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Edwards Champion After Amazing Race

A brilliant end to the World Superbike season saw Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss fight every inch of the way, with Edwards finally gaining the upper hand - and his second World Superbike title.

An astonishingly close corner by corner struggle, in the last Superbike race of this most unusual season, delivered Colin Edwards the world title, winning the second race of the day, his ninth in succession - and his 11th of the year.
Attacking each other from first to last, Edwards and Bayliss dropped all chasers from their respective slipstreams as they fought out a battle to decide who was the best rider of the year.
With Bayliss' team-mate Ruben Xaus attempting to get on terms with the duo, to assist his team leader, the tension in the mid section of the race was intense, with Bayliss clearly trying to slow the pace to allow Xaus to catch up. The Spaniard never quite managed to reel in Edwards, leaving it to the American and Aussie to scrap it out to the finish.
A classic last lap featured audacious overtakes from both riders and with Bayliss running wide on the exit of Variante Alta, Edwards saw his opportunity and held him off on the final sections.
Xaus finished third, some way down, with Noriyuki Haga overturning the first race result to put himself fourth and Neil Hodgson fifth.
Hodgson's team-mate James Ellison was sixth once more, with Gregorio Lavilla seventh - and easily top four cylinder rider.
Broc Parkes gave his NCR Ducati team a blast of good news, finishing eighth, once more ahead of Ben Bostrom and Izutsu.
Juan Borja (Spaziotel Ducati) was 11th, Chris Walker (Kawasaki) 12th.
Edwards eventual margin of victory in the championship itself was 11 points, 552 to 541 over Bayliss, with Neil Hodgson third on 326 and Noriyuki Haga 278, Ben Bostrom 261 and Xaus sixth on 249.
The story today was all about the amazing Edwards and the no less brilliant Bayliss, who put on a show to end all shows in a perfect setting, and in front of 97,000 fans.

Bron: http://www.worldsbk.com/