Oldham pot hole festival

Among all the excitement of the Tour of Britain and the pending world champs I missed this story which broke last Friday. 
One of the 'bosses' at Team Sky - Fran Millar - trousered undisclosed damages from Oldham Council after injuring herself by falling off her bike. Nasty injuries too.
The circumstances will be familiar to many. As described by the BBC, Fran '...swerved to avoid one pothole in Oldham's High Street but then injured herself on another.'
Now, I do have some sympathy for the council's view that there is a 'national pothole funding crisis'  but it seems to me that the further east you travel in Greater Manchester, the more threadbare the cycling infrastructure gets.
My regular commute takes me through, Manchester, Stockport, Tameside and Oldham. 

Potholes can be creative too

Using the Fallowfield Loop, I barely notice Manchester and Stockport despite the loop's inadequacies. 
On my route, both Tameside and Oldham have zero bike infrastructure which is pretty poor. Actually, tell a lie, there is 400m a shared bus lane and one advanced stop box.
As cyclists we get to know the road surface intimately and often have to pick our way along rutted and damaged roads - roads that we all pay for.
We have a long long way to go.