World and Commonwealth medallist guilty of road rage

Tony Gibb has been sentenced for a road rage offence after blocking another car and throwing the driver's keys across the road. The 39-year-old, who won Commonwealth bronze in Manchester in 2002 and silver at the World Track Championships the same year, was found guilty of dangerous driving. He was given a three-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay costs of £3,500.

The BBC reports that the incident took place near Tring on June 21 last year. Gibb, who was on his way to a cycling event in his Volvo XC90, pulled out of Cow Lane onto the A4251 in front of Kyle Gilroy's Astra SRI. This forced Gilroy to do an emergency stop and Judge Andrew Bright QC said that at this point the matter could have been dealt with ‘sensibly’.

Instead, after swearing and gesticulating from both men, Gibb got out of his car, snatched Gilroy’s keys and threw them across the road.

Bright said that blocking Gilroy’s car with his own constituted dangerous driving and gave him a three month jail term suspended for two years. Gibb was also ordered to perform 100 hours of unpaid work and was disqualified from driving for a year after which he must take an extended test.

Earlier this year, Gibb announced plans to open Full Gas Bikes, a series of concept bike stores with the first, in Fox Valley, Sheffield, set to house a test track, coffee shop and technical centre. It is due to open on June 16 with plans for five more outlets in locations across the UK.

Bdaily reports Gibb as saying:

“The Tour de France coming to Sheffield in 2014 really focussed the whole area on cycling and it was a great experience to see the passion for the sport first hand during the Grand Depart.

“Welcome to Yorkshire have done a fantastic job of building on that love of the sport in the region with the Tour of Yorkshire. This definitely feels like the right place to open our first Full Gas store.

“We are surrounding by some of the best cycling routes in the region and of course a lot of challenging hills.”