IT takes a special character to win the Isle of Man TT race.
Just ask Peter Hickman, who this week won the Superstock race on the Island and set a new lap record on Dunlop road-legal tyres.
In 2015, the Smiths Racing rider broke his back, neck, two ribs and suffered a punctured lung only to want to climb back on his bike the following day.
He said: “My biggest accident was at Oulton Park at the top of Cray Hill. It was at over 150mph in the rain.
“Unfortunately, the bike hit the barrier and bounced out and I hit the bike with my back.
“I broke my back, my neck, two ribs and suffered a punctured right lung. I wanted to ride the bike the next day.
“I discharged myself from hospital at 3am the next morning and I went for a medical at 9am to try and ride the bike the next day, which I wasn’t allowed to do!
“The organisers made me go to a back specialist to make sure I wouldn’t ride a bike before I was physically capable of doing it.
WILLS POWER Prince William grins like an excited schoolboy as he sits on a Breitling motorcycle on a visit to the Isle of Man TT
“I rode a bike three weeks later and actually came to the TT four weeks later – so I rode a bike here at the Isle of Man four weeks after breaking my back.”
There is no dispute the TT is for the brave, but there is a fine margin between victory and injury – or even worse.
MOST READ IN SPORT
This year, there have been two fatalities at the Isle of Man TT, Adam Lyon and Dan Kneen have both lost their lives.
But Hickman, 31, from Burton upon Trent, says the riders all know the risks and that the race will not be stopping anytime soon.
He added: “The risks are part of what makes it exciting, the spectators know it as well, and everyone watching.
“It’s not something we necessarily think about, but we know it’s there, we’re not stupid.
“There is no-one holding a gun to our head to be here. We’re here because we want to be here. It’s a challenge to finish and it’s an even bigger one to win.
“We don’t tend to avoid talking about it but we don’t necessarily bring it up either. If something happens that we think ‘hang on, that could have been avoided’, then we will all talk and put it to the organisers.
“But at the end of the day, we’re road racing, these are streets, this is what it’s about.
“The TT is the longest race in history at 111 years, I don’t think it’ll be stopping any time soon.”
Leave a comment