“This is exactly why cyclists should have number plates,” says Mr Loophole – after “arrogant” cyclist fined £1,200 for squeezing between cars (while riding without a licence plate); Cyclist in outside lane of 70mph dual carriageway + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“This is exactly why cyclists should have number plates,” says a confused Mr Loophole – after cyclist fined £1,200 for squeezing between cars (while riding without a licence plate)
Ah Nick, how have you been? Better late than never, I suppose?
It took him a few weeks, but everyone’s favourite jumper-around-the-neck, loophole-seeking, phone-driver defending lawyer Nick Freeman has finally spoken out about that Operation Snap clip, which made headlines across the country at the end of July.
Just in case it’s slipped your mind (lots of stuff has happened since, so I don’t blame you), here’s a quick recap: two weeks ago, West Yorkshire Police released a video on social media featuring a camera cyclist passing a parked car on a hill as a motorist travelled in the opposite direction in Menston, near the spa town of Ilkley.
The footage was submitted by the cyclist to the force’s Operation Snap portal for driving offences. The Leeds-based rider was wishing to alert police to an alleged close pass he was subject to at the start of the video, only for the force to prosecute him for his “poor cycling”, claiming his filtering distance was “significantly less than the car he reported earlier had given him”.
The cyclist was then fined over £1,200 for the manoeuvre, a hefty penalty road.cc was told was the result of him disputing the matter in court, where the subsequent penalty may also have been means-tested.
The earlier close pass committed by the driver, which was not included in the police’s abridged social media post, resulted in the motorist being offered to take a driver retraining course.
In a statement provided to road.cc, West Yorkshire Police also said it was “not appropriate” to release footage of the earlier close pass, the spokesperson stating that it would be “unfair” to the driver and not “strictly relevant” to the offence posted online.
So, now we’ve covered all that, what is Nick ‘Mr Loophole’ Freeman’s take on the clip? Number plates, number plates, number plates.
“I was really impressed that the police could be bothered to investigate a video that a cyclist in Ilkley had sent in, trying to have the driver of a Volvo car prosecuted,” the lawyer, who has specialised in obtaining not guilty verdicts for celebrities charged with driving offences, said in his ‘Nick Says’ video posted on Facebook, complete with ethereal backing music.
Sorry, Nick, I’m going to have to stop you there. As I just explained above, the cyclist who submitted the footage wasn’t complaining about the oncoming Volvo driver, but an earlier close pass not shown in the clip. But we can’t expect you to actually read up on these things before sharing your opinion online, can we? Anyway, carry on…
“The driver of the Volvo had done nothing wrong, and the cyclist had. And it turned around and bit him, and quite rightly so, expensively in the pocket,” Freeman continues.
“The arrogance of the cyclist, when there’s a car coming, and he’s going to overtake a parked car which, by necessity, means he has to be right over by the crown of the road – and he actually has the arrogance to blame the motorist coming the other way.
“What the cyclist should have done is he should have waited, let the Volvo pass, and then it would have been safe for him to proceed. Just think how many more cyclists will be held to account if we had a registration number for them, and that is the direction I’m afraid we need to move for. But congratulations to the police in Yorkshire for doing a good job here.”
In his written post, Freeman said: “This is exactly why I believe cyclists should have number plates. An Ilkley cyclist uploaded helmet camera footage hoping to get a Volvo driver into trouble.”
Again, that’s not what happened, is it Nick?
“That, for me, exposes a flaw in the way we think about accountability on our roads. Too often, the debate is framed as drivers versus cyclists,” he wrote.
“That’s the wrong question. The real question is this: Why should any road user be exempt from proper accountability? If you’re using the public roads, your actions affect everyone else. Rights and responsibilities should go hand in hand. I’ve represented motorists for over 40 years, and this case simply reinforces what I’ve believed all along.
“Equal rights. Equal responsibilities. Equal accountability. Or have I got this completely wrong?”
In the comments, Andrew Fish pointed out the Freeman’s call for cycling number plates comes as a response to a cyclist being handed a hefty fine for careless riding… despite not having a number plate on his bike.
