Isle of Man TT rider who hit a pheasant admits: “I’m lucky, if you saw the bike"
Williams came off his bike on Monday during qualifying for the Supersport class when he collided with the bird - narrowly avoiding disaster.
His bike was destroyed - and so was the pheasant - but Williams walked away from the incident.
"I know I'm lucky,” he told the BBC.
“There wasn't even a scratch on my helmet.
"If you saw the bike you'd be amazed how I am still here.
“The frame has snapped in three places.
"I went into Laurel Bank and there was a pheasant in the middle of the road. I couldn't do anything about it.
"It was walking but when it heard the bike coming it stopped.
"The front wheel made contact with it, took the handlebars off me and I went straight into the wall. The bike was a write-off."
Even without his Triumph 675, Williams returned to the famous course 48 hours later.
"An Irish sponsor has kindly supplied me with a GSX-R600 Suzuki," he revealed!
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
