MCN’s top ten WSB riders: 3rd

A remarkable season of FIM Superbike World Championship racing delivered an eclectic bunch of riders onto the podiums, from Australia to Qatar and all points in between. MCN’s entirely subjective top ten rider run-down attempts to grade the top riders from ten to one.

Jonathan Rea

• Championship position: 3rd
• Wins: 4
• Podiums: 9

The most talented rider to have developed inside WSB racing in the past few years?  Many would concur. And he just seems to be getting better.

For the first time in his career Jonathan Rea led the Superbike World Championship, after three wins on a Honda that many thought too old and too slow to truly compete for the title.

That viewpoint under the 2014 rules proved to be correct because no matter how Rea tried he could not quite keep pace with the Aprilias and Kawasakis for most of 2014. Beat them on occasions yes, to make his win total four for the year, but machine-wise he was overmatched.

In 2014 Rea had his best season ever with third place overall, which he took after a superb race to second in the final race of the year.

Anybody who beat Marco Melandri – on an Aprilia remember – to third place is going some. An injury free Rea was the very man for the job, even if it was done only by one single point.

In 2015 he finally takes a step outside the Honda fold to line-up alongside Sykes on a Kawasaki. He will have no better chance than now.