BRITAIN’S Olympic cyclists have accused aggressive and abusive motorists of undermining the sport. Some top athletes are so fed up with cyclists being treated as “third-class” citizens that they prefer to train abroad in more “bike-friendly” nations.

They claim that drivers in countries such as Belgium and France have more respect for two-wheeled road users, partly because motorists are automatically liable for crashes under continental law.

Several professional riders complain of being knocked off their bikes by clumsy and impatient British drivers and will not go out on the roads at certain times because of “nightmare” traffic conditions. One Olympic medallist claimed motorists in this country made him feel like a “weirdo” for riding a bicycle.

The athletes’ concerns are shared by tens of thousands of leisure cyclists. However, last night motoring groups claimed some riders, nicknamed “Lycra louts”, only had themselves to blame and fuelled resentment by frequently jumping red lights and flouting other traffic laws.

The row comes as plans are finalised for London to host the start of next year’s Tour de France road race.

Rob Hayles, a double world cycling champion and triple Olympic medal winner in endurance events, described the situation on Britain’s roads as “every man for himself”.

Hayles, 33, was knocked off his bike on New Year’s Eve 2004 by a woman doing a U-turn on a road in the Peak District. “I pulled to a skid, wrecked my back tyre and got dumped on the floor,” he said.

The cyclist, who was flying to Australia this weekend to compete in next month’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, claimed that a minority of drivers targeted cyclists.

“Only the other day,” he said, “I had four lads hanging out of a Subaru. They were looking at me and shouting, ‘I bet you can’t get a bird riding your bike . . . Can’t you afford a car?’ “You’re seen as third-class people. Because you’re on a bike, you’re a bit of a weirdo . . . You try to educate them, but I think you’re facing a losing battle. They come back with, ‘Well, you don’t pay your road tax.’ But of course I do because I’ve got a car of my own.”

Hayles, who covers up to 16,000 miles a year, claimed his training regime was compromised by traffic conditions in Britain. “If I haven’t gone out by midday on a Friday, I tend not to go out at all because it’s a nightmare.”

Although Britain’s best cyclists have ridden abroad for years — the climate is warmer and the racing more competitive — they admit that better road conditions and a pro-cycling culture add to the appeal.

Emma Davies Jones, 27, an endurance cyclist who competed at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and has raced in the women’s Tour de France, recently joined a professional team in Belgium. “In Belgium or Holland, cycling is part of the culture. Drivers see cyclists in the road and they give them some respect,” she said.

Last October Davies Jones had her back broken when she was struck by a driver in a hit-and-run incident as she was riding on a cycle path to the velodrome in Manchester.

“You see some of the nutters on the road when you’re on your bike (in the UK) and they’ll shout, swear and swerve the car at you,” she said. “They think they can hit you and you’ll just bounce off, get up and walk off.”

In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, 134 cyclists were killed on Britain’s roads, a rise of 18% on the previous year. Last month four members of a cycling club in north Wales, including a 14- year-old boy, died when a car skidded on black ice and ran into their path.

Paul Manning, 31, an Olympic medallist who will also be competing in Melbourne, is another crash victim. “Every day you go out, you have a near miss,” he said. Manning spends most of his time cycling abroad. “There’s just no way you can do the training (in the UK) . . . It’s just the traffic system and the mentality (of drivers) that makes it harder.”

Hayles, however, admitted that not all cyclists are well behaved, and according to research by the RAC Foundation, riders are more likely to jump red lights than any other road users. More than 150 were caught by police in the first four days of a two-week clampdown in London last September.

“Some of the Lycra louts can be more abusive than white man van,” said Edmund King, the foundation’s executive director. “Ultimately, the road is there to be shared and there needs to be a mutual respect between motorists and cyclists.”