HUDDERSFIELD’S Tom Sykes was left clinging to the positives by a thread after the curse of the Magny Cours circuit came back to bite him at the penultimate World Superbike round of 2011.

Sykes had never enjoyed the trip to the French track and had a best finish of just eighth to his name from his previous two trips.

However its bogey track status appeared to be on the way out when ‘The Grinner’ raced his way to sixth on the grid, his third top six qualifying berth on the bounce.

But despite launching his way into podium contention over one lap Sykes, with tyre issues, was completely unable to stretch that form out to 23, ending race one in tenth.

“We had no grip from lap one of race one and I was surprised that the lap time was over half a second slower than we had been doing on the same tyre all weekend,” said Sykes. “Over race distance it was horrendous.”

Things went from bad to worse for Sykes in race two when the Huddersfield ace tumbled out inside the first lap after flicking the back wheel of newly crowned champion Carlos Checa.

The weekend sums up a season of frustration for the 26-year-old who has enjoyed some impressive highs, most notably his debut race win in Germany, but has spent large periods dicing at the wrong end of the field.

The win at the Nurburgring is Sykes’ only podium appearance and as a result he will head to the final round of the campaign 13th overall, with 133 points. Round 13 comes in two weeks time at the Portimao circuit in Portugal and Sykes remained positive.

“For half a lap in the second race the grip was fantastic,” he added.

“It put me to where I knew I could perform. I was happy on that side of things but when I followed Carlos (Checa) into one turn I think he decided to brake a bit harder and square the corner off, and I fell without any warning.

“Magny Cours is probably my worst circuit on the calendar!”

WSB races will be shown on British Eurosport, with all European rounds in HD. British Eurosport – Sky channel 410 and Virgin Media 521. Eurosport HD is on Sky 412 and Virgin Media 522. Watch races live online at www.eurosportplayer.co.uk