cycleways alert

It is a lot trickier on the non-treated surfaces today. Most of yesterdays snow covering has compacted and frozen so is proving extremely slippery. Just rode up to the downs in bristol and back, roads are fine but even with knobbly tyres on the bike I couldnt get any grip through castle park or toward avonmeads along the river.

The Bath end of the Bath-Bristol cyclepath was rideable yesterday according to our commuter diarist who rode in on it - knobbly tyre did the trick in the thick snow, it was impassable today he says, so he took the bypass.

From what we saw yesterday morning when we popped out, worst thing appears to be 4X4 drivers who think that their vehicles enable them to drive at normal speed etc without taking account of the conditions.

There was a lorry trying to get up the hill outside our house yesterday - he almost made it a couple of times, not quite, so he'd back up a few hundred yards and try again with a bit more momentum.

So the third time, he's going to make it up the hill, then a 4X4 comes zooming along on the other direction, sees the lorry, whacks the brakes on, and just misses it. If there'd been a pedestrian there - hell, it was only 50:50 odds that the wife and I weren't on that side of the road - they'd have had no chance.

The lorry driver then asks me if I can ask traffic to wait while he has another try. As he's coming up the hill, another 4X4 appears, I explain to the driver what's happening, he says "thanks for telling me" and carries on anyway - luckily the lorry just made it up that time.

And whatever it was being delivered to Sainsbury's in Chipping Norton, I hope the locals (well, Clarkson apart, maybe) were grateful for it.

The bath bristol has had some grit on it through the bristol end (from staple hill tunnel). Was passable yesterday but overnight it has been really cold so dont know this morning.

Have stuck to the car all week so far, its not the roads as such just the (other) people in cars using them that scares me in this weather, most not even appear to notice large objects let alone bikes!

si