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TT 2016: Michael Rutter’s Diary - episode one

After racing (and crashing) at Donington Park on Sunday, I was on the early morning ferry on Monday to the island and after only getting about two hours sleep, the day just flew by. I was running around signing on, having a medical, sorting out transponders, all sorts. You could do with a day just for sorting things out.

The medical was a bit of a shock as the guy doing it almost squeezed my insides out. He asked me to do five pres-ups and I haven’t done any of them for about 20 years so it was a good job he didn’t ask me to do ten….!

I’d crashed the Superstock bike at Donington so there were a few bits to repair so after getting loads of jobs done, the next thing I knew I was sitting on Glencrutchery Road getting ready to set off down Bray Hill. I hadn’t much time to think about things but I knew I was massively behind the rest of the riders who’d got five or six laps in on Saturday evening on their Supersport bikes.

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That’s the ideal bike to get out on first as people don’t realise just how fast the Superbikes are. I hadn’t even had any time to have a look at the changes to the course so the first time I saw them was at 200mph. My early lap times were good though but, like I say, I’m definitely a night behind and still feel like I’m playing catch-up, still sorting stuff out and still getting dialled in.

I’ve had two good nights of practice though and have done some good speeds although had I been out on Saturday, I think I could be higher up the leaderboard. The weather’s good but with such a frenetic start to the week, I’m still chasing my tail a bit and haven’t started to relax yet. My arms are aching like mad and the TT course takes it out on you like nowhere else.

I’m really happy with all the Bathams/SMT bikes though and have got the two big bikes round at more than 128mph so we’re heading in the right direction.

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