A 2025 British Superbike Championship title would be a “huge bonus” for Kyle Ryde, he says, as would any wins he wins in the future.
The 2025 and 2024 titles were won in vastly different styles, with Ryde managing the points lead in this year’s final race, while 2024 was decided by an iconic final race battle with Tommy Bridewell, but both times saw Ryde reverse in the first half of the season and take control of the season in the second half.
Ryde, who defeated Bradley Rea to become the 2025 BSB Champion, became the first rider to defend his title since Shane Byrne in 2017, but for the Nottingham rider the title was just a “huge bonus” after his first win in 2024.
“I’m really happy about this (championship),” Ryde told BritishSuperbike.com after race three of the final Brands Hatch race.
“The only time I got angry was when I was with my mom and dad, and I realized how much it meant to them, because they had spent so much money and time and effort just to get my first child, and to get my second one was just like the icing on the cake.
“So I would like to thank my sponsors and sponsors for believing in me.
“This is just a huge bonus, and the more we get, the more we keep getting.”
Ryde also said he was happy with the way he handled the situation in race three, where he could have won the title if he finished within the top 14, but the wet weather complicated matters.
“I’m really happy to get through there. Even though I had a 30-point lead, that race (Race 3) was a difficult race. It showed me how many people had fallen in front of me,” he said.
“It was very difficult because I didn’t even have knee sliders on.”
“I was really surprised at first. I was pretty loose on the bike and had a few moments, but not the moments that scared me. It was a great moment where I showed that I have good speed in the wet. The riders will understand what that means.”
“But when you saw three or four guys go down with eight laps to go, it was obviously dangerous. There wasn’t enough water on the[soft compound wet rear tires]to work properly, so there were a lot of spin-ups from the Druid and the back.”
“It was really hard, so I added a knee slider, which is bad when you can’t touch the floor with your knees in the wet, but they hit me with a lot of breaking balls.
“At one point I thought it wasn’t going to go well, but then my dad waved the pit board at me and told me we were a long way from finishing, so I relaxed a little bit.
“Whoever was behind me, I think Max (Cook) was behind me, could have probably passed me, but he stayed behind. So thank you to those guys!”