Isle of Man TT hero broke his back: “I came off the side of a mountain”
Shocking injury has only now been revealed
A legend of the Isle of Man TT has revealed that he broke his back.
Ben Birchall suffered the terrible injury last August while riding a bicycle through the Lake District.
Birchall is the lap record holder in the Sidecar TT.
But he told the Isle of Man Today about a devastating injury he sustained: ‘I was on a training ride when I came off the side of a mountain.
“I had to be airlifted to hospital by air ambulance as I’d broken my back in the fall.
“I broke all bar three ribs in my back so I had to have steel rods inserted.’
Ben and his brother Tom set the Sidecar TT lap record around the Mountain Course in 2023, registering 120.645 mph.
Only Dave Molyneux (17) has more Sidecar TT wins than Ben Birchall’s 14.
Since his brother Tom stepped away, Ben has teamed with passenger Kevin Rousseau.
Tom was the most successful Sidecar passenger in TT history with 14 wins.
The Birchall brothers won every Sidecar TT that they finished since 2013, with only three DNFs.
But a new era began in 2024 when Ben, the older brother at 48 years old, set out with Rousseau as his new passenger.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
