Australian cyclist Amanda Spratt is one of thousands of residents who could be forced to evacuate their homes due to the raging bushfires.

The 32-year-old, who is a two-time national road race champion and three-time winner of the Tour Down Under, lives in the Blue Mountains, an area situated in New South Wales where more than 100 fires are currently burning.

And while Spratt continues to train back at home as she looks to secure a fourth home stage race title in January, she is aware there may come a point where she will have to leave her house behind.

She said: "There are no evacuations yet, but we’ve packed suitcases and we are ready to leave at any moment if we have to. The important thing is that everyone stays safe."

The Mitchelton-Scott rider, who came third in the road race at the world championships in Yorkshire three months ago, has also had to accommodate her training around the treacherous conditions, which means a lot of work inside.

"I’ve been building up my training and base but I live up in the Blue Mountains and we have really bad fires here at the moment with a lot of smoke. I have to juggle my training with that at the moment," she added.

"I haven’t been able to train outside everyday because some days the smoke is too bad. They say that exercising in that is the equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes, so I’ve had to drive to start my training in different places or just train indoors."

Since September, nine people have been killed by the bushfires in Australia, while hundreds have had to evacuate their homes.