It's Still Not About The Bike

Author: Dan Katz (grid by Roger Barkan)

 

The phrase "It's Still Not About The Bike" is a clue indicating the sequel to Lance Armstrong's memoir "It's Not About The Bike," which is called "Every Second Counts." Each entry can be determined by taking the second letter of every word in the clue.

 

The completed grid looks like this:

 

FLAPSPECSWEAN

LIRALENACHILE

EARNERGREATER

ERASEIRONCHEF

SPIRTLALAKERS

SEGUESBERTRAM

ORNEMAORIACNE

USURPEDFORAGE

PEPPERERFARED

PETEROSELIANA

OMAROSADOOVER

LIKEROLDSTEEN

ORESSLAYSALTS

 

The main diagonal reads "FIRSTS OF FIVES." The first letters of all of the five-letter words in the clues spell "RIGHT ANSWER AFTER SIMPLE EXTRACTION." Using the same simple extraction that was applied to the clues (taking the second letters) yields the answer: INFIX.