“So the police in Yorkshire did a good job without a cyclist registration scheme,” Andrew said.
“Maybe the money would be better spent on getting the 800,000 uninsured motorists off the road or, doing something to halt the three people a day killed on our roads?”
Now, there’s a thought.
“Our main objective will be to put the group onto a more stable footing”: Quanta Capital founder and former Irish international cyclist Mel Sutcliffe eyes up takeover of Raleigh’s parent company
We’ve got another update on the future of Raleigh and Lapierre’s parent company Accell, after it was confirmed earlier this week that the Dutch company has been declared bankrupt.
Quanta Capital owner Mel Sutcliffe, a former elite Irish racer who sold Raleigh Ireland to Accell 10 years ago, has confirmed that he’s interested in buying the stricken Dutch company, the parent to a wide range of cycling brands including Raleigh, Lapierre, Babboe, Winora, and Ghost.
As a junior, Sutcliffe raced for Ireland at world championships and other international events during the early 1990s.
He founded Eurocycles while still a student, expanding it into a range of stores around Ireland, before buying Raleigh Ireland and founding Eurotrek Raleigh Ireland. He developed the company into Ireland’s largest bicycle distributor, selling it to Raleigh and Accell Group 10 years ago.
He now runs Quanta Capital, a Dublin-based investment and asset management platform, which has entered the running this week to take over Accell following its bankruptcy. Quanta currently sponsors the Junior Tour of Ireland.
Speaking to StickyBottle, Sutcliffe confirmed that Quanta’s interest in the group involves other investors and a currently unknown global financial institution. A bid could be made as early as next week.
“Accell’s portfolio represents a spectacular collection of well-known cycle brands, both globally and in Europe,” he said.
“Our main objective will be to put the group onto a more stable footing as it has endured quite a tumultuous period of trading.
“We have made contact with Accell and its administrators to formalise our interest in purchasing the group.”
According to Raleigh’s website, administrators have been appointed as part of a process separate to its parent company.
“Oliver Wright, Joanne Hewitt-Schembri and Shamil Malde of FTI Consulting LLP (“FTI”) were appointed as Joint Administrators (the “Joint Administrators”) of Accell UK & Ireland Ltd (“the Company”) on 6 August 2026. The affairs, business and property of the Company are being managed by the Joint Administrators. The Joint Administrators act as agents of the Company and without personal liability,” the notice on the historic Nottingham-based bike brand’s site reads.
“The perfect example of just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should”: Cyclist riding in outside lane of 70mph dual carriageway baffles motorists
I wonder what Mr Loophole would make of this?
Lola Amuah was driving down the A38 in Derby – just before the national speed limit changes to a 40mph zone – earlier this week when she spotted this cyclist riding in the outside lane:
“Reckon we should undertake him? 10mph in the outside lane on a 70 dual carriageway. Surely it’s not legal? Nowt funnier than folk,” Lola wrote.
And while it is legal for people on bikes to travel on A roads, we’re not sure how advisable it is to opt for the overtaking lane.
“The perfect example of just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something,” Chris wrote in the comments.
Naturally, a lot of the other comments are of the ‘typical cyclist, they do whatever they like’ variety, though Zoya did note: “Judging by the angle, it looks like the photograph was taken by the driver of the car; that is illegal.”
New Trek alert!
‘Ow much? Tadej Pogačar set to earn record €13 million in 2026, according to reports
42 years ago, Greg LeMond became cycling’s first million-dollar man. How times have changed.
According to a report in La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tadej Pogačar could earn over €13 million this year (up from €12m last year), a result of his mammoth UAE Team Emirates salary, personal sponsorships, prize money, and bonuses, a new record for the sport.
The world champion earns €8 million every season as part of his standard UAE contract, with his fifth Tour de France victory adding a further €1 million in bonuses as part of that deal. Finishing as the number one ranked rider in the world will also see Pogačar net a cool €500,000.
The Slovenian’s personal sponsorship income has also risen by €500,000 to €2.5 million (that KuCoin crypto deal certainly paid off, eh?), while Pogi-based merchandise is expected to generate another €1 million.
