The penultimate act of the 2002 World Superbike Championship plays out this weekend at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands, the scene for last year's extraordinary triumph by Ducati Infostrada rider Troy Bayliss. With two rounds and four races remaining, the Australian finds himself in a similar position to last year, 29 points ahead of season-long rival Colin Edwards (Honda), who picked up a brace of wins last weekend at Oschersleben to reduce the gap to Troy.

"I love Assen, it's been a great place for Ducati and for me in the past" declared Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada). "Ducati's hundredth pole position, two wins and the world championship wasn't a bad result last year! The situation is similar again now and I'm going to try and win, but if I can't then I'll take what I can get. Last year we didn't expect to win the title at Assen, but we did, so anything can happen. However I'm absolutely sure Colin won't have another race like last year and the championship looks like it will go down to Imola. It's always strange here on the weather front but for the last three days it has been perfect so hopefully it will continue over the weekend and we'll have some good racing. I had a look round the new track and there's really no straight now around the back, it's corners all the way and it's probably going to be more physical. It's also got some new tarmac and is much smoother and the ripple strips have changed as well so the races will be interesting for sure".

Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada), currently sixth in the championship, is confident that Ducati's winning tradition at this track will help him get amongst the front-runners. "I had two good races here last year but it's a completely new season now and different things are happening" declared Ruben. "I like the circuit very much, it's a nice track, the 'cathedral of motorbikes'. There are only a few changes, the track is quite difficult to learn because it's so long, but the bike and the tires always go well here so there should be no problem in being upfront. Third place in the championship is looking quite difficult, last week we had a bit of bad luck, things don't always go as well as you would like, but we should get a couple of good results this weekend".

Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M), lying fourth in the standings, has always struggled at the Dutch circuit but aims to change things this weekend. "I only plan to race up front this weekend" commented Ben. "It looks like the changes in the track are pretty neat, it's a beautiful circuit and the facilities are good too. The weather is always a bit unpredictable here so it keeps the racing kind of fun and interesting. I haven't really had any good races at Assen, and I can't say I've ever finished in the top 10. I don't exactly know why, it's just that I've struggled. Maybe I don't like my bike set-up so much, so we'll change it a bit this weekend".