CYCLISTS are still at risk on the A64 where Olympic cyclist Peter Longbottom was killed in 1998 - despite Government promises of a safety scheme last year.

Mr Longbottom, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games competitor from Malton, was killed when his bike was struck by several cars on a dark February evening.

The accident happened as he was cycling along the dual carriageway near a slip road emerging from York's Grimston Bar roundabout.

Roads Minister Lord Whitty said in March last year that a project to make it safer for people cycling along the A64 would be completed "later this year".

The Highways Agency scheme would involve cyclists leaving the main carriageway as they approached the slip road, crossing the slip road at right angles when it was clear, and then using the slip road to rejoin the main carriageway. The agency said last November that the improvements were expected to be carried out in February. The agency said today that the project had been delayed because it had been in consultation with the police and the Cyclists' Touring Club over the proposals.

But a spokeswoman said it hoped the safety scheme could now start at the junction, and also at two other A64 junctions - the Fulford interchange with the A19 and Bond Hill Ash to the east of Copmanthorpe - next month. It was hoped work would be completed by the end of the year.

Mr Longbottom's widow, Lyn, said: "It is sad there has been a delay, but if it's now going ahead that would be great - if some good has come out of all this. It's obvious something needed doing."

But one campaigning cyclist, Karl Briggs, of Helmsley, has said it is wrong in principle for cyclists to have to give way to traffic on slip roads, and underpasses should be provided to allow cyclists to travel safely under slip roads.