La Gazzetta’s €13 million estimate is just the beginning, too – Pogačar could earn a combined €750,000 in bonuses if he wins both the Vuelta and the world championships (and let’s face it, you’re not betting against him at those races, are you?).
Not had for a year spent racing a bike.
Alright Tadej, try this on for size! Scottish ultra-distance cyclist James MacDonald attempts to break world record for riding cycling’s five monument classics back-to-back
It turns out Tadej Pogačar isn’t the only cyclist gunning for all five monuments at the moment.
Scottish ultra-cyclist James MacDonald – who’s held world records for JOGLEJOG, the indoor 100km, as well as Scotland south to north – is now aiming for his own piece of classics history.
On Sunday 30 August, the 55-year-old will attempt to establish a new World UltraCycling Association (WUCA) record by riding the routes of the five monuments (Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and Il Lombardia) back-to-back.
The clock will run continuously from the start of the Paris–Roubaix route until the finish on the Via Roma in Sanremo, totalling over 1,349km and taking in the races’ famous hills, bergs, and cobbled sectors.
Unlike most ultra-cycling attempts, however, MacDonald and his support team will travel by van between the five routes, with every vehicle transfer counting towards his total time, along with all stops for sleep, food, mechanical repairs, or medical treatment.
“Of all the challenges I have taken on, this feels like the one I have been building towards,” MacDonald said in a statement this week.
“The Monuments are the defining one-day races in professional cycling, and nobody has attempted to ride all five back-to-back in this format before. With the clock running continuously, every decision will matter, from how hard I push to when I sleep and how quickly the team can move me between the routes.
“Each Monument is a serious test in its own right. Riding all five back-to-back changes the challenge completely.
“They represent everything that makes cycling compelling. Each one has its own history, terrain, and character, and finishing any of them is a major undertaking. I have spent years finding out what I can do on a bike, but nothing I have attempted compares with this. It is five great races rolled into one continuous effort across three countries.”
MacDonald’s monuments record bid comes ten years after he completed the 3,089-mile Rece Across America as a solo rider, following that up in 2017 by the setting the fastest recorded return time between John O’Groats and Land’s End.
The 55-year-old, a full-time customer engineer at Google, also broke the indoor 100km record in 2021. In September 2025, he added his third Guinness world record for riding 625km from the Mull of Galloway, the southernmost point of Scotland, to John O’Groats.
Daily Mail in pro-cycling social media video shocker
Seriously, what is going on? Was there a memo sent out to all the bike-hating tabloids that we’re not aware of?
View this post on Instagram
(Yes, yes, I know he mentions the classic ‘but what about in the winter?’ trope at the end. But still, it’s the Mail, we can’t expect a complete turnaround in one video.)
“If we want to reduce off-route riding, the solution isn’t enforcement, it’s investment. Build better, more progressive trail systems locally, and riders will use them”
‘Those pesky cyclists, always blocking the road on Box Hill’
View this post on Instagram
How not to do cycling infrastructure, Edinburgh edition
I’m not sure Edinburgh City Council’s active travel revamp of Summerhall Road – suitable for ages eight to 80, according to the local authority – has gone down too well with locals cycling on the route, who now appear to be at the mercy of left-hooking drivers:
Summerhall rebuilt at huge expense – but every hazard in this video still exists, only to spice it up, they moved the left-turn-only car lane to the right of the straight-on cycle lane…
E-tier
— Dave McCraw (@davemccraw.bsky.social) August 13, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Telegraph in pro-cycling headline shocker
Granted, the story itself is more a diatribe against working from home culture (the word ‘bike’ only makes an appearance in the very last sentence, as part of a round-up of possible commuting tactics), but we’ll take it…
Beyond the bubble: Finding stillness (and sweaty climbs) over the hills of Girona
Our Dave’s been living it up (and dreaming of Calippos) in the cycling Disneyland that is Girona. Here’s how he got on:
> Beyond the bubble: Finding stillness (and sweaty climbs) over the hills of Girona
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@chrisonabike ...have impersonated Dutch bike shop owners, people with disabilities, and possibly different genders / sexualities. And have gone from broken English to perfect fluency in a week or so Only a few of us remember those hilariously inept impersonations!
