Yup, they’re a nuisance to cyclists of all types and all abilities – at best, a bit of a jarring bump, at worst, bent wheels, road rash, chipped teeth and the screeching of brakes from the car about to run over you as you fall into the middle of the road. Let’s hope it’s always the best!

Councils in the UK have a responsibility to fix potholes, but I’m convinced that they either don’t know they’re there, or they choose to ignore them until someone tells them about it. And let’s face it, how many of us has the time to spend navigating the telephone system that our local council has set up specifically to deter us from calling them to complain?

At last there is an answer in the form of a new website called FillThatHole! All you have to do is to fill in a short form and the nice folks at the CTC will take it from there. You even get to pinpoint the location using Google Earth.

Does it work? Why not give it a try, I have… and I await the miraculous vanishing of my local death-trap.

It’s not often I say anything about the CTC (my mum told me that if I don’t have anything nice to say…), but here’s a huge thumbs up to the folks with the panniers!

And just in case you’re a mountain biker & you’re out on your favourite (legal) trail, only to be confronted by an unwelcome obstacle, there’s ClearThatTrail, where they’ll do the same sort of thing, just this time to get that locked gate unlocked or move that conveniently placed “fallen tree.”