Josh Hayes Confirmed As Edwards' Replacement For Valencia

Josh Hayes is to replace the injured Colin Edwards at the Valencia round of MotoGP. The news can hardly be called news any more, after Hayes' leathers sponsor Teknic jumped the gun and issued a press release announcing the move on Friday.

The announcement hardly comes as a surprise for another reason. Hayes was already due to attend the Valencia MotoGP round, as he had been offered the chance to ride Edwards' MotoGP bike at the test after the Valencia race as a reward for winning his second AMA Superbike championship in a row. Once it became clear that Edwards would be forced to miss his final outing with the Tech 3 team due to the injuries sustained in the crash that fatally injured Marco Simoncelli, Hayes was the obvious choice. The decision was made even easier by the fact that Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies, both riders with ties to Yamaha and experience of the Bridgestone tires, would not be available as both men were off to race with other manufacturers in WSBK.

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