Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/295587
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Sykes after making a wrong tire choice in race two. "The two guys behind me for sure had more grip than me, but we were able to put the Ninja ZX-10R on the pieces of tarmac those guys were looking for. I had a plan on the last lap to keep them behind me - and it worked. If someone had made the pass and made it stick they would have deserved the win." For Baz, his improvements are real and he feels, they should be long lasting. "At this track we have usually struggled but here we are, close to the victory, on the podium twice and that is a good sign for the rest of the season. I am still second in the championship and now we go to Assen, with a lot of fast corners, which I like." Baz had a lonely race one, leading Pat Honda's Jonathan Rea by over four seconds, but for Rea the culmination of days and days of testing in Spain be- fore heading to Motorland all paid off and he took his first po- dium of 2014. "In terms of the previous trends, I have never been a great starter in any season, so I am happy to have a podium but also the feeling with the bike is quite good now and we are improving, so the expectation level is going up," said Rea. "So to not have a podium in race two is a little disappointing. We are going to three circuits now that really suit me so I feel really good." It nearly all went wrong for Rea, who had been shadowing Ducati World Superbike's Da- vide Giugliano in the opener. Passing the Ducati rider Rea took the inside line at the infa- mous hairpin, but missed the apex, giving Giugliano room for a bit of drama. He attempted to cut back inside but when he opened his throttle to try and get by the white Honda he hit it amidships, VOL. 51 ISSUE 15 APRIL 15, 2014 P81 Briefly... Pirelli did what they had threatened to do at previous rounds and brought a special rear tire, with better perfor- mance and theoretically better dura- tion, for the Evo riders only. The new tire, with 30 horsepower or so less than a full Superbike to fight with, should last longer than the other op- tions and give more corner grip than the full Superbike choices. The spe- cial Evo tire will change from track to track, and is not going to be the ex- act same spec each weekend. New swingarms appeared like spring flowers in a recent test at Jer- ez and both Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes from the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki team used their underslung one at Aragon. Sylvain Guintoli was back out on his latest version, with a hole in the right-hand arm, and got himself onto the front row with it. Tom Sykes showed his usual bril- liance in Superpole by scoring his 20th pole position, a result that puts the Yorkshireman just one behind über-Lancastrian Carl Fogarty in the all-time Superpole standings. Reminded of this fact, Sykes tried to downplay it in his usual style. "Oh blimey! To be honest there are some riders who like to look at their statis- tics, but I am not one of them. Obvi- ously Carl [Fogarty] is a great talent and it would be nice to overtake him on that score, but the bugger has still got a few more world titles than me! He is from the wrong side of the hill, in Lancashire, but I won't hold that against him. He had a great career continued on next page Tom Sykes (1) leads his teammate Loris Baz (76), Jonathan Rea (65) and the rest of the World Superbike pack on the opening lap at Motorland Aragon in Spain. THE GREEN PARTY Tom Sykes and his teammate Loris Baz make it a Kawasaki day in Spain