Two firsts, some textbook riding from Troy Bayliss, and the perfect start to any Superbike rider's season.

He leaves Valencia a very happy man with 50 points, the maximum.

But Chris Walker was my hero of the weekend. When you think it was less than a month ago that he had Bell's Palsy and had lost all his confidence, what he did was unbelievable.

When he came to the tests, he really did not know what to do with himself. He was embarassed to speak, to even be seen by anybody that he knew, and he couldn't keep his eyes open on the bikes.

There was no way, even on Saturday, that we thought he would go race distance. To not only go race distance but finish 10th and seventh with a new team, that is not much short of a miracle.

Hats off to him, and I think there's a lot more to come from Chris Walker this season. There's a chance he could get on the podium and we can say that from just one race.

There were firecrackers in the crowd here and I think it was the same on the track.

The four-way dice at the front of race two was particularly spectacular between Noriyuki Haga, Colin Edwards, Bayliss and Ben Bostrom.

The track in Valencia is supposed to be a one-line track with very little overtaking and yet we did see some spectacular moves. It all bodes well for what will be a great Superbikes season.

Bayliss is going away with maximum points, but you never know what is going to happen in the season.

He could have one bad race and then a couple of mechanical problems and before you know it it's level-pegging again. So I don't think at this stage you can say he is going to run away with it.