French pro Yoann Offredo fined after having nose broken in road rage incident

Sounds to me like the French courts have found both parties guilty. Seems like a legit approach to road rage - blame everyone and collect the cash...

I should imagine the courts will have been presented a vision where an affronted cyclist attempts to assault a female driver, and the passenger is forced to defend the driver with a pick axe handle. 

This isn't a complete fabrication, its one persons perception. 

Now... Offredo may have been looking to have a reasoned discussion, but I'd imagine that, like most cyclists who have just feared for their life, no matter how civilised he felt he was being, he'd have come across as pretty aggressive... therefore it is not unreasonable to that the driver / passenger felt threatened, and forced / justified in taking defensive action.

I am reasonably confident that the courts will have decided that by approaching the drivers door, Offredo was the instigator, hence why his fine was not fully suspended. 

Doesn't make it right however... what it does is show just how exposed we as cyclists are when we decide to take the law into our own hands. 

Erm, was there more information that didn't get reported? On the face of it, he stopped someone with a knife from getting out of the car and therefore the judge deemed him partly responsible for being beaten with a pick axe handle...?  Was this a British judge on some sort of labour exchange??