Having asked you to vote for the MotoGP and British Superbike personality you think deserved to be crowned as your top rider of 2008, it is the turn for Crash.net to countdown the World Superbike top ten, as voted for by you!

Of the three polls, this is arguably the most hotly contested, not least because we gave you a total of 25 riders to rate out of ten.

Having totted up their average scores from almost 25,000 votes, we will be revealing your World Superbike order over the next ten days, with the winner being announced on Saturday 20th December.

WSBK Rider of the Year – Second place:

Name: Noriyuki Haga
Nationality: Japanese
Team: Yamaha Italia
Bike: Yamaha YZF-R1
Wins: 7
Podiums: 11
Championship points: 327
Championship position: 3rd

The perennial 'nearly-man' of the World Superbike Championship entered 2008 as the perennial favourite to win this year's title.

Now the most successful rider not to have a WSBK title under his belt, Haga scaled the all-time list to number four this year thanks to seven race wins and a further four podiums.

Even so, that was only good enough to secure third position overall as Haga indulged in his reputation of being blindingly fast one weekend, yet somewhat anonymous at the next.

When Haga was good, he was outstanding, though. His image as the 'Samurai of Slide' was very much in evidence on a number of occasions, but particularly in his thrilling tussles with Troy Bayliss at Vallelunga and Magny-Cours.

Indeed, Haga at times looked equally as good, if not quicker, than Bayliss, but while his historic sparring partner was consistently battling for podiums, Haga's form hit crests and troughs throughout the season.

That tallest crest was undoubtedly his double victory at the Nurburgring, which came just two weeks after he had broken his collarbone in the USA. Sporting some heavy bandages and riding through the pain, Haga certainly earned himself some new fans on that day. Later in the year, he came close to matching that performance with a win at Vallelunga just two days after suffering a terrifying crash in a wet practice session.