Todd picks his 2026 Isle of Man TT favourites
The 2024 Senior TT winner Davey Todd has had to watch this year's Isle of Man TT build-up from the sidelines as he continues to recover from the injuries he sustained at the Daytona 200 in March.
Todd crashed twice in qualifying for the iconic Daytona race in early March, with missed crash damage from the first incident causing him to fall a second time and break his femur and tibia in the process.
It saw him ruled out of both the North West 200 and the 2026 Isle of Man TT.
But that's at least given him a chance to assess his usual rivals' form from a different perspective - and to make some predictions for us.
"I was thinking of it in the terms of who's going to be strong as opposition, and now I can sort of look from the outside a little bit more and just openly see who's going to be strong and who's not," he said.
Here's Todd's pick of the riders to watch, as told to Simon Patterson.
Peter Hickman
One of the event’s biggest contenders over the past few years, Hickman is sure to be fighting up the front throughout this year’s event after missing out in 2025 due to a qualifying crash.
The 14-time TT winner crashed at Kerrowmoar during the Friday evening session of practice week last year, suffering chest, back, shoulder and facial injuries.
His practice week this year has gotten off to a good start, with a lap of 132.039mph placing him second on the Superbike leaderboard behind Dean Harrison, while he was seventh-fastest in the Supersport/Sportbike session.
As the other half of 8TEN Racing, Todd will be cheering on Hicky as he heads down Glencrutchery Road.
"My team-mate Pete, of course, is fast. He's a lap record holder still. He had a bit of a tough year of it, a bit of a tough last 12 months since his accident.
"I don't think he's quite 100% yet. Still a few of the injuries are bothering him a little bit, but we've made some changes to his superbike, to the electronics package, that should make the bike a lot easier to ride, which is a big thing for him right now and should be a lot better, I think.
"So for sure he'll be strong, and you can never write him off."
Michael Dunlop
The man who has won more times on the Mountain Course than anyone else, Michael Dunlop has been at the sharp end at the TT since he made his debut in 2007.
With 33 wins to his name across all four solo classes, Dunlop will be one to watch in every class - but none more so than Supersport, where he has taken 15 of those victories.
He is unbeaten in Supersport races at the TT since 2019, having won eight in a row across the following four years.
Despite some early uncertainty about which superbike he would ride after a lack of preparation with the Ducati he had planned to race, Dunlop has now settled on the Honda Fireblade - the bike on which he previously set his fastest lap.
As Todd says: “You can never write Michael off. He’s always fast, no matter what's happening, when his back's against a wall.
"He was riding a Ducati, now he's riding a Honda superbike, he's riding a BMW Superstock bike, he's riding a Ducati Supersport bike, and a Paton.
"Not making it easy for himself with four manufacturers, but he's always got some fantastic bikes underneath him.
"He hasn't had a bunch of time on that Honda, but Michael's personal best lap that he's ever done is on a Honda from a couple of years back. He’s got his settings from that bike, the Honda hasn't really changed since a couple of years ago, so he'll be able to put them settings back in, and I'm sure he'll be straight back into the 135s."
Dean Harrison
Kicking off the road racing season in style, Harrison took three podiums from three starts at this year’s North West 200 - and could have gone on to do even better were it not for a shortened end to the final day of racing.
After winning both Superstock TT races in 2025, the NW200 showed that Harrison's renaissance last year was no flash in the pan - and that after a six-year absence from the top step of the podium in the Superbike class, the Honda rider might well be going into this year's Isle of Man TT as the favourite.
TT practice week has also painted a positive picture for the Yorkshireman, setting an impressive 133.925mph lap - the fastest ever opening-day effort of the 37.73-mile Mountain Course circuit - during the first night of timed practice.
Harrison's pair of 133mph laps left him considerably ahead of the best average time of Dunlop, a 130.341mph, in second.
"Honestly the man for me is Dean,” says Todd.
“He's been incredibly strong, he's riding really well in the British championship, and he's in a good place with the bike.
"I don't want to say he's copied me, but the last few years since I've been at the TT, I've never run a full-blown superbike. I like to ride two stockers, and usually just a bit of a faster engine in the superbike, but the rest of the chassis is stock.
"You often see people struggling with the superbike, like last year Dean was. I have two very similar bikes, but I was more worried about Dean in the superstock class than in the superbike.
"He had a full-blown superbike, but he wasn't as quick, and he's twigged onto that and realised the stock chassis actually suits him better as well, and I see that he's moved in that direction too, running two very similar superstock chassis. A superbike with a faster engine, and a few other bits, I think he's running brakes and stuff as well, but I think he'd be now really strong in the two big bike classes.
"Of course he's super-fast on a supersport bike, but is he ever going to beat Michael on that factory V2? I don't think so, there's no one beating him on that - Michael rides the supersport bike really well anyway, and on that Ducati missile there's just no competition.
"Honestly I think Dean in that class is riding the hardest, riding the best, but the Honda is not really the bike to be on in supersport, so it'd be interesting."
John McGuinness
Wouldn’t it just be the ultimate fairytale to see John McGuinness back on the podium in the year he celebrates 30 years since his first TT?
Ever a fan favourite, the 23-time winner - third in the all-time leaderboard behind Michael Dunlop and his uncle Joey - has been setting personal bests all over the place this year, lapping faster than ever before at the NW200.
And amid endless questions about when he will finally hang up his helmet, McGuinness was quick enough in opening practice to be sixth-fastest on his superbike amid a very competitive field.
He went even faster on Wednesday, breaking the 130mph barrier on his opening lap and setting an 130.863mph on his second attempt, even after cruising from Governor’s Bridge.
"A lot of people will just write this off straight away, but John McGuinness - people keep asking him when he's retiring, and funnily enough it's actually firing him up,” says Todd.
"It's annoying him that people are asking him when he's going to retire and why hasn't he stopped yet, but the facts are that he's faster than he's ever been before, so it shows how much the game's moved on.
"But when you're the fastest you've ever been at every track you go into - when he's doing a BSB test, when he's been to Donington Park he's done his personal best lap times, when he's gone to Oulton Park, personal best lap times, North West 200, personal best lap times. How can you ask a guy to retire when he's going the fastest he's ever been?
"How much would everybody love to see John McGuinness back on the podium here at the TT? The world would explode, wouldn't it. It'd be awesome, so that I would love to see.
"You never know. It's the TT isn't it, it's the nature of it."
