'I had to learn to talk again' - TT winner Hutchinson on stroke recovery
Sixteen-time Isle of Man TT winner Ian Hutchinson is no stranger to adversity, having mounted successful comebacks from several serious career-threatening setbacks.
The Yorkshire motorcycle racer showed remarkable resilience to bounce back from extensive leg injuries sustained in crashes at Silverstone in 2010 and at the TT in 2017.
The former saw him battle to overcome compound fractures to his tibia and fibula, the latter a broken left femur and subsequently having his left ankle removed.
In February last year the 44-year-old lost his speech after suffering a stroke while cycling in Spain and the operation which followed to have the clot removed was the 45th time he had undergone surgery.
Having had his licence revoked for a mandatory period of one year as a result of that issue, Hutchinson is set to return to action at the forthcoming North West 200 and Isle of Man TT international road race meetings.
“The worst thing was that I lost my speech. I had to learn to talk again," Hutchinson explained to BBC Sport NI.
"It was another hard year of me watching racing."
Hutchinson's latest recovery process began 14 months ago when he had a clot removed from a leg while he spent 12 days in a Spanish hospital.
"I was told I would need speech therapy but I never got it. I did everything myself. I was only allowed a visitor for one hour a day and I tried to talk to my girlfriend and my dad as much as I could at the start," said the three-time NW200 race winner.
"I still have a bit of a stutter. I don't know whether it will be with me forever.
"I started doing other stuff straight away. I wanted to see if I could stand, I got the keys of the van and drove it into the car park and into a parking space to see if I could still drive, did that, and thought, ‘If I can still do that I must be alright’."
The 2013 Macau Grand Prix winner says he did not consider retiring from the sport after his latest bout of rehabilitation.
“If I could die from a stroke while on a pushbike then I don’t really need to think about packing racing in.
"The only thing that will stop me I think is when I realise I’m not good enough any more, I can’t get back to the front. That’ll be me calling it a day.”
'Nice to get a good year under my belt'
Hutchinson holds the record for the most race wins at a single TT meeting, having taken five individual race successes over the Mountain Course in 2010.
After his Silverstone crash later that year, he remarkably returned to secure more victories at the Manx event, racking up trebles at the 2015 and 2016 events.
He added two further triumphs in 2017 to move to 16 wins in total to leave him fourth in the all-time solo winners' list but then crashed at the 130mph 27th Milestone section in the 'blue riband' Senior race which ends TT race week.
A further crash in practice for the Manx races in 2019 further hampered his progress, although he did return to compete at the NW200 and TT in 2022.
“I’ve had so much time away from it, I’ve only ridden at the North West and the TT in 2022 since 2019 so it’s going to take a bit of getting back into it," Hutchinson conceded.
"I've been instructing on track days and I've had some time on the bike which has gone pretty well.
"I'm pretty much doing what I was doing before but I've just got to transfer it into racing again.
“It would be nice just to get a good year under my belt and get back to where I really want to be to compete at the front next year."
