Motorcycling: Bayliss swoops to conquer Corser in tale of two Troys

In the battle of Australia's two Troys, the Xerox Ducati rider Troy Bayliss yesterday delivered a pair of bruising defeats to his title rival, Suzuki's Troy Corser, in the Spanish round of the World Superbike Championship.

Corser, 34, led each race on the 2.49-mile Valencia circuit on his GSX-R1000, and clearly had a power advantage over Bayliss' machine on the main straight. But each time, Bayliss, 37, was able to close up in the corners, and squeezed through to take two wins and extend his lead in the championship table.

After three rounds, he now heads the 13-event series with 125 points to Corser's 103. And with Lorenzo Lanzi scoring third places on the other Xerox Ducati, it was a glorious day for the Italian factory.

"My rear tyre stayed good for the whole race," Bayliss said. " I didn't think Troy would be as good as he was in the second race, but I did every lap like it was a qualifying lap, as hard as I could. It took me a long while to put it together, but I finally got by him."

Corser said: "My tyre was moving around, and I could hear him behind me. I just couldn't get on the throttle early enough."

Britain's James Toseland rode with courage, sliding his Winston Ten Kate Honda through 100mph corners like a speedway rider. But after a strong start to the season, the team could not find grip on the sinuous Valencia track, and his disappointing reward was ninth- and 11th-placed finishes.

"When the bike is on full lean round here you cannot do anything about it but sit on it and spin it," Toseland complained. "We were miles behind the leaders, and that's not good enough," he said. From being just one point away from the championship lead before this round, Toseland has now dropped to third in the table, 39 points behind Bayliss.

He will hope for better results at the next round at Monza on 7 May, a circuit that may favour the generous horsepower provided by his Dutch engineers.