5 Minutes With… Ian Hutchinson | 2024 Isle of Man TT Races

We hear all about what Ian has been through from 2017 to now, where he says today is the best position he’s been in for a TT since then. He tells us what he hopes for at this years TT, which may not be what you expect, and whether TT 2025 is even on the cards for him.

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[Music] Aon TT 2024 we’re here in the Little Fish Cafe beautiful little place um how are you okay yeah better than last year well I mean I wasn’t going to get onto that straight away but let’s go in fact before we do that let’s go back even further 2022 by your own admission you said it not me but it wasn’t kind of where we expect Hinson to be MH so rolling into 2023 You’ done from what I’d saw loow more training load more miles on the bike you were getting into a place where you were you were going to be in contention and I think a lot of people thought ‘s back here we’re going to see something special but then it didn’t quite quite transpire that way did it and I’m sure you told this story a million times but yeah to be fair like I never really went down the route of um all the reasons for 20122 at the time but I had the crash at snon in April um it was only a couple of weeks before the Northwest I think and um I said that I I uh broke my collar bone but my shoulder went out the back of my socket so it’s smash the back back of my socket so that had to be screwed back in and um I had to have a play on my collor blown so I was struggling a bit with the bikes that year to be fair and I had that going on so you like to hide your injuries don’t you well you never know if the team boss is going to say let’s not bother going right which was close to be fair I think um Dale from Milwaukee wasn’t that Keen on me riding and Philip said it’s h you were talking about like a color bones laughing to him but I didn’t tell him about the shoulder yeah but you compare 22 to 23 actually 22 didn’t look too bad did it at least you were there yeah so tell us about 23 out cycling everything was going pretty good really I mean I was instructing on the focused events through winter cuz I had no ride after the TT uh in 22 I literally didn’t have a ride it was it was just up to the TT that was riding for task um so I started instructing in September and I did 48 days from September to uh February of instructing out in Spain so I was on a bike a lot you know it was a road bike and obviously I wasn’t riding as fast as you do a a race bike but I did a lot of mileage did a lot of cycling whil I was out there everything was going pretty good to be fair um and I was on my last there was like a double um track there 4 days two days off four days and that was me done for the year straight back home and start getting ready for for racing and it was on the weekend in between so i’ done four days at Andalucia went out cycling on the Saturday on my own and Jason O hin came over I went out cycling with him on the Sunday and that’s when I had the stroke so what what was it do you know what it was that caused it or was it the cycling was it something that was going to happen we weren’t like um doing anything strenuous really we just did um just it was 50 Mi 26 Mi each way on the coast where the coffee at this place I can’t remember what it was called set off back and we were just sort of side by side chatting away came to a roundabout and um that’s where it happened so yeah it just nothing due to like my heart rate being 200 or anything like that and do you know what caused it like is it is it previous injuries everything that your body’s been through that no to be honest I had to go to CU you’re old could be because I’m old yeah I had to go into theater to get the clock removed and and I I couldn’t say I couldn’t speak I couldn’t speak at all with the I lost my speech so um I remember being wheeled into the theater and thinking what the happened to me I’m getting put to put to sleep you you had no idea I had no idea so yeah I just I remember thinking like what on Earth could happen to you that you going to be put to sleep for you know know but then when I came around it still took a few days to get any sort of speech back you can tell now I still uh stutter a little bit but um I said to them straight away that they opt that he you did uh to get the clock out was my 45th general anesthetic so I said is it something to do with that why I’ve had the stroke and they said no nothing to do with that so I stayed out there longer than I than I probably wanted to because um for some funny reason Al Maria is like a specialist Hospital in strokes and they have M Strokes struck sort of victims there than anywhere in Spain they don’t know why that’s probably a good place for it to happen right is the is the chapter close on it now you kind of like you’re done with that yeah I mean’ given like yeah had to go through a lot of things um anyway just for them to everything that I had done in Spain I had done again with the specialist in U Doncaster when I came back so that took six months to have everything done again that I had done in nine days um so I’ve been through everything that you’d have as a stroke twice and it and in some ways it’s quite good that it took 6 months the second time cuz gave things a chance to come back I suppose or so then ATU have decided to give you your license back instead of hanging your boots up yeah I had to have um well straight away obviously I thought I I could still race at the TT last year and then was told that I couldn’t and then I tried to do everything I could to still be able to do it I did a track day in May with Jamie Wham um and everything felt fine I was riding so I was like well I don’t understand why I can but obviously now Time come on it would have been a bit ridiculous to have sent somebody out 3 months after a stroke to race around the CT but I wasn’t happy at the time oh I can believe that 100% but I think in some ways that’s that’s where riders need uh somebody to take it out of their hand sometimes because you’re always going to race no matter what’s happening yeah if they they give