@belugabob Unfortunately going down this route is likely to be a missed opportunity. "Safer streets" can be done in a way that allows access to a virtuous circle with whole suite of benefits. But ... that would mean following something like in NL. So "sustainable safety" - a different philosophy of transport, plus gradual infra and organisational changes over decades. Generally opportunities for concentrations of money beat that. So it looks like we'll get "probably safer on average" but with who knows what side effects, while concentrating insane amounts of power (money) in the hands of a very few. And those will be effectively unaccountable, being almost all overseas, and not having to live in the same streets as their products (they may be flying)...
@Fursty Ferret "...regulator" That should be little comfort, because during previous scandals it became clear that in many cases the regulators were easily hoodwinked, or (especially US) they rely on the companies themselves to mark their own homework. (And in the case of SUVs/light trucks, I heard the US government has been hard a-lobbying the likes of Europe and the UK for "reciprocal recognition" e.g. to accept their product as is without further checks). Needing the makers to help / do the checks is even more likely given the complexity of self-driving vehicles. I suspect self-driving vehicles will likely soon be safer on average than human drivers (a low bar). Of course I think other potential consequences are also a matter of concern (not least - in *theory* humans can be held accountable, but holding humans in large companies accountable for their tech is a *lot* harder)...
@mdavidford Celebrity traitors with Lance? Worse - some of these slippery lycrist quislings deceive people that they're a) pedestrians - by getting off their bike and b) drivers - by getting into their cars! It's all on display in this forum, where IIRC such cyclists have appeared under multiple names, have impersonated Dutch bike shop owners, people with disabilities, and possibly different genders / sexualities. And have gone from broken English to perfect fluency in a week or so...
Politician in "fixing things for my mates / companies I have an interest in" shocker!
@mdavidford Could make that shorter - "we’re letting too many people drive" * I would bet to a first approximation the "damage" could be predicted by number of humans times time driven. Most effective way to fix that - without the UK's "just get rid of the vulnerable road users" - is to remove the motorists, to padded individual lanes, far away from vulnerable road users. Though they'll still crash (and into each other). * Should be "we have incentivised people so that most of them see 'driving' as the solution to most of their transport needs, as well as being part of their status as adults, and we could usefully change that *and* it would also improve health, the economy, the environment..."
@This Wreckage The other point is the observation that efforts to fix the transport systems which reduce motoring convenience almost always meet with very noisy opposition. But when a lot of motor (through) traffic has been removed it turns out that people don't want to go back. They don't all necessarily say how much nicer it is or connect that to the lack of motor traffic. But this experiment has been run in many different localities in different countries and the results seem to hold. Caveats as usual - it's always possible for authorities to bungle things terribly - or even deliberately mess things up with ulterior motives. And people have to have enough time to adapt to the new situation, which is probably nearer a year or two.
@This Wreckage And yet - in the poorest parts of where I stay (Edinburgh) it's not uncommon to see bikes with flat tyres rusting in the closes of flats, or on balconies, and they aren't all kids' bikes... I do agree that storage is an issue. IIRC some places (Edinburgh now) are starting to bring in guidance on having some cycle storage for new flats. Nothing like NL though where for decades it's been a part of the building regulations. I think most people who don't own a bike have simply never considered owning a bike as adults, because they're not "cyclists" (e.g. not practicing a sport) and transport cycling isn't "a thing" for most people in the UK currently.
It's really not smart to alienate so many potential buyers by putting hookless rims on a road bike. I personally don't think it's safe, but everyone can agree it greatly limits tire choices and inflation pressures. Both very important things on a road bike.
