A PARALYMPIC cycling gold medallist has warned cyclists to be on their guard against potholes as road experts warn of 10 potholes a mile on council-maintained roads in England and Wales.

Darren Kenny OBE, 40, who has won six Paralympic gold medals, said pothole-filled roads were a “massive danger” to road users travelling on two wheels.

His warning echoes a call from fellow gold medallist, Victoria Pendleton, who won the sprint event at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, for councils to do more to make roads safer for cyclists.

Darren said: “Potholes are a massive danger for cyclists, especially if they are directly on the line you are riding.

“You don’t always have the choice to go round them.

“If you steer around them, you could swerve into passing traffic.

“If you hit a pothole, it could throw you out anyway.

“You have to really look ahead and listen out for what’s going on behind.

“Cars will just drive straight through potholes.

“Drivers aren’t always aware of what the cyclist is dealing with,” he said.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance says every mile of local authority-owned road in England and Wales will have 10 potholes.

The organisation, which produces a yearly report on the roads, said the number of potholes could reach two million by the spring.

Miss Pendleton, 30, is supporting an awards scheme which judges UK councils on repairs to potholes which occur when water repeatedly freezes and expands in cracks in the road.

She said: “I'm getting involved because anything that showcases pothole repairs and encourages councils to improve their roads has to be a good thing for both cyclists and motorists.”

The Cyclist Touring Club has a website with a league table for council performance in repairing potholes reported by its members.

Bournemouth CTC chairman Terry Walsh said there were even more and much deeper potholes on local roads than before .

He also said that councils were not doing enough to repair them.

The bike debate

Council

• Cllr Michael Filer, transport chief at Bournemouth council, said the council was investing £3m in repairing roads. He said the council’s Road Rescue teams had fixed 2,500 potholes since the beginning of 2010.

• A Dorset County Council spokesman said the authority had repaired 3,200 potholes since October 1 2010 after 35 per cent increase in road defects in the previous financial year.

Potholes can be reported on 01305 221020 or at dorsetforyou.com/reportroadproblems.

• John Sayers, principal engineer for the Borough of Poole, said more than 1,800 works orders had been raised for repairs to potholes last year on the borough’s 320-mile network and urged road users to be aware of conditions. Potholes can be reported online at boroughofpoole.com and clicking “report it”

Cyclists

• Jason Falconer, a cycling officer with green transport charity, Sustrans, said: “I work with 12 schools in the area to encourage children to cycle to school, so obviously we want to eliminate anything that stops children from cycling, or stops them from wanting to cycle. We need maintained routes and roads to give children safer routes to cycle.”

• Cycling commuter and Echo blogger, David Brown, said: “They can be a pain, literally! I think that they are more dangerous for a cyclist that for a car driver. Potholes themselves can be very dangerous for cyclists but we also have to cope with the raised or dropped drain covers, bad road repairs which often seem to be in the gutter.”