Motorbike racer and TV personality Guy Martin has claimed he will miss next year’s Isle of Man TT race to compete in the Tour Divide mountain biking endurance event.

The Tour Divide is the world’s longest off road mountain bike race with the route stretching 2,745 miles from Banff in Canada to Antelope Wells in New Mexico and taking in over 200,000 feet of climbing (the equivalent of seven Mount Everests). Riders have to be self supported and are racing against a clock that carries on through the night making this an ultra-endurance event.

In his new book, When You Dead, You Dead, Martin said, “I’m hoping to sort it that I can do all the races I normally do except the North West [in Northern Ireland] and TT.

“I want to enter the Tour Divide then maybe go back to the TT the year after [2017].”

This revelation comes in the same year that he broke his back racing the Ulster Grand Prix.

How to ride technical climbs with Kenta Gallagher

The Grand Divide runs through the summer but there is an unofficial Grand Depart in the second week of June, which would clash with the TT race.

The current record for the Tour Divide was set this year by Josh Kato with a time of  14 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes (roughly 190 miles per day) a competitive time for men is estimated at 25 days (110 miles per day).

When You Dead, You Dead is out now.