‘Cycling goalkeeper’ Ben Foster gets driving ban for speeding

Watford footballer and former England international Ben Foster, who is well known for his love of cycling, has been banned from driving for six months and slapped with a £2,250 fine for speeding.

The ex-Manchester United goalkeeper was recorded driving his Tesla at 99mph on the M40 at Beaconsfield between Wooburn Green Lane and Junction 2 in April last year.

Foster was convicted on 14 December after pleading not guilty. He failed to appear for his sentencing earlier this week at Wycombe Magistrates’ Court, where he was fined a total of £2,250 and given six points on his licence.

According to a court official, those six points mean Foster has now accumulated at least 12 points on his licence, resulting in a six-month driving ban.

He also has been ordered to pay a £190 surcharge and £620 in costs.

> Remco Evenepoel gets driving ban for speeding 

The 38-year-old has been capped eight times for England and has made over 500 senior appearances for Premier League clubs such as current side Watford, West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United, where he picked up two League Cup winner’s medals.

In September 2020 Foster set up his own YouTube channel, ‘The Cycling GK’, which currently has over a million subscribers and combines video diaries of his football career and his experiences on two wheels.

> “If a pro cyclist could come into a football club and show the players how hard they work it would really open their eyes”, says Ben Foster 

He has spoken frequently about his passion for cycling, and revealed to road.cc last year that he convinced a few of his Watford teammates, such as Troy Deeney and Tom Cleverley, to start riding bikes during the initial Covid lockdowns.

Foster also said that he hopes to pursue bike packing and gravel riding when he hangs up his football boots, with the Alps, Dolomites and Pyrenees – along with the Dirty Kanza gravel event – on his post-career to-do list.

Earlier this month, Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl star Remco Evenepoel was banned from driving for 21 days after the Belgian rider was caught driving at 125kph in a 70kph zone, a misdemeanour his lawyer attributed to a ‘youthful error’.