A pensioner broke his collarbone and suffered severe internal bleeding after becoming the latest victim of a spate of sick attacks on cyclists.

Bonar Law, a 68-year-old retired teacher from Watlington, was pushed off his bike by a passing motorist. Thames Valley Police are linking the assault on Mr Law, which happened on the B4009 just outside Princes Risborough last week, to two similar attacks in south Oxfordshire.

Mr Law, a keen cyclist, was travelling home when someone passing very close in a small white van leaned out of the window and pushed him off.

He said: "I could hear the car but I didn't take much notice of that, and wham, I just hit the ground and I didn't know what had happened."

He believes it was a deliberate attack because the van had already driven close to him once before, then pulled into a drive ahead and waited for him to get ahead before making a second pass.

Mr Law said: "How can it be anything else if somebody leans out of the car window and pushes you off the road?

"It was not a collision with the car, I was well into the side of the road. They were driving just sufficiently close in order to push me off."

Mr Law suffered a broken collarbone which doctors have said they cannot reset.

He added: "It has made me feel very unsafe. I would like to see these people brought to justice and, as a person who has suffered this, I would like the punishment to fit the crime.

"The pain, the trauma, the shock, the inconvenience, the loss of time and the incapacity as a result of it, and the fact that I am probably not going to be quite the same again for the remainder of my life. To them it is like watching Buster Keaton on a silent movie. They do it for laughs."

Mr Law warned other cyclists to be on their guard and keep an eye out for the people who assaulted him. He added: "I was out there enjoying myself, really going for it. You don't think about things like that. I am not going to let it get me down."

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: "It would certainly seem to be very similar to the recent incidents that we have been investigating involving somebody in a white van pushing people off cycles.

"We are still investigating and we are very keen to hear from anybody who saw a white van in the area. We are also appealing to anybody who may have been subject to similar assaults as we are trying to build up as much information as possible."