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"MAD SUNDAY" ?
Today, we have a chance to ride the TT course with a mass of other fans, but we MUST take care not to add ourselves to the statistics either by being clocked by the radar trap at a silly speed or meeting face on, a German rider who has forgotten on which side we lot drive !
GOTT IM HIMMEL- LINKS FAHREN IM INSEL MAN !!

So let us start at the Grandstand--For here we can see bikes with their riders forming up in groups to go round the course as a "Super Rideout"........We latch onto the stream of bikes heading out for the top of Bray Hill, jostling for a good position on the road junction, coming up to the traffic lights---The lights change and this group sets off down over the edge of the world...Even at this speed in this mass of riders the Hill is awesome and as the snake hits the bottom of the hill it continues along over Agos Leap and on to Quarter Bridge where it is joined from the left by yet another band of riders coming up from the outskirts of Douglas...The wonderful feeling of being part of the occasion, now hits home and the adrenaline flows in rivers..We enjoy the tour of the course, seeing the angles of the bends and the lengths of the straights..Some of our group peel off at Parliament Square, Ramsey, to sit and watch others head off up May Hill and up towards the Mountain..The rest of us approach Ramsey Hairpin and try to gun it through here without losing face..No matter how many times people try this bend they can not get the approach right and they drag their machines round dabbing their toes to gauge the angle..Up now and over the Mountain to the Bungalow where some stop again to watch the attempts to take the bend here over the railway lines ...Oh Lor--a rider gets in a tangle, and he and his bike make an expensive noise on the road...He is unhurt but he joins the "beggers" on Douglas prom who have a damaged bike on show and try to raise their insurance excess using the "sympathy factor"...Pay up, it could have been YOU !!
We now go on up past Hailwoods Height to Brandywell, the highest point, and then round Windy Corner to start the plunge back down to almost sea level---Our ears pop as the altitude changes and we pass my favourite spot, Clarks Corner just before Keppel Gate..Now "over the cliff" again to drop down to Creg ny Baa and the superb restaurant outside which, we meet either the Kawasaki Reps or the Honda reps or the Red Bull reps and so on----Generally these reps are some of the riders, or ex-riders from the races so it is good to be able to sit and chat to them over a drop of Okells or a Red Bull or two..Then it's down the Cutting, through Brandish and Hillberry,to Cronk-ny Mona, the Nook and on to the Start and Finish point to see yet another bunch setting out--This goes on all day but it is a great and wonderful experience--SO DO IT !!! Safety in numbers is the best idea but every care must be exercised because while you might be the best rider on the Island, taught by John McGuinness (In Your Dreams), there are the others who may not be as good as you.
Let us have a nice fast lap but let us also have a SAFE lap, EH ?








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