The world’s favorite road racer will not be at the 2016 Isle of Man TT, nor at the North West 200, as Guy Martin says he will be missing those events on this year’s calendar. Instead, Guy Martin will take to a different kind of road bike, cycling in the Tour Divide race through North America.
There has been rumor for some time about Martin forgoing the TT for quite some time now, and there has even been talk of the Lincolnshire man hanging up his leathers entirely.
The latter doesn’t seem to be the case, but Martin does seem to be drifting away from the Isle of Man TT – an event he has never won a race at, though he has come close.
“I’m not done with motorbikes and if I race on the roads again this year it will be with the TAS team,” said Guy Martin, talking with the Isle of Man TT website. “The BMW bikes are mega and the team are spot on.”
The Tyco BMW team says that it has no plans to replace Martin, and instead the team will focus its attention on their other rider, 11-time TT Ian Hutchinson.
The reality of course is that Guy Martin has been pulled in many different directions, the latest into rally racing. He has also found new fame on television, and has been lured away to race new events, like the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
The other somber reality too is that with each passing TT, Martin seems farther and farther away from winning the elusive TT victory.
Perhaps the closest Martin has ever been to a TT win was in the 2010 Superbike TT race, where a 30-second penalty for speeding 0.122km/h over the pit lane dropped him to 4th overall. Martin also lost Race 1 of the Supersport 1 TT event that year by three seconds, again to Ian Hutchinson.
Often a bridesmaid and never a bride, many now suspect that Martin has missed his window of opportunity at the TT’s alter. Perhaps that is something the rider now believes as well.
Source: IOMTT
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