Kyle Ryde went ‘defensive everywhere’ to win Assen BSB Race 3

Kyle Ryde had not won a race since the first at Thruxton, and although the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions rider has featured heavily on the podium at the races in between, Ryde had been looking for a return to the BSB top step to cement his title advantage.

After Redding became the man to beat at Assen, Ryde got a better start from the front row, to be established in the lead as early as lap two after passing Ryan Vickers, as he described to British Superbikes after the race in their Podium Reactions segment:

“I think it was my best start of the weekend, I settled in behind Ryan and, well say ‘settled in’ - I passed him first lap into the last corner, and I just got my head down and I tried not to win the race in those first laps, but make it easier for us three to get to the end in some sort of safe manner.

And if we end up racing for first, second and third - then so be it. I just wanted to get away from the danger.”

Ryde felt that his Ducati was not as fast as Bradley Ray’s Yamaha, so as the McAMS rider moved into a close second the #1 plated rider was not keen to give Ray a sniff at leading, as he explained:

“So, I did a few fast laps, maybe a little bit too fast because my tyre wasn’t the great towards the end. Obviously, it was a very fun race to be a part of. Like Brad said, I just didn’t want to sit behind for any sort of half a lap, because it was obvious he was going to be faster than me in some parts and I didn’t want to play cat and mouse and him pull two tenths and me catch it back and then Scott pass me.

So when he passed me, I just went back.”

Ryde was still out front after several challenges from Ray, but an approaching Scott Redding made Ryde choose to go very defensive over the last laps - including at the final chicane, where the Hager PBM Ducati rider left everything on track with a final moved which saw him lead then drop to third as he struggled to control his bike to the line, as Ryde explained form his perspective, happy to take a win at a track where Redding is strong:

“It made the lap time a lot slower, but I just tried to keep fighting at the front and I wasn’t looking at the pit board and then, before you know it, there was three laps to go and I just went so defensive everywhere.

It was a great race to be a part of, and yeah, to beat Scott in one of the races after the weekend he’s had was a good feeling”.