Punctures - this is a rant!

Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, the following rant is sponsored by Continental Tyres, inner tubes and the Bolton Council.

I got the bike a few months ago, with it came a set of Continental Ultra Sport tyres which have had mixed reviews. I've ridden roughly 1k on them and the rear has more cuts on it than your average Emo. Last night I decided to go out and take a risk, I got up onto Bolton Road - BANG...phhhhssssss. I swore and checked it; the rear had gone completely with a 5mm hole down through the material. I repaired it and managed to get home, when I checked this morning the inner tube was poking through.  Picture below, reet down to the mesh...

I'm pretty sure these tyres would hold up much better if the roads in Bolton weren't so pathetically maintained. When we have a frost they use cheap grit which shred cycle tyres and do serious damage to car paintwork.

The UK Ironman is coming to Bolton this August; I must admit I find it laughable that anyone would consider this pot hole strune hellhole for a road race! The council's attempt at road repair consists of using tarmac to fill in holes rather than actually doing a proper job! Thank you very much Bolton Council for buggering up yet another inner tube and yet another tyre, fantastic work!