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/694857
VOL. 53 ISSUE 24 JUNE 21, 2016 P45 For Sykes this was not one but two opportunities blown, especially as Rea found setup improvements in race two that allowed him to sit behind Sykes and then just pull the passing trigger when he wanted to ease away. With two second places, of course, which on any other day would be good results, Sykes was in some way satisfied, but race one was really the one that got away. There could have been a red menace to both of the top Kawasakis again, but the cham- pionship effort of Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) fal- tered in race one when he was pushed off track and had to work his knee sliders off to get back to a remarkable fourth place. His scramble back to fourth was simply jaw-dropping, but it was no good to him in reality after sliding well away from Rea's lead recently in the champion- ship, and even behind Sykes now, but worse was to come for the tall Welshman. In race two, he found his lack of front feedback to be exhaust- ed at just the wrong time and he fell, restarting, but having to pull in with busted brakes and fouled bodywork. Michael van der Mark, re- cently in the shadow of his more experienced teammate Nicky Hayden, had to rely on Hayden, Davies and others being out of contention to allow him a free run to third in race one, but he rode with full pace and concen- tration to make sure he got it, as Davies hurtled into fourth a few seconds behind him. In race two the other podium prince was Davide Giugliano, who rode with passion and control this time, to not fall in a pre-emptive display of how Davies would fall on the still-not- quite-perfect Ducati setup. He finished 14th in race one. The run of Davies through to fourth in race one was astound- ing, the push of privateer Ducati runner Xavi Fores (Barni Racing) to fourth in race two equaled his best result. Jordi Torres was the best BMW rider around again, taking his Althea S 1000 RR to fifth in race one, one place ahead of his teammate Markus Reit- erberger. In race two, Torres was seventh, one behind the luckless Nicky Hayden who had fallen in race one by losing a front both he and his teammate van der Mark had struggled with. Fastest on Friday he was a faller on Saturday, a fighting but disap- pointed sixth on Sunday. "In the last corner I just lost the front," said Hayden "Me pushing a bit too hard. It is a bummer because it was the sec- ond lap and we lost some data for tomorrow and a good op- portunity to have a decent result, but that is racing. "When I got ready to push again, I ran off in turn one," Hayden said of race two. "I caught the bump and the rear tire came off the ground. I had to release the brakes and lost a couple of more positions. Even- tually I started to feel okay and I never felt great on the front. I cannot be happy but the only positive is that I made my best lap on lap 19, but it was not a real fast lap anyway. Clearly I did not use the potential of the tires enough in the beginning, and got a sixth place." "We are testing here again tomorrow and will try to improve there," Hayden added. "I am ex- cited to go to Laguna, obviously, but I cannot expect miracles just because it is my home track, because it is going to be tough. It was always easier there with the Repsol Honda and that day it was a pretty good bike. Although our bike is improving I do not quite have the level of bike I had then, even though our bike is improving. I think it will be tough because the tracks we struggled the most were at Imola and Donington. They are similar to Laguna and our bike does not like going up hills. We will give it a shot and anything can hap- pen." Stand-in Niccolo Canepa was top Pata Yamaha rider in race one, seventh, with Alex Lowes eighth in race two, one place up on Canepa. After the Misano round, Rea has 343 points, Sykes 277, Da- vies 244, Giugliano 165, Van der Mark 163 and Hayden 146. Gordon Richie PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE