or ld Cha mpio ns hip Road Race Series
��:':
Porto ce le b ra tes his v ictory.
~// ....
coming to it at more than 300 km/h [186
mph] ," said Biaggi.
In the early laps, the lesser riders we re
able to take full advantage of the conditions. Xaus and Byrne were particularly
impressive as they battled with (and in
Xaus' case overtook) the world's biggest
names in motorcycle racing.
Barros led at the e nd of lap one , from
Blaggi , Abe, Gibernau and Rossi. Then
came Xaus , charging past them all at turn
one to lead the whole of the second lap.
He even had a small gap, but his old
World Superbike adversary Bayliss was
also making the most of things, and the
pair almost collided as he pushed past
28
force fully to lead the third lap. Gibernau
was a little way back at this halfway point,
then Rossi, Biaggi and Xaus again.
The more experienced riders were
now getting ,the measure of the conditions, and it was also getting dryer. The
second half of the race was less unpredicta ble.
Rossi took the lead on lap four and had
almost a second advantage next time
around, w ith Gibernau in second and
Xaus back ahead of Bayliss in third . -.
For th e last lap, Gibernau gave it
everything, and though it was the fastest
lap of anybody, an impressive I:52.8, only
two-te nths slower than the previous lap
JUNE 16,2004 ��� CYCLE NEWS
40t h An niver sar y
