Kyle Ryde BSB ‘King of the Mountain’ at Cadwell Park despite “tough” weekend

Kyle Ryde was feeling slightly better by race three but still under the weather, completing a triple podium against the odds at round eight of the British Superbikes championship, at Cadwell Park.

The reigning champion had already finished second in Sunday’s first race and third in the sprint earlier on Monday, having eaten little over the weekend.

The Nitrous Coin Nitrous competitions rider was feeling a little better by race three, but after a strong start, fell back into maintaining position because of how he felt on the bike, as Ryde explained to British Superbikes in their Podium Reactions interviews after the race:

“It was a good race. Obviously, I got another good start. I passed Brad at the end of the back straight and I just dug in for five, six, laps, but to be honest Ryan was a little bit too fast for how I felt on the bike.

I couldn’t actually catch up anywhere, so once he gained a tenth, that was it. I was always another tenth behind and I made a bit of a mistake at the Gooseneck and Brad passed me up the inside and when he caught Ryan up within a lap and a half I couldn’t keep up and from then on i just tried to have some sort of rhythm to get to the end in one piece”.

Once Ray had passed and gone about chasing down eventual race winner, Ryan Vickers, Ryde had plenty to do behind, with rookie Joe Talbot putting in his best performance on the bimota to date to challenge for the podium, only fading over the closing stages for fourth. Ryde addressed this and then went on to explain how a defensive run from the Honda ahead gave him one final opportunity to come back into play, before settling for third on the Ducati, adding:

“Credit to Joe, he kept up with me the whole way until the last lap. I ended up catching these two back up in the end when Ryan started going defensive. So I was getting a little bit giddy. Maybe I could make a pass at some point but, yeah, they were too far in front. Just glad to get this weekend over with, it’s been tough”.

With both of the other two podium finishers, Vickers and Ray, fallers in race 1, the ever consistent Ryde, only off the podium once all season in 23 races, was a three time podium finisher, leading to his accumulative points handing the #1 rider the King of the Mountain trophy for a second time. Ryde was pleased with his consistency, but explained that had the others in the interview not fallen that they would have been in with a shout of deserving the silverware instead:

“I’ve had a good weekend, just consistent. I think Brad and Ryan could have won it if the had not fell off yesterday - I think these two next to me, if they’d not made the mistakes yesterday, one of these two would have definitely had the King of the Mountain trophy.

It’s been a good weekend, we’ve all had a good day and can’t wait to get home”.