@This Wreckage I think we've covered that one. (It's the what the young (18-20s) adults are doing on social media isn't it...) You certainly have to engage with people, but if you ask people about something - like transport cycling in the UK - that they don't do (and more importantly *others* don't do) and have probably never thought about doing ... you have to take the answers with a large pinch of salt. Indeed even for things people *do* you might not get immediately helpful answers. Witness people being interviewed in NL about why they cycled to the shops to do the shopping: very few of them mention the infra or motor traffic reduction (or even the bike...). In that case you'd hear the truth e.g. "it's the easiest way" / "I like to go with my friends" - but *why* that is the case would need further investigation.
18 thoughts on ““This is exactly why cyclists should have number plates,” says Mr Loophole – after “arrogant” cyclist fined £1,200 for squeezing between cars (while riding without a licence plate); Cyclist in outside lane of 70mph dual carriageway + more on the live blog”
Freeman said: “This is exactly why I believe cyclists should have number plates. An Ilkley cyclist uploaded helmet camera footage hoping to get a Volvo driver into trouble.”…
This is exactly why I believe barristers and solicitors should have a modicum of intelligence.
I’m not keen on Mr Loophole content, or the other rage bait stuff that road.cc relentlessly serves up.
It probably is hard to find enough substantial cycling-related stories to fill a daily blog, but still.
@HarrogateSpa the question is: does it encourage Nigel Garage et al. to keep coming back to this site?
@HarrogateSpa : Exactly. Clickbait articles such as this to keep the advertisers happy.
Meanwhile…https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/aug/13/victims-commissioner-road-crime-england-wales
The problem with Mr Loophole & his ilk, is their ability to ignore the facts whilst still knowing which buttons to press.
The cyclist, in the volvo case, probably went poorly prepared to defend his corner (he probably assumed, like most here, that the case would be ‘thrown out’ by the magistrate), and was overwhelmed by a prosecution using numerous & emotive arguments to bamboozle the opposition.
Summerhall – Council facebook post – worth a look for laughs
https://www.facebook.com/edinburghcouncil/videos/right-turn-in-two-stages/1575447567327117/
This is immediately north of Causewayside, which (north of Fountainhall Road) has long been a testing area for road damage, random paint, illegal and/or antisocial parking and general road-mayhem.
I believe Dave McCraw has chronicled the nuisance and danger there for a decade or so – and it shows little hope of improvement. Best avoided and given the parallel roads the best thing would be for the council to make sections access only.
Note there have been improvements to the parallel “quiet route” on the West side from the Meadows and rejoining eg. at Regulas Road.
…because having registration plates led your client to lose their licence, despite pathetic pleas that it would end their career as a best selling writer (ironically, a crime writer)
Yet you still bent over backwards to try to get them off 🙄
When I saw the headline about the cyclist being in the outside lane of a 70 mph dual carriageway, my first thought was “Surely a time trial competitor approaching a turn around roundabout.” How wrong I was.
And further meanwhile…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98vrg40vzeo
Luckily it’s not quite “we traded the latter for the former”…
But having recced it, did he go back and ride it properly?
The problem with roadcc’s coverage of Nick Freeman is that it’s focusing too much on his controversial hot takes, rather than the well-known work he’s done road safety campaigning.
For balance, Nick has been very vocal recently on the dangers posed by electric cars for cyclists and pedestrians, writing (on X):
“Pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users often rely on hearing an approaching vehicle. That’s why I believe EVs should emit synthesised warning sounds at all speeds, not just low speeds.
Road safety must always come first.”
I think we can all unite around that sentiment rather than the more divisive number plates argument which I disagree with.
Nick thinks that “accountability” comes with identifiability. I agree to some extent, but you have to balance the risks posed by a form of transport with the loss of freedom and increase in state power resulting in having mandatory identity numbers. Cycling doesn’t even come close.
I agree – it’s literally free advertising for him as AFAICS this is how he likes to promote himself and get attention.
Seeing how well it works, I wonder if others could make use of that tactic? What do you think?
It’s spelled “shit takes”, Nigel. It’s like a hot take only it’s shit.
They’re never really hot takes, anyway – they’re the same old cold takes warmed over again and again.
Cars have number plates, but it does not stop drivers from killing and injuring thousands of people every year.