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Video: Two years have passed since the death of Nicky Hayden, the last American MotoGP champion
2024 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-10 16:41
Two years ago the world of motorcycling was saddened by a news that did not stop sinking us because it was not expected: Nicky Hayden passed away. The MotoGP champion he left us after being run over while riding his bicycle near Rimini, Italy. The smile of this Kentucky boy who gave off motorcycling from every pore was fading.
Hayden had been admitted to a hospital for five days with severe injuries to the legs, the trunk and, especially, the head. The outcome was to be expected but no less painful for that. Hayden's death fell like a bombshell among motorcyclists on both sides of the pond.
Hayden was training after SBK Imola
Nicky Hayden was competing in his second season in the World Superbike, after having concluded his stage in MotoGP. On the back of the Honda he won the second Malaysian race of 2016, although in 2017 things were not going quite well and he did not have a podium.
It was fair after Imola's race when Hayden went out to bike training with some friends on a two-way back road, and there he met his fatal fate. After so many races dodging it on the circuits of the world, it had to be on a secondary road because of an irresponsible driver.
Hayden is one of the most loved and remembered riders in the MotoGP paddock. Although he only won three races in the premier class of the world championship, that was enough to win the 2006 World Championship, in a heartbreaking final race in Valencia in which Valentino Rossi crashed and Hayden finished third.
The affection for Nicky Hayden is such that his mythical number, 69, was withdrawn during the last Grand Prix of the Americas, so no one else will be able to use it. In fact, the entire American career became a great celebration in memory of the memory of the 'Kentucky Kid', as he was known in the paddock.
Despite the fact that his record may be low, with only three victories that earned him the world championship, it must be taken into account that Nicky Hayden has rubbed shoulders with the greatest of the last two decades of MotoGP. Among those who have been his teammates are names as brilliant as Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner Andrea Dovizioso or Marc Márquez.
Now, two years after his loss, the motorcycling world still yearns for the American from the eternal smile that put the United States back on the MotoGP scene. To the kid from Kentucky struggling to get great again in Superbike. But above all, to that vibrant and passionate person who loved motorcycles above all else.
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