British Superbikes, Navarra - Ryde: My step “wasn’t big enough”

The Yamaha 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 OMG 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 leading 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 have been as much as celebration.

Ryde boiled his performance down to two main factors - not making a big enough step 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 wasn’t a big 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 150 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 was 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 warning in race one:

“Not dead happy, nut I’m happy that I’ve got 30 points and two trophies to take home 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 bank holiday weekend.