Well the 2005 season came to an end, not with a whimper but with a bang as we saw the closest, hardest racing this year between some old sparring partners. Last year Magny Cours saw young James Toseland wrap up the 2004 championship. This year saw him surrender the Number One plate to Troy Corser last week, so France was never going to be more than a formality for the top spot. Or, indeed, second. But third place, that's a different story. Four riders in with a shout, only one of whom has a confirmed ride for next season. Tears before bedtime were predicted before the race, and that's how it turned out. Though in lots of different ways...

Magny Cours is near Nevers in Central France. Actually, it seems as though Magny Cours is actually a very long way from anywhere at all, but that's another story entirely. It's a fairly flat circuit but very fast and flowing. It rewards a smooth approach and is frequently blessed with atrocious weather. Happily this weekend was unseasonably pleasant, perhaps to make up for the debacle last weekend.

First upset came when local hero Regis Laconi, beaten in the title chase here last year, declared himself still too injured to ride and ruled himself out of the race and the fight for third place. That's a tough call to make, especially at your home race, so all credit to Laconi for being man enough to recognise that he may be a hazard to himself and other riders going out there unfit. Though Laconi's decision looked less difficult in the light of the dreadful time James Toseland was having. The Ducati team appeared to have completely lost direction in terms of setting up bikes. Whatever the problem, Toseland spent Friday and Saturday bumping around the bottom of the sheet, just about getting a quick enough lap in for Superpole. Lorenzo Lanzi has obviously borrowed some of the factory's magic as well as the bike, because his qualifying was brilliant. Clearly there wasn't enough magic left for the 'proper' factory team, though... Yukio Kagayama, who hasn't had the best of seasons, silenced many, if not all, of his critics by storming to the top of the leaderboard and staying there for most of the weekend. The Ten Kate boys were working their socks off and getting fabulous results as well, while Mr Superpole was right up there as well, the 2005 champion certainly showing how he got that huge points lead.

Superpole itself provided a few surprises, though. First one came when Toseland, or more accurately, Toseland's team, finally got their act together and gave him a bike which was set up properly. The young Englishman stormed to the top of the leaderboard with an impeccable lap, good enough to keep him heading up the second row, even after two other riders destroyed the outright lap record while setting their own superpole times. Just a few hundredths of a second split the back of the first row, with Haga just edging out Muggeridge. Lorenzo Lanzi showed why the smart money is on him getting a factory ride next year with a cracking second place, bettered only by Chris Vermeulen who left the lap record shredded behind him. Chris Walker, riding as you'll recall with a recently broken elbow, headed up the third row just a third of a second behind Toseland, four places ahead of him. Between sat Neukirchner, Kagayama and Pitt. The injured Laconi hauled himself onto the track, qualified tenth, agreed that yes he was far too sore to do this and went home. But what about Troy Corser? In an unheard of cock-up by the Suzuki team, he went out for superpole with a vastly overinflated rear tyre. The result looked spectacular as the big Suzuki lit the back up and slid around everywhere, but was very slow indeed, putting the champion firmly at the back of the pack in sixteenth place.

Race One showed the way things were going to go on. Everyone went off as hard as they could from the very start, with plenty of elbows and rather robust overtaking. Vermeulen made the most of his pole position to take off like a jackrabbit, Lanzi totally failing to capitalise on his front row and reversing down the field. Come the end of the first lap and there was a yellow bike hunting down Vermeulen's Honda. Not a Suzuki either - battered Chris Walker made an astonishing start and carved through the field to be second at the end of the first lap, with Kagayama and Toseland in hot pursuit. Behind Toseland came Haga, Muggeridge, Corser and Pitt, with Neukirchner between the last pair. Briefly. Walker's injuries started to tell as he yielded to Kagayama before too long. Toseland and Muggeridge, meantime, had kicked off what was to prove a race long battle, passing and repassing each other maybe a dozen times and trading a few licks of paint on the way. Incredibly, though disaster was sat trackside just waiting for a mistake, both stayed on and were the first to congratulate each other on a well ridden and thoroughly entertaining scrap at the end. Behind them, Pitt made himself less than entirely popular with the Yamaha Italia team by scooping his team-mate, Nori Haga, clean off the track and into the gravel in an overtake that was less forceful than frankly stupid. Corser showed his mettle by slicing through the pack to a highly respectable fifth. Utterly undramatic, the champion was a picture of smooth efficiency. The Toseland/Muggeridge battle was finally decided on the very last lap when the Englishman put in a beautiful pass to mug Muggas and steal the last podium slot. Vermeulen and Kagayama were well gone, riding textbook races but wither really challenged or challenging. Behind fifth placed Corser, Pitt came home a second ahead of Walker, whose efforts were truly herculean and who must have been hurting like Hell by the end. Neukirchner brought the sole surviving Klaffi Honda in next, Chili having retired again in possibly his worst season ever, while Lanzi finished a disappointing ninth, just ahead of Norick Abe. All of which made the championship look slightly different, and certainly made young James Toseland look slightly more likely to lift third from Haga. We would have to see. It also gave one of the best post-race interview quotes, with James Toseland saying "That was a good hard fight I had with Karl but it was very fair. I've cleaned the blue paint off my fairing and he can clean the red off his! We were a little bit wide in places, he left half a gap but it was a very close race. Like I said it was tough but we haven't fallen out. Yet. Still plenty of time though..."

