BARRY Harrison asks why cyclists continue to ride on the roads, when cycle paths are provided (Letters, September 10).

I am a long-standing club and ex-racing cyclist, with more than 45 years' club riding experience.

So many cycle paths are routed on shared use footpaths, which require the rider to stop at every junction or access. This causes a disjointed, stop-start rate of progress if any concern for safety is considered by the rider.

A club colleague and I, returning from the Tour of Britain race finish, started riding on the pavement cycleway up the Avenue, and felt so unsafe from side road and drive access risks, we moved back onto the busy roadway.

How would motorists, of which I am one, like to have to stop at every side turning and still try to maintain a decent rate of progress?

Many cycle paths are designed by engineers who have little or no experience of riding at anything above 10mph. If they did, they would not introduce 90 degree corners and other delights !

My club colleague, Grahame Smith, also had a letter published in Monday's Daily Echo about the new cycle path from Lyndhurst to Ashurst. He outlined another problem with a cycle path recently opened, and covered with fine grit/sand.

Sporting cyclists, who can and do ride at 20mph and often much faster, need to be accommodated on lanes marked out at the side of main carriageways (which, incidentally, they have a full, legal right to use), for their own safety.

So many cycle paths are only practical for slower utility riders, those with young children learning to ride, but certainly not for those with considerable experience.

MARTIN J NAPIER, Chandler's Ford.