After the Festival and the Bestival comes the Isle of Wight Cycling Festival, which started on Saturday. Plenty of publicity has been given in order to tempt one to 'Get into Gear - Get into the Isle of Wight', pointing out the personal and environmental benefits of cycling. There is a week of events such as Triathlons, Cycle the Wight, Sink or Swim and the Hills Killer, as well as Family Rides, with plenty of organised rides at different fitness levels for all members of the family, often in return for simply a donation to charity.

A splendid idea and one I wholeheartedly support since dusting down my bike about six weeks ago, when I realised that dog walking and gardening wasn't making me as fit as I pretended to be. The Isle of Wight is a beautiful venue. I even entertained the wildly optimistic hope of participating in the Round the Island event (65 miles), until I calculated that given my present level of fitness, I would probably finish at about the same time as next year's winners.

And officers at the IOW Council are practising what they preach. The Chief Executive is a keen cyclist, and he and a number of officers will be participating in events. But one of their colleagues is noticeably absent - unless s/he is masquerading under an obscure job title. That is, the person responsible for the state of our roads.

Because without a doubt, the road surfaces on the IOW are dreadful - even the patches have patches. It's bad enough in a car - but on a bike it is lethal. And if there is anything more traumatic than cycling very slowly up a hill in bottom gear, with a queue of drivers too nervous to overtake grinding along behind you, it is the sight of a huge pot hole in the road in front, forcing you to stop dead.

So I can't help hoping that our Chief Exec and his colleagues will be persuaded to make the road improvement scheme a priority when they next limp into the council offices.