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Nicky Hayden, obituary: Former MotoGP world champion known as 'the Kentucky kid'

Hayden's last tweet before his bicycle accident was in response to an adoring Italian woman fan who said: ‘Nicky, you’ll always be number one’: AFP/Getty
Hayden's last tweet before his bicycle accident was in response to an adoring Italian woman fan who said: ‘Nicky, you’ll always be number one’: AFP/Getty

With tragic irony, former world MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden, who spent his career dicing with death at more than 220mph on motorbike racetracks, was killed by a small car while riding his bicycle on a quiet, picturesque coastal road in Rimini, Italy.

The 35-year-old had been resting after taking part in a World Superbike motorcycle event in nearby Imola, Superbikes are one step down from the blue riband MotoGP series – the two-wheel equivalent of Formula One -- in which he had excelled from the early 2000s until he stepped down a gear last year.

Known for his humility, infectious smile and old-fashioned southern/midwestern politeness -- “yes, sir, yes ma'am” -- Hayden, nicknamed “the Kentucky kid”, hit his peak in 2006 when he won the world MotoGP title, thereby denying his greatest rival, Italy's Valentino Rossi, a sixth straight MotoGP championship.

The American famously grabbed a US flag after winning the title at Valencia, Spain, and wept profusely as he returned to the pits. In his heyday, Hayden was one of the most popular motorbike riders among fellow riders and fans around the world, probably second only to the equally loveable genius Rossi. No American has won the MotoGP world title since Hayden.

Nicholas Patrick Hayden was born in 1981 in Owensboro, Kentucky, best-known as the site of the last public hanging in the US in 1936 -- by a drunken executioner, hence the end to public hanging.

Motorbiking ran in the family. Hayden's father Earl owned a car dealership named Second Chance Autos. “It wasn't the kind of place where doctors or attorney would come to buy their cars,” Nicky later recalled. He rode his first motorbike at the age of three. Like his father and four siblings, including two girls, the teenage Nicky started out on oval dirt track circuits where throttle control was key, a lesson he would use to great effect on road tracks.

Years later, racers including Rossi rumbled Hayden's throttling technique and used dirt tracks as part of their training. While Rossi is known worldwide for his starting number 46, and the multi-coloured The Doctor on the backside of his leathers, Hayden was always number 69. “I inherited the number from my dad,” he explained. “He liked it because it read the same whether your bike was upright or upside down.”

Hayden's dirt track skills won him a road-track place on team Honda, where he had his first MotoGP race at the age of 21, starting as team mate to Rossi before the latter defected to Yamaha. To his delight, he won his first MotoGP race on his home turf, at the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, California, in 2005. The following year, 2006, Hayden went into the final race, at Valencia, eight points behind Rossi for the world title. An early crash by the Italian meant the American took the title.

In subsequent years, the reduction of MotoGP engines from 990cc to 800cc worked against Hayden's special throttling and sliding skills. He had several further podiums but last year opted to finish his career on the World Superbike series. He was 13th in this season's Superbike standings when he died.

Hayden died in an Italian hospital five days after going through the windscreen of a local man's Peugeot. He is survived by his fiancée Jackie Marin, his parents Earl and Rose and his siblings Tommy, Jenny, Kathleen and Roger Lee.

Hayden's last tweet before his bicycle accident was in response to an adoring Italian woman fan who said: “Nicky, you'll always be Number One. You must learn Italian and I need to learn English.” His reply, along with a winking smiley, was: “I still trying to learn English.” His family said that, according to his wishes, his organs would be donated to anyone in need.

Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Hayden, born 30 July 1981, died 22 May 2017