you your your license You’ have been on that start line even if the all the doctors went we had Vis against it you would have you would 100% been there mhm so what you um are you setting yourself any goals have you got any expectations of what you want to achieve this year with everything you’ve been through cuz you’re still you’re still a winner aren’t you you still want to win it’s um I’m really bad for like thinking regardless of what happens that I’ll still win like when my leg was hanging off and I made my own cast I thought I’d still win you know but this time it’s been a long long time like I’m not just talking about a miss last year got to go right back to 2017 since I actually rode competitive round here and then I had the crash I had a frame on my leg Yeah a lot of things were actually worse than my 2010 crash not because my leg was going to get taken off but there was more I took my ankle out completely my f was shattered and they couldn’t even repair it at um inry where I got air lifted to off Flo to a lot went on basically it was don’t want to go through it all it’s like sick of talking about my leg I think it was the end of April my frame came off so from the end of the TT till the next April I had a frame on my leg and raised here on a walking stick for Honda so it was a bad TT but I knew I had to be here I had to be riding around the place so then on to 19 um I crashed at the 11th on the first night of practice and 140 mph into the wall up the road amazingly didn’t actually break anything but was pretty bad after it like it would be so I’d um well if you look at the results from 2019 I think I only finished one race I did the super bite race 600 broke down super stock race I’d only done one lap in practice so I said I don’t want to go out on it cuz oh I couldn’t yeah and then the Senor I pulled in after two laps because I couldn’t stop I couldn’t move on the bike so 18 and 19 were written off then we had Co 2021 then I did my shoulder and yeah came back 22 you’ve not had a proper go at it since 2017 then no so this is where I say my a for this year what this is like without even bringing in the stroke into it it would be hard yeah uh to win yeah and then there’s a stroke Factor so what I really want is just to know that I can ride like I’ve totally got to take uh the positions out completely I’m not interested about uh the positions cuz I’m not really going to get excited about where I finish position wise unless it’s first yeah so I just need to know that I can do a lap speed good enough to think I’ll be able to win again next year right I’ll be able to come back to try and win next year you know not to be the pessimist but let I say we get to the end of 2024 and you don’t you don’t hit that Target you don’t you’re not where you want it to be what do you do do you got Finish Well you it’s pointless it’s pointless to carry on unless is a a really good reason for it like if we’ve had a load of breakdowns or yeah yeah but if if the bik’s good track conditions are good and you can you can only go fck that’s that’s down to me you won’t think right I’ll come back 25 I’ll do it then and then I can go for wins in 26 you just go I’ve done until it’s happened it’s hard to totally judge because you you can’t know you need to know all the reasons for it yeah so if it gets to the end and I know that it’s because I can’t ride anymore then I know that I can’t ride anymore I won’t be just coming back to wave at the crowd will you be happy with that will you be even if it even if it ended today and you just on your levs up now would you would you be happy with what you’ve achieved would you feel still business I’d be good to be honest um when the accident happened in uh 2010 I had eight TT wins and I was just praying to keep my leg and then for my leg to be able to let me rest again I kept say to my surgeon like I don’t just want to keep my leg I want to be able to race again you know that’s the only reason I want my leg so then we couldn’t I couldn’t shift with it so I had to go to right hand shift which was the surgeon’s idea and I was like you you’ve got to be joking like how I’m I supposed to be able to win with the right hand if you got any idea what it’s like to race you know anyway we we got round everything and at the time I was probably like I just want to win one more TT and and then I went on to win another eight and then it’s all happened again so I should be going yeah I’m really grateful I came back from everything that happened in 2010 and one another eight doubled my Tally what more could I ask for more WIS but it took four years from that accident to get back to winning now it’s taken yeah nearly eight years now out seven years like how many years I do of TT if I had to make yeah last question before we wrap it up and meet some Queen is like do you do you have any regrets do you have any like resentment resentment is probably a better word for everything that you’ve been through to think of what you could have achieved injury free from 2010 yeah I mean I look at it a bit differently now I’ve got a lot older from it and at the time the the accident wasn’t my fault at Silverstone and it wasn’t my fault on the mountain but I just think if you’re racing bike something’s going to happen to you at some point you’re going to have injuries it’s happened to everybody a lot of world champions have had to pack in because they’ve had injuries a lot of people that would have been world champion have had to pack in same here you know Joey had his his injuries that he had to miss TTS and some’s happening to you and also a lot lot worse than an injury could happen to you and that hasn’t happened to me so I can’t really moan about it but I don’t feel like I got the most out of Ian Hinson who started racing a bike when he was 20 yeah but then again you look at the you look at the sheet and the winds started racing at 20 some went on to win 16 TTS that’s not bad no it’s is nice I’ve done what I’ve done you might not want to take credit for it but I think I think you’ve done all right you’ve you you’ve done all right for a lad started at 20 Queen is not Ken