A photo of cracks in a Lincolnshire road has gone viral after a photographer showed he was able to stand his bike in a half-metre deep gap in the road.
Chris Nagel photographed his Giant road bike in a crack on Thorpe Bank, around 10 miles west of Skegness. The cracks can be seen developing on Google Maps as early as 2021. However, the summer of heatwaves that melt and re-shape the road materials has accelerated the erosion of the road’s condition, the CEO of the Road Surface Treatment Organisation told the BBC.
Mike Hansford said road construction was increasingly turning to “geosynthetic solutions” to reduce road cracks, whilst the Head of Highways Assets at Lincolnshire County Council said “drought damage [was] affecting certain roads at the moment as the ground underneath shrinks and shifts in the extreme weather.”
Shaun Butcher added that the road would be repaired “in accordance with [council] policies.”

However, social media users were critical of the council’s approach to road maintenance in the area. Part of the Fens, Thorpe Bank itself runs parallel to a dug-in open drain. Some residents pointed out the roads were not originally built for large vehicles and have not been appropriately maintained to accommodate the increasing weight of cars.
“Thorpe Bank, I think they’d be better off bulldozing the whole bank out and reinstating it rather than pussyfooting about with stripping a few inches off the top…. fen roads were never built for the weights they carry now”, Wainfleet resident Paul Dodge wrote.
“If I remember correctly they closed this road back in April for near a week for repairs… I was expecting them to come and finish it the following week but nope that’s how it still looks”, Wayne Davey wrote, attaching a photo of the half-finished road repairs.

Nagel’s original post also encouraged other local cyclists to share photos of their own free-standing bikes inside cracks on Lincolnshire roads.

Nagel later told the BBC that even when drivers and motorcyclists “go steady, it’s still too fast to really see how bad the road surface really is. You’ll only see it properly as a cyclist or a pedestrian.”

Having been Conservative-controlled since 2017, Reform UK won control of Lincolnshire County Council in 2025. Road resurfacing is not currently planned on Thorpe’s Bank, though road resurfacing is due to begin on nearby Steeping Road before 2028, according to the council’s road repairs website.
The county is due to host the opening two stages of the Tour of Britain Men in two weeks’ time. Both stages will utilise the Lincolnshire Wolds, with stage two, a looping route from Boston to Skegness, passing through nearby country roads between the villages of Spilsby and Wainfleet.
