Reigning British Superbike Champion Kyle Ryde has had his busiest winter ever in preparation to defend his title for a second time, with the Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati rider completing the miles on a Ducati V4 R road bike in preparation for the 2026 campaign.
Ryde celebrated his second title in 2025 with the Nitrous Competitions Racing team and as they move to Ducati for the new season, the double champion has been utilising the track time on the road bike ahead of the team’s new 2026 race bikes debuting.
The Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati team will not be present at the opening R&G Official Test at Donington Park as they head to the Ducati factory in Italy next week to complete the build of the new race bikes. However, Ryde will be giving his own Ducati V4 R road bike another track outing at his home track ahead of the season.
Ryde said: “My 2025-2026 winter season is done. It was very busy, as you’ve all probably seen! I had six bikes to ride throughout winter. The first part really started with doing some Supermoto and flat tracking with a few of the boys. That kick-started the winter for me and apart from that we had four other bikes for track use. Two of them were from Hunts and one of them was to coach with to fund all the expensive golf trips and the golf courses we played! The other one was to keep fit on the CBR600, so that took a lot of time up and a lot of miles on the bike.
“The other was obviously the 250, that we managed to use a fair bit, so thanks to Fastland Superbikes, highlight of that really was doing Jerez with my old man - to ride a bike that was nearly older than me around Jerez, which I’ve always wanted to do, was probably the highlight of the whole winter for me.
“The last person to thank obviously is myself! I invested a lot of money and bought a new Ducati V4 R, and really enjoyed it. I put a good thousand miles on that bike and really enjoyed it, thanks to all of the crew that came out with me to a few of the tracks, my old man and anyone who helped me along the way.
“I think I’ve put myself in a good position coming into the next couple of tests and round one at Oulton Park. So I couldn’t do much more really, all I’ve got now is a few weeks before the first round to top up on fitness and keep healthy.
“I think little calculations were about 3,500 miles on all bikes combined, which is about 1,400 laps around Donington Park! So a lot of track time done, so there’s no excuses. I’m going to go into round one knowing that I’ve put a lot of work in and now it’s time to hopefully get some podiums!
“I’ve invested in myself, it is a big change from the R1 to the Ducati. I’ve spent four or five years on the R1 and I don’t want to get blown away by everyone, so hoping for a good couple of tests so we can go into round 1 fighting as hard as I can and hopefully by October time I’ll have another shot at winning another title and doing the three-peat. But as I’ve said, I’ve done as much as we can do and hopefully I’ll see you all at Donington Park.”