The two archrivals have been a standout in this year’s championship, having shared all of the race victories bar one in the 26-race series. At the end, it was the consistency of Edwards that earned him the title as he scored a total of 552 points, eleven points clear of Bayliss.

It was a fitting end to the 13-round championship to be set at the historic Imola circuit in Italy, as over 97,000 fans turned out to witness two of the hardest and closest races of the season. Edwards took the opening race win by a margin of 0.512 of a second over Bayliss, with the margin between the pair being 0.980 in race two after Bayliss rode the wheels off his Infostrada Ducati 998F-02 in an effort to win not only win the race, but the championship.

“I’m glad that it turned out to be a showdown today, especially being in front of a huge Italian crowd,” said Bayliss. “I could hear them cheer every time that I got past Colin (Edwards), it was amazing.”

There was drama in the opening race when oil was dropped on the circuit after a crash involving two riders and the race was stopped in order to clear the debris. The timing of the stoppage came as Bayliss was building momentum and preparing to mount a challenge on Edwards who held the race lead at the time.

“It was a shame about the first race being red-flagged as I had just set my fastest lap of the race on the lap that it was stopped. It’s all ifs and buts, but that’s how it goes unfortunately. After the restart I had to finish in front of him by more than seven tenths of a second, but just ran out of laps to be able to do it in. In the second race I was trying to slow Colin down once I got in front, so that Ruben (Xaus) could possibly catch up, but that didn’t happen. I was trying to slow Colin down, but at the same time I wanted to win the last race of the year.”

As a consolation for his efforts in race two, Bayliss set a new Superbike lap record for the 4.933km Italian circuit, with a time of 1:48.389.

“We both have had a good year. I had a good start with 14 wins in the first two thirds of the season, but then Colin came on strong at the end and it came down to today. I think we could have been in possibly a better situation as Colin tested here last week and we went to Mugello. That along with mixed weather conditions over this weekend made it difficult for us.”

“I’m just really happy with how the team has worked throughout the year. We had a lot of wins and some good placing’s, but had some minor problems as well, but I am very pleased with how things went as well.”

With the Superbike World Championship now completed, Bayliss will now turn his attention to preparing Ducati’s all-new ‘Desmosedici’ MotoGP bike that they will debut in next years World MotoGP championship. Bayliss, along with Italian Loris Capirossi will campaign the exciting V4 MotoGP bike in what will be the Australians first attempt at the premier motorcycle road racing championship.

“I’m really looking forward to the next challenge in my life, that being the MotoGP championship with Ducati for the next two years. I will get to have my first ride on the bike at Mugello in a week’s time and can’t wait. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since first seeing the bike.”

Bayliss will remain in Europe over the coming months to undertake his role in the development of the new bike.