Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P51 great bike. It is a championship bike and I do not need to prove that. The riders before have proved that." Davies has had no real luck at Assen in the past but he made up for it this year, bring- ing a strong bike, fresh from a straight-up defeat of Rea in Aragon. He made it work at As- sen too and then blasted away to beat all the rest but Rea, with some degree of eventual ease. So far in 2015 British riders have been monopolizing the podium places, but that ended in combative style at Assen as local rider and full season rookie Michael van der Mark ran with the big British bulldogs and bit them hard enough to score a third place for Pata Honda. "From the first session on, it was fast," said Van der Mark about his bike. "We knew Jonathan's pace was incredibly fast here and we did not really know if we could do the same, but I had a good feeling. From Superpole on I had a feeling we could fight for the podium." Fight? He got that right. He took an almost literal bite out of Leon Haslam right at the end of race two, leaving a tire mark on his old Suzuka 8-Hour winning teammate's leathers but regaining control after their con- tact to take his second podium of the day. His first two podiums were the first by any Dutch rider in World Superbike, sending a big 55,000 plus weekend crowd crazy on another dry day in the Netherlands. Haslam, by contrast, fought consistent issues with front-end tire wear at the end of each 21-lap race. He battled hard for two fourth-place finishes, but he and Aprilia found Assen a tough place. His teammate Jordi Torres took a pair of sixth-place finishes. Still fighting an imperfect set-up for his riding style Rea's teammate Tom Sykes pushed on to a pair of fifths, having led race two for over half race dis- tance, before being swamped by pursuers as the rear tire lost its best performance. Still work- ing to get a real handle on his 2015—revised and less powerful spec—Ninja, Sykes was over six seconds back each time, despite making some set-up progress. The identical top six finishes in the WSB class races in Assen may, again, erroneously point to processional contests but noth- ing could be further from the viciously competitive reality. Voltcom Crescent Suzuki's Alex Lowes and Randy De Pu- niet had tough weekends once again, but nothing could have prepared them for the way race one ended. With Lowes running on at turn one, he was cruising way into the run off area, but his team- mate had just fallen off behind, and his crashing bike hit Lowes. Lowes had to run his second bike in race two and put up a great fight to go ninth, on an- other weekend where their new electronics packages were play- ing up again. Nobody should be more pleased to see their workshops again than the lone Suzuki team in the series. Although still not at his best, Sylvain Guintoli was another improving Pata Honda rider in Assen, finishing eighth and seventh, and on his own behind Torres in race two, and a slightly detuned Xavier Forres on the other Aruba.it Ducati in race one. The Hero EBR team, which was thrown into turmoil just be- fore race weekend when EBR as a company filed for bank- ruptcy protection, saw Niccolo Canepa score a point in race one, but then another DNF in race two. The popular American team is hoping to be back at Imola, for Canepa's home race. Leon Camier was much hap- pier with his MV Agusta Reparto Corse F4 racebike this week- end, mainly because his team brought forth electronics sup- port that delivered real improve- ments. He was tenth two times. In the championship Rea is a crow's nest higher than the rest already, with 190 points from a possible 200. Haslam is still second, but with 140 now, Davies has 124 and the troubled by trying Sykes fourth on 88. Torres sits on 83. Gordon Ritchie

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