Bicycle crash kills motorcyle champ
Nicky Hayden, an American motorcycle racer who won the 2006 MotoGP world championship, died Monday from injuries sustained in a road accident while training on his bicycle five days earlier near Rimini, Italy. He was 35.
Mr. Hayden was hit by a car at an intersection near the Misano track and was taken to a local hospital, then transferred to Bufalini Hospital in Cesena for further assessment, according to Motorcycle News.
The hospital released a bulletin announcing the death, having said last week that he had severe cerebral damage and multiple traumatic injuries. It was reported that he had failed to stop for a stop sign before the accident occurred.
Nicknamed “The Kentucky Kid,” the Owensboro, Ky. native won the 2002 Superbike championship at the age of 18, the youngest rider ever to win the title, before embarking on his MotoGP career.
Two of his biggest wins came at Laguna Seca in Monterey. In 2005, he won the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. He repeated the feat in 2006, the same year he took the world title from Valentino Rossi, who had won it the previous five years.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Nicky Hayden,” Gill Campbell, CEO and general manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, said in a statement. “He was an outstanding racer and, more than that, an incredible human being. The memories he created on the track are unforgettable, and he had such a special connection to his fans. Nicky was more than a rider. He was a friend. Words just don’t describe the loss. My heart goes out to his family, friends and fans.”
Mr. Hayden left MotoGP in 2016 after 216 Grand Prix appearances to return to the AMA Superbike World Championship. He finished fifth in the series in 2016, securing his only win at Sepang, Malaysia. In an interview with The Chronicle in July, Hayden recalled breaking down in tears after the victory.
“It was my first win in Superbike and the first win I had in a few years,” he said. “It was quite emotional. At the end of MotoGP, I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to come here and continue my career.”
The Honda factory team “believed in me and gave me this opportunity to come to Superbike. To repay them was really a lot of satisfaction.”
Mr. Hayden was inducted into the MotoGP World Championship Hall of Fame in 2015.