After an enjoyable jaunt to the Adriatic coast of Italy almost three weeks ago, the World Superbike Championship resumes in the Czech Republic with
Troy Bayliss' rivals continuing to try and catch him.
Testament to how consistency often pays, Bayliss has not won a race since his double triumph at Assen three months ago but remains a healthy 49 points up on new second place man Max Neukirchner.
Indeed, after stablising the gap at the Nurburgring, Bayliss crept his margin back up again at Misano with a pair of third place finishes, this despite the Australian claiming the weekend was one of the hardest in his career.
His cause was inevitably helped by
Carlos Checa's anonymous performance on a weekend when the Honda was very much off the pace of Ducati, Yamaha, Suzuki and even Kawasaki.
As such, Bayliss has Neukirchner for (quite) close company now, the German causing a major stir at Misano with a superb second victory of the season for both himself and the Alstare Suzuki team. It is a shame then that a quiet seventh place in the second race undid some of that hard work.
Nonetheless, the result continues to bolster Neukirchner's heady status as arguably the year's rising star, although the German is still keen to go one better and challenge Bayliss for the title.
His quest begins at Brno, a classic biking circuit with its long corners, undulations and fast straights. A popular circuit amongst the riders, last year's honours went the way of
James Toseland and Max Biaggi.
For Checa, who is down to third place in the standings, he is hoping he can match Toseland's performance on the Ten Kate Honda, a bike that has struggled for form since its crushing double victory in the USA. Indeed, while testing at Vallelunga went relatively well for the Spaniard between the races, team boss Ronald ten Kate did admit that they are still not fast enough. Nonetheless, with plenty of data to call upon from last year, Checa is far more confident that Brno will be a Honda friendly circuit.
