Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) managed to hold off stiff competition to win race one of the Portimão stage of the championship.

Razgatlioglu finished 0.691 seconds ahead of Scott Reading (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in second and 10.628 seconds ahead of Loris Baz (Team GoEleven) in third.

In race two, it was British rider Rea who took the top spot, managing to keep Redding in second place and beating him by 5.425 seconds, who was then followed by Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) in third.

In the Tissot Superpole Race it was Van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WoldSBK Team) who took the victory, followed by Redding, once again in second position, and Baz in third.

With the victory at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA), Razgatlioglu increased his lead by 24 points over Briton Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), who is second in the Championship standings.

Meanwhile, despite not taking victory in the Algarve, Scott Reading was grabbing the headlines thanks to his journey to the track – by bicycle.

Speaking to worldsbk.com, Reading explained the reasons behind choosing to cycle from the Motul Spanish Round at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, to the racetrack near Portimão.

“The idea came about, I think it was on Wednesday or something,” said Redding. “Giovanni, my crew chief, said to me ‘you could cycle to Portimao’ as a joke. I asked how far it was. He checked and told me it was 360, 370km. I said, ‘that’s a ******* good idea’. That was where it came from; Giovanni made a bit of a joke but obviously the joke went further than a joke. That’s when we started to plan the route.”

“I did it because I always like a challenge. You have an opportunity to cycle from Spain to Portugal with beautiful views; I don’t like to sit on the beach for three days, I like to make adventures; you have one life. It’s great to see it and I saw some amazing things. It keeps me a bit in the rhythm for racing. I find it better if I go for three weeks to stay active for three weeks, and then have one week rest after instead of doing three days on, three days off,” he added.

“I’d definitely do it again. Let’s say this was the dry run and if we have the opportunity in the future, I think there’s many other people who would like to join. It’s been great and after the weekend in WorldSBK in Jerez, with the loss of Dean Berta Viñales, it was good to process some things because it really touched my heart and hurt me a lot. It was good to have that time. Maybe if we have it in the future, we can do this ride in remembrance of Dean. We’ll see what the future brings.”

Author

Originally from the UK, Daisy has been living and working in Portugal for more than 20 years. She has worked in PR, marketing and journalism, and has been the editor of The Portugal News since 2019. Jornalista 7920

Daisy Sampson