New TT checks to boost welfare
From 2025 the ACU (UK’s governing body) and TT organisers are set to introduce assessments for competitors in an effort to understand and improve physical and mental health in an ongoing bid to mitigate avoidable risk.
Currently riders must file a report from their doctor to the ACU as part of their Mountain Course licence, but from next year each competitor will also be subject to a thorough on-event medical assessment by the TT Medical Officers.
This will take place prior to first qualifying, whilst the MRMS (Manx Road Racingracing Medical Services) will also provide competitors with pre-event guidance to aid their physical and mental preparation.
Data will be monitored for a range of factors such as lactate levels, blood glucose, heart rate, and grip strength, with assessments taking place before and after qualifying and race sessions. The aim is to help understand the physicality of racing on the TT course and inform medical standards in the future.
Dr Gareth Davies, Chief Medical Officer, said: “Ultimately this is a project to further the work aimed at removing avoidable risks at the TT. We are taking a proactive and systematic approach to the TT’s medical standards. The physiological, mechanical and biochemical data we collect this year will help inform our strategy to ensure competitors are physically and mentally fit to take on the TT course and we reduce avoidable risks where possible.”
The new project will actually begin this year with a number of volunteer competitors from across the entry list undergoing a range of physiological, mechanical and biochemical assessments.
‘Ensuring riders are physically and mentally fit’