It's a matter of personal preference, of course, but I don't like your edit much, WR. It turns an action shot into a sort of 'cycling portrait'. There is a place for that, but it isn't what that shot is about, for me. In this case, replicating the studio (particularly when done in the digital darkroom), creates an image that loses its original intent. Having spent decades with emulsions of various sorts, and having shot hundreds of frames of grey walls learning sensitometry (zone system and the ilk), I'm someone who likes to have as much of the final image in the initial 'capture' as possible, avoiding radical manipulation. Some of that preference is from having spent several years as addicted to underwater photography as I am now am to cycling, burning countless rolls of Kodachrome and Velvia. The competitions I liked were based on the unedited slides, taken right there on that day: a unique challenge. For some folks it's what they can do with an image after they take it, and for some of us, it's in the taking itself. For me, an image with the desired lighting in the capture is superior to an identical final product achieved via manipulation. In any event, it's very much a "different strokes for different folks' thing. I did love what you did with that photo of your bike awhile back- awesome work.