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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128105
ercini, who made the most of the a ll th e crashes and retirements in race one to finish sev en th , ahead of a whole pha lan x of his fellow Ita lia n privateers incl u di ng Giova n n i Bu s s e i, Mauro Sanchini a nd Marco Bo rc ia ni. A nother hig h -profile crasher in race one wa s Ben Bo s t ro m , who fa iled to make race two due to shoulder and knee inju rie s . Opinion was sp lit, because race two , delayed by 10 m inutes because of oil spilt (pro bably b y one of the class ic Mota Gu zzis on d is p lay du ring th e lunch break) me a nt t hat Bostrom cou ld sta rt if he felt up to it, having been cleared by th e doctors a ccordi ng to some , and decla red unfit by others. He himself opted out. Ba yliss ' double su c c ess s ees him t a k e t he c h a mp ionship le ad on c e more , 28 points clear of the luckless Corser and 30 cl e ar o f a .h a rry in g Edwards . As for the fifth round o f the cham pionshi p? We ll th e pendulum sw ung towa rd the hero -worship ped a nd lite ra lly mobbed Ba ylis s , just as sure ly a s the pit suc ke d in Corse r, still with ou t a World Superbike-race win at Monza after countless years of trying. R A C E O NE It a ll went off b ig time at the c hica ne , t h e in famo us fi rst ch icane , which had a reputation eve n befor e the first race had be en run . Ulm and Martin tangled, bring ing off Toseland and caus ing Gram igni , a n d man y others, to a stop o r nea r stop . And thus the rabbits at the front ha d escaped the chasing greyhound s. Th e fa stest of them - Ba y lis s , Edwards and Hodgson - s lipp ed through the o bs tacle lik e t hey we re teflon coated, and hamme red t h ei r way into an early lead from the rest · in re la tive term s , at least. Hodgson , aggressive in the e a rly la ps like he has been tell ing him self he should be , storm ed into a le ad a fte r h is fi rs t abortive attempt at th e Ascari ch ica ne. Bayliss was obviously d esperate to keep clean a ir in front of him , as he shot forward like a red ro c ke t , but on the bra ke s Hodgson did both o f th e factory men by the ex it of th e second c h ic a n e on lap two and ke p t it at least for a while , and he ev en man aged to gap the re s t for an even shorter time. The le a d ing thre e , now being hunted down by Spanish a rc he r Xaus and Ya na ga wa, we re b ack to gether after the se c ond la p, a lt hough Ba y lis s ' ra c e a lmost e nded at the Parabo lica, as he s lipped the rear and be fore sa ving well . Lap th re e brou ght the exit of Bostrom , who crashed ha rd enough at the second chicane to m iss race two . Co rs er was next , cla tteri ng in to Chili as he we nt, in a ra c e th a t wa s fixin g to be an eventful one . Fo r s om e u nk no wn a nd unexplained reaso n , Ba yl iss sta rted t o drop back into the cl utches of Xa us and Ya n a gawa , wh ile Ed wa rd s wa s tryin g and eve ntu ally succ e ed in g in (Righ t) Be n Bostrom had a miserable day in M onza. The Califo rn ia n crashed in the first ra ce and wasn't ab le to start in the second, th ou gh he should be okay by th e ne xt rou nd in Eng la nd on May 27. (Be low ) Troy Corser also had a M onza he w ould like to forget. The Australian didn't finish e ither race. passing Hodgson under braking , a s were most of the passes . Just as Xaus was passing Ba yliss , Hodgson was slipping backward, having shot his and h is engine mounting lug 's bo lt in another luck less day among the fa ctory men , a lt h o u g h th ere wa s a long way to go before the h e a rt br e ak o f a not h e r mechanica l brea kdown. His teammate Toseland was in a nothe r termi nal fix , re t iring on la p four. By lap s ix , the see sa wi ng ha d sw u n g b a c k to E d ward s , le adin g Ba yliss by .7 of a second with Xaus and Hodgson slipping bac k. A ga p of som e 5 .5 seconds h a d deve lo p e d ba c k to Laconi, in fift h, be ing ch ased by Yan agawa a nd Lavil la , with both me n digg ing int o th e ba ck of his slithe ring Aprilia at every opportunity . With half a season of pa ss ing a nd re p ass ing out of the way already and a massiv e 10 la ps still to go , Edw ards hit the front and made a sm a ll b reak , although his actions to sto p Bayliss' ve ry ra pid Duc a t i were for the most part re arguard ones. cue. e n e _ sa • MAV23,2001 17