Race two started in the way of all races. With a frenzy. But come the first corner, everything went horribly wrong as Karl Muggeridge appeared to lose a footrest and swerve violently. The resulting pileup, utterly out of the young Australian's control, took Pitt, Martin, Bussei and local boy De Costa into the gravel. Muggeridge was ruled out of the restart with a head injury while Bussei and Martin were both also deemed unfit to ride. Happily none of their injuries turned out to be serious but it did rather deplete the field.

The restart saw no mistake from Lorenzo Lanzi, who this time got off the line in a fairly brisk manner, bested only by Vermeulen and Kagayama and pursued by Haga, Toseland and Walker. In what appeared at first to be a duplicate performance, Vermeulen streaked off into the distance but was matched in pace by Lanzi who appeared to have got second wind after his lacklustre race one showing. Behind, another race long battle was shaping up, this time between arch rivals and great friends Yukio Kagayama and Nori Haga, while behind them a similar scrap was taking place between Chris Walker and James Toseland, similarly friends and rivals. Places were swapped many times between them and again disaster was just waiting in the wings. But when it all went wrong, it was in the most unlikely direction. Crossing the line on the nineteenth lap, Chris Vermeulen's chain jumped the sprocket and he lost all drive. With first place gifted to him and a comfortable cushion back to the action behind, Lanzi coasted home to his second win of the year. Behind, Kagayama used the superior drive of the Suzuki to great effect, getting the edge on Haga and taking a second runner up slot. Behind the two battling Japanese riders, Corser had carved his way up through the field again, coming across the two Brits who were tripping each other up and taking advantage to get past both of them. And on the last lap, Walker managed to put the squeeze on the outgoing champion to nick fifth place from him in a fantastic display of sheer bloody minded willpower over what must have been considerable pain. Behind Toseland, Pitt headed Neukirchner and Norick Abe while Frankie Chili at least featured in the top ten for once.

So that's it for another year. Already the rumour mill is running at full speed. We know that Vermeulen is riding the Pramac Honda in MotoGP while Troy Bayliss is injured. Will he come back? Who knows. Corser has signed for Alstare Suzuki again and Muggeridge appears to be staying with Ten Kate. But that seems to be about it as far as what we know. And we're not into guesswork and rumour so please feel free to start your own on the forum...

Race One

1 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
2 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
3 James Toseland (Ducati)
4 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
5 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
6 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
7 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
8 Max Neukirchner (Honda)
9 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
10 Norick Abe (Yamaha)

Race Two

1 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
2 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
3 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
4 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
5 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
6 James Toseland (Ducati)
7 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
8 Max Neukirchner (Honda)
9 Norick Abe (Yamaha)
10 Pier-Francesco Chili (Honda)

Championship Standing after eleven rounds:

1 Troy Corser 433 (World Superbike Champion 2005)
2 Chris Vermeulen 379
3 Noriyuki Haga 271
4 James Toseland 254
5 Yukio Kagayama 252
6 Regis Laconi 221
7 Chris Walker 160
8 Andrew Pitt 156
9 Lorenzo Lanzi 150
10 Pier-Francesco Chili 131

Confused about the headline? Then you're either very young or not au fait with British Televeision. It's in tribute to Ronnie Barker, who died last week. Look up The Two Ronnies for more information...