Roads Rider of the Year: 1st - Peter Hickman

After another epic season of racing, MCN’s sports team of Michael Guy (Sports Editor), Simon Patterson (MotoGP Reporter) and Oli Rushby (Superbike Reporter) sat down to discuss who impressed them the most in each race series we cover to establish MCN’s top five riders in each category.

And with this year’s record-breaking road racing season, it wasn’t an easy call to decide who deserved what spot in our top five riders of the year in the class. Here’s what we think –  but feel free to disagree with us in the comments!

Roads Rider of the Year: 1st – Peter Hickman

Peter Hickman broke boundaries with his remarkable 2018 road racing season, taking victories at all four international events he took part in.

The season started well with his first victory at the North West 200 in the Superstock class, lining the Lincolnshireman up for a strong year at the Isle of Man TT.

Quick throughout practice, he was cruelly denied the chance to show what he could do in the Superbike race, but come the Superstock outing on Monday he’d show his true potential.

Hickman’s Superstock win was remarkable after he found himself 20 seconds down at Glen Helen after running on at Bradden Bridge and having to loop around the tree before rejoining the course.

With a lot of time to recover, he set about getting his head down to recover the lost time and in the process shattered the Superstock lap record, narrowly missing out on Dean Harrison’s outright lap record with a quickest lap of 134.403mph.

Hickman would get his hands on the outright record eventually, with a blistering performance in the Senior TT as he and Dean Harrison went head to head again. 135.452mph was the incredible lap that saw him take his second TT and rip up the history books with the first ever 135mph lap.

Hickman now holds three out of the five sector records around the 37.73-mile mountain course.

And the season didn’t end there, further wins at the Ulster Grand Prix and Macau made for Hickman’s most successful season on the roads yet, and he’s even warned there’s more to come.