British Superbikes, Navarra - Ryde: My step “wasn’t big enough”
Ky🐼le Ryde was pleased with his trophy haul after British Superbikes took their first visit to race in Navarro, Spain - but his pre-season form suggested more.
The Yamahaജ riders were once again the men to beat at the Circuito de Navarra, with a top three in both races, building on a dominant qualifying for the manufacturer.
Ryan Vickers dominated to win both races, but it was more of a mixed bag for his teammate at OM♛G Grilla with Kyle Ryde picking up second in race one and an equally hard fought third in race two.
Ryde had dominated the pre-season leadi🐟ng the way in both the Donington test and the one at Navarra directly before the race weekend.
- 2024🍬 British Superbikes: Navarra - Race Results (🐷1)
- 2024 British Superbikes: Navarra - Race🍨 Results (2)
That had left expectations high on the man from Mansfield, with two podiums giving a feeling of what might ha🐼ve been as much as celebration.
Ryde boiled his p♐erformance down to two main factors - not making a big enough ste🐼p between races compared to his rivals and a change in temperature.
Ryde explained: “The best thing that happened really was that we made the bike a bit better but I think everybody did at the same time - I think even Ryan was doing high sixes towards the end and I didn’t do one of them so 🤡obviously everyone made the bikes better”.
“Unfortunately mine was🌸n’t a bi⛎g enough step to follow them to the line”.
The second element the #77 thought factored into his Sunday performance was the change in weather, though noticeably more windy, the temperature was also hugely 🧸different to those the riders had been exposed to at the track thus far.
Ryde elaborated:
“I’m happy that we made the bike a bit better, I’m just gutted that obviously we did - probably about 1👍50 laps in certain temperatures and I felt good all week. Then, all of a sudden, I feel not so good, but yeah - to take home two trophies I’m not complaining, I could have crashed so many times in race one earlier.
While Danny Kent backed his weather opinions, Ryde w𒁏as still pleased with his overall performance - his race two was much smoother with none of the flirting with the green on track that earned him a track limits warniꦑng in race one:
“Not dead happy, nut I’m happy that I’v♛e got 30 points and two trophies to take ho🌊me and can have a vino tinto tonight!”
Ryde will be looking to take a step forward and claim victory when the BSB championship returns to British soil - at Oulton Park on the May ꦫbank holiday weekend.
