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news
Yoann Offredo following assault during training ride (via Facebook).jpgFrench pro Yoann Offredo fined after having nose broken in road rage incident
French professional cyclist Yoann Offredo has been fined by a court following a road rage incident near Paris in April which left him with injuries including a broken nose.
The 31-year-old Wanty-Groupe Gobert rider was given a suspended fine of €400 last week by a court in Evry, reports L’Equipe.
Offredo, who earlier in the month had finished 14th at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, was out training with two other riders in the Essonne department when the incident happened in April.
According to a statement from his team at the time, a driver made a close pass on the trio before braking suddenly and an altercation ensued.
> Details emerge of attack that left French pro Yoann Offredo with broken nose
In the statement from the Belgian team, Offredo said: “I am particularly shocked. I have been in cycling for 15 years and I have never experienced such a thing. Verbal aggression often occurs, but most of them stop there.”
As well as a broken nose, he also sustained bruising and an injury to his ribs when a passenger in the vehicle attacked him with a wooden implement reported to be similar to a baseball bat.
However, judges presiding over the case deemed Offredo partly to blame and also fined him an additional €300 in damages and interest.
One of the other cyclists was given a suspended fine of €200 while the two occupants of the vehicle were handed suspended fines of €700.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- ktache 50 min 9 sec ago
The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
- mctrials23 1 hour 45 min ago
As i've said before, the police should be sued for a lot of money when someone they have knowingly ignored has gone on to commit a serious crime....
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'Bad parking' blocks firefighters multiple times on same emergency call-out...
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- Adam Sutton 2 hours 43 min ago
Good stuff. Now do it on cycleway C9 through Hammersmith to Chiswick.
- mark1a 2 hours 52 min ago
It's technically allowed but it's not known as "London's Orbital Car Park" for nothing.
- Dogless 4 hours 26 sec ago
You're defending bombing hospitals and refugee camps and starving children.
- mattw 6 hours 40 min ago
Used car salesman is a complete attention-seeking plank....
- tubasti 6 hours 57 min ago
I don't know if they're any better, but they's certainly become more boring.
- FionaJJ 7 hours 23 min ago
At risk of being cynical, and stereotyping the police, it's so they don't have to leave the comfort of their panda cars and pursue on foot when...
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3 comments
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??