LONDON

LEG 1: Tower of London to Tate Britain gallery on Millbank — 4.25 miles START TIME: 8.13am

ON YOUR marks, get set, go! We set off from just east of the Tower of London on Cable Street. It is the site of the blue, two-way CS3 cycle lane.

Within 100 yards, I have overtaken Katherine as I join the throng of cycling commuters. Her Ford Fiesta is stuck in traffic, unable to clear the first set of lights before me.

I am slightly taken aback by how many cyclists there are, and how willing they are to risk swerving on to the wrong side of the cycle lane to overtake — and I soon witness my first cycle-on-cycle crash. Luckily, both of the Lycra-clad men look unhurt.

By 8.17am, I have reached the new East-West Cycle Superhighway on the Embankment. It’s about four yards wide and separated from the traffic by a pavement. It takes Katherine until 8.32am to get here. ‘After 17 minutes, the fastest I’d managed was 12mph for a few seconds,’ she says.

The Cycle Superhighway is impressive. The only difficulty is negotiating the complex lights, which sometimes let you go ahead of the cars and sometimes hold you back.

It’s busy. At Blackfriars, there are so many cyclists at one junction that I can’t make it through before the lights change. But that is the only delay before I hit Parliament Square — when I look up to see Big Ben, it’s 8.33am. No such luck for Katherine. ‘On the Embankment I was stuck — I was there for so long, I could nearly have got out and grabbed a cup of coffee.’

I arrive at Tate Britain at 8.39am, and wait on the steps for Katherine, who arrives 20 minutes later.

BICYCLE: 26 minutes, average speed 9.8mph

CAR: 46 minutes, speed 5.5mph

RETURN LEG: Tate Britain to Tower of London START TIME: 11.03am

I WAS not surprised that with London’s new cycle lanes, a bicycle beat a car at peak rush hour. But by 11am surely the traffic will have died down? Indeed, outside Tate Britain, Millbank is deserted; within the first few yards, Katherine glides past.

But her advantage doesn’t last long. Less than a mile later, at Parliament Square, I ease in front, as she is stuck in a queue. My advantage only increases. As I pass Big Ben and enter the Cycle SuperHighway, I see ahead of me a 350-yard stretch devoid of cyclists. By Waterloo Bridge, I have met just five coming in the other direction.

Throughout the entire 2.7-mile stretch from Westminster to the Tower of London, 30 cyclists come in the other direction, and I see just two others travelling eastwards with me. Yet the traffic on the road is bumper-tobumper cars, vans, taxis and lorries. ‘Three minutes into crawling along the Embankment, I’d still not seen a single cyclist go past,’ says Katherine.

I finish at 11.27am. Katherine does not reach our destination until 11.52am. Even to me as a keen cyclist, this is madness. Our new cycle lanes are great when they’re being used in rush hour, but can’t urban planners design a scheme to give back the lanes to vehicles in the middle of the day?

‘Why can’t cycle lanes have retractable bollards, which go down after rush hour?’ Katherine asks at the finish line. Why indeed.

BICYCLE: 24 minutes, speed 10.6mph

CAR: 49 minutes, speed 5.2mph