Defending champion Ryde takes Oulton Park treble

British Superbike defending champion Kyle Ryde made the perfect start to his title defence by winning all three races in the opening round at Oulton Park.

It was a dominant display from Ryde, who finished the opening race 5.180 seconds ahead of Moto Rapido Racing Ducati's Leon Haslam in second and with a 5.316-second lead over third-placed Yamaha rider Bradley Ray.

Englishman Ryde followed that impressive performance up with a win in race two, where Haslam finished second and Ray completed the podium for the second consecutive race.

In race three, Ryde overcame an early setback after dropping to fourth position but recovered strongly to retake the lead and complete a clean sweep of victories for the weekend.

Haslam finished the race in second, 1.162 seconds behind, while Ray secured third position to complete an identical podium across all three races.

Last year, Ryde became the first rider since Shane Byrne in 2017 to win back-to-back British Superbike Championship titles.

As preparations continue ahead of the North West 200, it was a challenging weekend for Northern Ireland's Glenn Irwin, who struggled with technical problems before finishing fifth in the final race.

Meanwhile Storm Stacey, who will make his road racing debut on the north coast this week, finished in the top 10 in all three races.