Troy Bayliss begins his world Superbike title defence this weekend (Mar 10) at Valencia with round one of the 13 round 2002 World SuperBike Championship.

Riding once again for the factory backed Ducati Infostrada team, Bayliss heads to Spain full of confidence after he set the fastest time at the recent Superbike tests less than two weeks ago. He recorded a fastest lap of 1m34.261s around the 4.005km circuit, almost two seconds quicker than the existing Superbike race lap record held by fellow Australian Troy Corser (1m36.128).

"The results of the pre-season testing, especially at Phillip Island and Valencia show that we are in a good position at this early stage and I feel that this puts us in a good position for the first race of the year," said Bayliss. "I'm feeling quite confident with the bike and with my own preparation as I feel much better than I did this time last year."

"I always feel reasonably confident with myself but it will be nice to go there knowing that we will be in pretty good shape no matter what the weather does," added Bayliss. "I think we've got good solutions for whatever it throws at us. It's going to be tough, but it will also be interesting."

The rigors of being the defending World Champion have shown little on Bayliss' exterior as he spent little of the off-season relaxing, electing to continue his training program and continue the development program with the 2002 Factory Ducati.

"The improvements that Ducati have made to the 996R since last year will definitely make it faster everywhere we go than what we were last year. The only thing is that all of the other teams have made improvements as well and we have to hope that ours are the best ones. I think they are. I feel that the hardest competition will come from Colin (Edwards) because he is always there, consistent and quite strong in his mind as well, plus he is on Michelins as well and I know what he can do on the tyres. Not only that, but it does look as though they have made some big improvements with the bike as well."

The hard work that the Infostrada team has undertaken during the winter break could well be rewarded if their pre-season testing form can be repeated.

"I don't mind the Valencia track. It's pretty tough going because it is just non-stop as after the main straight its just corners, corners, corners. You really need to have your bike working well and if you haven't it doesn't matter how fast your bike is it's just not going to happen. You have to feel confident and comfortable on the bike there as it is a long hard race."