I used to wear soft contacts and Oakleys. The problem was they would often dry out and at the start of races or rides my vision would be really wierd for the first couple of laps until they settled in. I once did a kilometer time trial at the San Diego track, and one of my lenses popped out from the effort. Talk about "balls out."

The best thang I ever did was to get "no-touch" laser surgery done. They slightly over-corrected, so I need to use +1 reading glasses in room light, but outdoors everythang is just fine, and far vision is extremely crisp (I had been quite nearsighted all my life). It's even corrected my astigmatism (for which I had to use toric contacts).

No-touch is a two-step laser process. In the first step the laser burns off the thin covering over the lens. In the second step the laser reshapes the lens. It's quite expensive - in Canada, it's about $1500 per eye - but you're covered for any corrections or touch-ups that may be required in the future. Recovery time is a bit longer than with Lasik and can be a little painful, but the result is very solid eyes - you can even take up boxing and not have to worry about a hit in the eye messing up the operation.

Lasik is much cheaper, $200-500 per eye, but in the first step, they use a scalpel to cut a flap to the lens. Step 2 is the same, the laser then shapes the lens, but then you have to let the flap heal, and the flap sometimes "comes unglued." The thought of a scalpel cutting into my eye makes me very nervous and is a big reason I decided on No-Touch.

If I need to read fine print on maps, I just carry reading glasses in my jersey pocket.

- L.