I will give you vision on this (there are many others though as you already found out):
First, do not decide what to (and how to) map stuff based on how it looks in a certain map (mapnik or osmarender, or any other). Map stuff as it physically is, then adapt the renderers to render the images properly is the consensus about this.
As for mapping cycleways I have two rules: If a cycleway is physically detached (i.e. separated by a grass strip, a wall, trees, etc.) from the adjacent way, I add a separate way with ‘highway=cycleway’, others might tag it as ‘cycleway=track’. If the cycleway is part of the way (e.g. a different colored surface on the road, dividing lines, etc), I map it as ‘cycleway=lane’.
You can find lots of cycleways in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands), just scroll around…