LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) -

Britain's Halfords Group cut its annual profit forecast on Wednesday, warning that it had seen a further weakening in demand for bicycles in January as unseasonal weather also hit sales of winter products for cars, and tyres.

Halfords, which is the UK's biggest provider of motoring services and products, said it now expected underlying pretax profit for the year to the end of March to come in at between 35 million pounds ($44 million) and 40 million pounds, a downgrade of at least 17%.

Falling sales at Halfords come despite official data published earlier in February showing that British retail sales increased by the most in nearly three years in January as consumers recovered some of their appetite for spending, after a weak December.

But wet, mild weather hit Halfords' sales, it said.

The company said that sales by volume of motoring products fell 5.1% in January compared to the same month last year, while cycle sale volumes were 8% lower and tyre sales were down by 4.3%.

It blamed lower footfall and said demand for winter products was affected, adding that on bike sales, there was more competition and consumers were buying more on credit which meant reduced margins.

Halfords had said in January that it was expecting pretax profit of between 48 million pounds and 53 million pounds.

($1 = 0.7905 pounds) (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Holton)