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4 min readMay 11, 2026 10:49 AM IST
Benedict Cumberbatch in a spat with a cyclist in London. Image credit: The Sun.
Benedict Cumberbatch has gotten himself involved in an embarrassing spat with a cyclist in London. As per a video captured by an onlooker, Cumberbatch got into a rather heated 10-minute row with the cyclist, who claimed the actor ran the red light thrice. The cyclist even labelled Cumberbatch “deluded” and claimed that he was lying, only for Cumberbatch to allege that he was “verbally abused”.
What happened exactly?
The incident took place this past Tuesday at 5:30 pm in London. As per the onlooker who captured the video, Cumberbatch, riding a cargo bike, ran a red light in hot pursuit of a fellow cyclist. He then got down his bike and walked across the road to confront the masked cyclist. They got into a furious exchange when the cyclist was heard shouting, “You’re deluded. You’re lying. I was behind you the entire time.”
Cumberbatch claimed that the cyclist “verbally abused” him while he was minding his own business. The cyclist, who thinks of himself as some sort of a traffic “vigilante” often records and reprimands Londoners on disobeying the traffic rules. “Oh no, I verbally abused the guy who completely repeatedly broke the law,” said the cyclist, as per the video obtained by The Sun.
“I did it once,” clarified Cumberbatch, who ran the red light only to chase down the cyclist who abused him in the middle of the road. But the cyclist maintained that Cumberbatch ran three red lights instead of one and even sped fast the zebra crossing when he wasn’t supposed to. However, Cumberbatch maintained he violated the traffic rules only once, all thanks to him.
“It was crazy. It was such a pompous road rage, it almost felt like it had been staged. He was calling Benedict ‘deluded’ and ‘a liar’,” the onlooker told The Daily Mail, adding, “It was really busy, and they blocked the lane so no one else could get through. Everyone just stood there with jaws dropped.”
Benedict Cumberbatch erupts in blazing row with cyclist who slams him as ‘deluded’ pic.twitter.com/hHiu6ehyzc
— The Sun (@TheSun) May 10, 2026
He even spotted a group of school kids asking for a picture with Doctor Strange in the middle of the altercation. Cumberbatch, who plays the beloved wizard in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, patiently asked the kids to wait. Once the spat got over and the other cyclist left, the actor stuck to his promise and posed for a selfie with a couple of young fans.
Cumberbatch’s previous road rage instances
Cumberbatch was also involved in a 2019 road rage incident with another cyclist. The actor, while driving his car, allegedly caught the arm of a cyclist and knocked him off his bike in Freshwater, Isle of Wight. As a retaliation, the cyclist slapped Cumberbatch across the face. Despite the violent response, the actor offered clothing and bottled water to the cyclist and offered to drop him at the closest medical centre.
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Two years prior to that, Cumberbatch got embroiled in yet another violent altercation, but this time for a good cause. Back in 2017, when he saw four men trying to rob a cyclist in London, he got off his Uber, shouted at the men, and pulled them off the cyclist in order to prevent the mugging. The incident took place miles away from Baker Street, the residence of Sherlock Holmes, the popular detective character Cumberbatch played across four seasons and seven years in BBC’s show adaptation. He was hailed as a real-life Sherlock Holmes back then.
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