remember that Armstrong had already won a Tour de France stage and the World Championship by the age of 21. But Armstrong may have also already been headed down -- or at least leaning toward -- the horribly slippery slope of doping, justifying it with the certitude others who wanted the same things he did were cheating, too.Hard-line doping stanceThis is a tricky topic for Craddock. He idolized Armstrong as a kid and has ridden with him frequently since moving to Austin. He expresses unequivocal gratitude for the support his infamous fellow Texan and other now-tainted American riders have provided along the way. However, had he been confronted with the same devilish dilemma Armstrong faced, Craddock said, "I don't know ... but I think it would have driven me out of cycling."I remember sitting at a restaurant with my family when I was like 12 years old, on a day when somebody in the Tour tested positive, and telling them, 'I give you guys my word. I will never ever take drugs to compete in cycling.' I remember that day like it happened yesterday. I'll take all the steps necessary -- but only natural ones, of course -- to be the best I can be. I want to be a good ambassador for cycling, to help people realize what a great sport it can be. It's not the same sport it was 10 years ago. You don't see guys sprinting up the mountains anymore."Or if you do, you see them blowing gaskets. Laughing, Craddock offered up his own diabolical experience on Diablo for proof."There's no better feeling than to be on a big climb and you're not going that hard but all the guys around you are hurting," he said. "On a hard climb, there's no hiding. It's about who can ride hardest for the longest. I love to suffer on a bike ... but I like seeing other people suffer more."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Houston Chronicle Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com Distributed by MCT Information Services