Peter Hickman rues “a blip” - but not “a couple of pints” - at Isle of Man TT

Peter Hickman has branded last year's Isle of Man TT “a little blip” but doesn’t reflect on it too negatively given the results he was still able to achieve.

The English rider emerged in 2018 as one of the main reference riders at the TT when he tallied up his first wins and set an all-time lap record.

When the TT returned in 2022 following a two-year pause due to COVID, Hickman won four races in a week and followed that up with another quartet of victories in 2023 - where he also set a new outright lap record of 136.358mph, which still stands.

Last year’s TT proved more difficult, with Hickman only scoring one win in a dramatic Superbike TT that saw Michael Dunlop and Davey Todd hit by problems.

His win drew him equal with Mike Hailwood’s record of 14, while Hickman registered a handful of other podiums during TT race week last year.

Peter Hickman 'was beat up' at '24 Isle of Man TT

“It was not the sort TT that I was looking forward to,” he said during the TT Live podcast recording.

“But, and I’ve said this in recent interviews too, that I had four unbelievable years that were probably more than anyone would ever expect - including myself.

“Particularly in 2022 and 2023 when I won four in a week in both of those years back-to-back, which is pretty phenomenal in itself.

“I was probably due a bit of a mediocre year by my standards and something not to go right.

“I’ve had a lot of luck in the last few years, things have gone my way, not always but a lot of the time they have.

“When I’ve had some bad luck I’ve managed to get some good luck somewhere else and it’s equalled itself out.

“So, I think 2024 was obviously the little blip for me.

“And if a blip is a win, three second places and a walk off into Ginger Hall pub for a couple of pints after sliding down the road, I think I’ll take that.”

Hickman’s week ended with a crash in the Senior TT while battling hard with Davey Todd for victory, though he admits he didn’t even suffer “one bruise” in the fall.

“I was having a good dig at it and between the end of the first lap and the end of sector two, I’d managed to pull quite a few seconds on Davey,” he explained.

“We pulled it to eight seconds, so six seconds in two sectors is quite a good margin particularly how we’ve all been racing ourselves recently - half a second is a big margin in some places.

“So, to get six in a couple of sectors was quite a big chunk.

“And I’d taken quite a lot of risk to do that, I’d really pulled the stops out in a few places and was really taking a bit of risk to try and break Davey.

“I got to a point, go my pitboard and it said plus eight.

“And I thought ‘right, I took a load of risk to get here and make that little break, let’s just chill out’.

“And this is what a lot of people struggle to get their head around: the reason I fell off is because I backed off so much.

“I didn’t load the front tyre hard enough, particularly on the Dunlop tyres I’m a really big fan of.

“The front tyre wants pushing all the time. If you don’t push it, it doesn’t work.

“Basically I didn’t grab enough brake and push hard enough into the left.

“And it’s a really horrible corner, Ginger Hall. It’s off-camber, it’s really bumpy.

“If you see it from the outside, I’ve actually tucked the front way earlier than I touched the floor and that’s just because I’ve not loaded it, I’ve lost the grip and I’ve already gone before I get to the corner. I hung onto for as long as I could.

“I was a bit beaten up going into TT 2024.

“I’d crashed three times at Oulton Park - one or two of which was definitely not my fault. I came away from that crash there with not even one bruise.”