'Cycle rage' motorists say water squirted in window

A motorist involved in a "cycle rage" incident claims cyclists squirted water through her window and threatened to punch her after refusing to budge off the road.

Mosgiel police are trying to get to the bottom of an incident near Outram on Saturday in which the occupants of a car took a $12,000 road bike off a cyclist and dragged it several hundred metres down the road.

New Zealand cycling representative Logan Edgar, 19, and Otago teammate Shane Melrose, 30, had an row with two female motorists who ended up dragging Edgar's $12,000 bike into their car and along the road.

However, the motorists, a 17-year-old passenger and her mother who was driving, contacted the Otago Daily Times yesterday with a different story.

The teenager, from Outram, said they came across the two cyclists riding on either side of the centre line.

"We tooted the horn ... and called out some verbal abuse that was only out of frustration." She said the cyclists responded by squirting water bottles in the window.

She said anger and frustration took over. She pulled the bike into the car and they drove off with the bike dragging alongside.

"I wanted to teach them a lesson."

Last night, Melrose said he and Edgar were riding as far left as possible. "They've endangered our safety by trying to force us off the road and now they realise what they've done is wrong and are trying to get out of it."

A woman who lives near the scene of the incident said she saw the cyclists riding two abreast on the left-hand side of the road, and heard the car tooting at them.

She said the car passed the cyclists and slammed on its brakes, forcing one of the cyclists into gravel on the wrong side of the road.

The men have made a statement to the police. No charges have been laid.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES