Hand tunnel to the cyclists

From: Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe.

I’VE been receiving regular emails updating me about the reopening of the Queensbury Tunnel.

In 1991, as I stood with my bicycle at the side of the road, just moments after a 50-mile cycle road race, (near Uppermill) a metal pole protruding from a passing wagon hit me on the back of the head.

When I eventually woke up on life support, I was told: “Had you not been so fit, you probably wouldn’t have survived.”

It took several years before I got back on my bike: at first on my mountain bike on a playing field 100 yards from where I lived.

Eventually I got back on my road bike – it was terrifying.

Every time a vehicle passed me, I wobbled with fear. But I couldn’t give up – if I couldn’t ride my bike, and the dream of riding in the Tour de France, life wouldn’t be worth living.

Eventually I managed to stop wobbling, and got back to racing, but the fear has never left me.

In a recent survey it was found that over 60 per cent of adults think that UK roads are too dangerous for cycling on. Also, in May, it was reported that GPs in Wales will be able to assign six months of bike hire subscriptions on prescription for patients without charge.

And, in November, it was revealed that a cycling-on-prescription scheme trialled in Yorkshire has been so successful that it could be rolled out across the UK. Should the Queensbury Tunnel be opened up for cycling? It’s a no brainer. A giant leap for mankind!