Benedict Cumberbatch seen in furious row with cyclist who said he ‘jumped red light’

Benedict Cumberbatch became embroiled in a very heated exchange with a cyclist this week, leading to a 10-minute row on the roadside.

The 49-year-old British actor is famous for his charming demeanour and captivating on-screen performances, from Sherlock to Doctor Strange.

But after being confronted by a fellow cyclist out in London, fans watched on in shock as the film star was branded ‘deluded’ and accused of ‘lying’.

In response, Cumberbatch told the man, whose face was covered, that he was ‘verbally abusing’ him.

It’s said the incident occurred at 5:30pm on Tuesday, with an onlooker describing how he saw Cumberbatch ‘run a red light’ with his cargo bike in the cycle lane, with the other rider behind him.

Video footage shows the Bafta winner ditching his own £5,200 bike and striding across the road to confront the individual, tensions quickly rising just around the corner from St Pancras International.

‘You’re deluded. You’re lying. I was behind you the entire time,’ the man in red trousers and a navy jacket tells Cumberbatch, who fires back: ‘Dude, you verbally abused me.’

The other cyclist then sarcastically quips: ‘Oh no, I verbally abused the guy who completely repeatedly broke the law.’

‘I did it once,’ Cumberbatch retorts, to which his opponent adds: ‘And then you went through a zebra crossing; you went through three lights.’

Denying his claims, Cumberbatch states: ‘No, I did not.’

Eventually, the masked cyclist rode off, but spectators say they went back and forth for 10 minutes.

‘It was crazy,’ one told the Daily Mail afterwards. ‘It was such a pompous road rage; it almost felt like it had been staged.

‘He was calling Benedict “deluded” and “a liar”.’

Praising him, they added: ‘Benedict still managed to charm everyone watching, even though he was having a meltdown. They went at each other about five times.

‘It was really busy, and they blocked the lane so no one else could get through.

‘The masked guy was obviously some kind of vigilante – he was really taken aback when he saw it was Benedict Cumberbatch, but he doubled down on his rage.’

Fellow pedestrians’ ‘jaws dropped’ at what was happening, with a group of school children clearly so enamoured by Cumberbatch’s presence that they were too excited to read the room.

So, they asked him for a photo, noting: ‘Is that Doctor Strange?’

Cumberbatch politely told them, ‘Not at the moment, in a minute,’ and was reportedly ‘lovely’ with the ‘awe-struck’ kids, taking selfies with them once the row had fizzled out.

‘I don’t condone dangerous driving, but for this guy to follow him and cause an incident like this was worse than Benedict slowly cutting that light,’ added the witness in his defence.

This isn’t the first time Cumberbatch has been in a spat with another cyclist.

In 2019, it was reported that, on a country lane near Freshwater, a 63-year-old retired fisherman named Michael Lawrence was knocked off his bike by a Lamborghini.

The motorist turned out to be Cumberbatch, whose Lamborghini Urus 4×4 left Lawrence (known as Scooby to his friends) bleeding after the wing mirror clipped his arm, which he’d raised to protect himself.

A pal of his said Cumberbatch’s vehicle ‘came out of nowhere’, with the driver getting out of his car and telling Lawrence: ‘You were in the middle of the road!’

But things took a turn, with the friend adding: ‘Scooby dusted himself off and, full of adrenaline, reacted as he knows best — by slapping him.

‘Apparently, it was like a slow-motion moment in a film where the man he just slapped took off his baseball cap, and he realised it was Benedict Cumberbatch. Scooby said he nearly had a heart attack.’

Cumberbatch reported the encounter to the police but reportedly chose not to press charges on the slap.

He also gave Lawrence a bottle of water to clean his wound and offered to drive him to the hospital.

Hampshire Police confirmed at the time: ‘No complaints were made, no criminal offences were investigated, and the matter is being dealt with through insurance.’

In contrast, Cumberbatch was the hero just two years earlier, jumping out of an Uber to rush to the aid of a Deliveroo driver who was being attacked by four muggers.

Driver Manuel Dias said it ‘all got a bit surreal’ as ‘Sherlock Holmes [fought] off four attackers just round the corner from Baker Street.’

He recalled how Cumberbatch acted like a ‘superhero’, adding: ‘I had hold of one lad and Benedict another. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He was very brave. He did most of it, to be honest.’

Reps for Benedict Cumberbatch declined to comment further.

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