2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden🌳 has tragicall💯y died from injuries sustained in a road traffic accident last Wednesday.

The 35-year-old Ame𝓰rican, who switched to the World Superbike Championship in 2015 but made two final MotoGP appearances last season, was hit by a car while training on his bicycle at around 2pm near the Misano circuit in Rimini, Italy.

Hayden was transported to a local hospital with 'extremely critical' h꧋ead, chest and pelvic injuries, then on to the intensive care unit of Mauri꧂zio Bufalini Hospital in Cesena.

Sadly, there would be no improvement in his condition and the hospital has announced the worst possibl🥃e news.

Although Hayden only won three MotoGP racesꦏ, he was every inch a champion, both on and off the track.

Hayden was hard but fair in his battles with fellow riders, to﷽ok pride in never giving up until the chequered flag and set new standards of professionalism when representing his team, sponsors and sport as a whole.

The #69's exc🤡iting dirt-track style combined with a relaxed, welcoming manner, Hollywood smile and Kentuckian quips helped make him an instant hit with fans and media alike from his 2003 MotoGP debut.

If points were awarded for the number of autographs sign🍷ed, or waving and pulling wheelies for the fans whether finishing a session in first or last place, Hayden would have bꦦeen a world champion many times over.

His fellow competitors held him in equally hi🍌gh regard. A factory rider for both Honda and then Ducati, Hayden was team-mate to two of the sports all-time greats - Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner - winning their respect and fri☂endship.

Reacting to the news of Hayden's accident, Rossi called the #69 "one of the best friends I've ever had in the paddock", despite being the rider who ended the Italian's run of five consecutive MotoGP titles in 💟one of the sport's biggest upsets at Valencia 2006.

A lack of competitive machinery and🅺 a serious wrist injury dogged Hayden's final years in MotoGP. But the Kentuckian fought back to join an elite group of riders to win both MotoGP and World Superbikꦦe races, after switching championships at the end of 2015.

Hayden was ღcompeting in his second WorldSBK season, with Ten Kate Honda, when the fateful accident occurred just days after the Imo🎉la round.

And now a bright star has gone out.

Having spent almost his entire life racing motorcycles, Hayden was fully aware of the dangers - Daijiro Kato died in Hayden's very first MotoGP race at Suzuka iജn 2003, and the American was on track when Marco Simonc🥀elli was killed at Sepang in 2011.

But to lose his life away from the race track, without even the caveat of 'doing what he loved most and knowing the r♓isks', seems especially cruel.

Hayden's death also closes a chapter in US motorcycling history. The former AMA Superbike champion had been the last Americ♛an competing in MotoGP and now also Wor🍨ld Superbike.

We join the whole motorcycling c💃ommunity in offering our deepest condolences to Nicky Hayden's family - especially his father Earl, 𓂃mother Rose, sisters Jennifer and Kathleen, brothers and fellow racers Tommy and Roger, and fianc? Jackie - and his many friends at such a difficult time.