Does having his finger chopped off slow Troy Bayliss down? Not really. image by krusty demons of nikon

A good photo, they say, is worth a thousand words.

With that we apologize for adding any words to the image at right, taken last night of Troy Bayliss at Valencia.

A long-running paddock argument asks the question 'Are champions born or are champions made?'.

Apply that about Troy Bayliss: didn't start club racing until he was 23, put a bike on the pole at Daytona second time he saw the joint, World Superbike champion and MotoGP race winner in the same season.

Born, we'd say.