Bayliss dominant in Assen
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He may be 38 years old now, in his final year of World Superbikes and sporting a few injuries from falling of his bicycle (whilst flying down a hill with no hands on the handle bars!) but Aussie Troy Bayliss looks to be flying towards the WSBK chanpionship this year. Is it because he his the best rider on the best bike or is it down to the fact that nobody seems capable of mounting a sustained challenge? A bit of both really!
Bayliss was near faultless in both races, his Ducati having the power and speed to back up his riding ability. As with MotoGP it looks like when one Aussie starts dominating on a Ducati his Italian team mate fades into obscurity. Michel Fabrizio, Bayliss’ team mate, was nowhere in either race. So lets have a look at the challengers:
Nori Haga has the ability and the bike to challenge Bayliss, but when you fail to finish races you’re gonna get left behind. He showed in race two that he had the speed to stick with Bayliss, very nearly getting him on the line, but an overtaking manouevre in race one on Ruben Xaus saw them both hit the tarmac and ended Haga’s race. Not consistent enough to challenge the Aussie.
Carlos Checa, was he ever a title contender? Not sure what it is with Checa, he appears to be nowhere at the start of races and then makes a push to get him up with the leaders. All too late to catch the brilliant Bayliss though. If Carlos could start a race well and maintain the pace he could definately be a race winner.
Max Biaggi has unfortunately struggled with an injury since Phillip Island and is seeing his championship challenge fading fast. The Suzuki pair of Neukirchner and Kagayama never really convince as challengers either. Max Neukirchner has impressed me very much so far this year but he seems to fade at the end of races (or get hit by a Checa shaped missile) and Yukio Kagayama always looks to be one more wobble away from crashing the bike.
No doubt there are some extremely talented riders in World Superbikes this year but can anybody really see anyone other than Troy himself stopping Bayliss running away with the championship this year?
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