SBK in Assen in April: snow, rain, sun? / World Superbike Championship

The race weekend in Assen was scheduled early in the calendar in the 2019 World Superbike Championship. It was clear to everyone that the summer heat was not expected from April 12 to 14. This year the traditional meeting will take place a few days later from April 22 to 24 and, like five years ago, the weather has not yet decided on spring.

Rain, even snow, icy winds and temperatures between two and eight degrees Celsius in 2019 did not encourage spending many hours outside. To run a motorcycle race in such conditions or to watch it on site, like at the World Superbike Championship meeting, you had to be made of special things.

It was really bad on Saturday. The start of the first Superbike race was initially delayed by 30 minutes due to snow flooding. As the bikes lined up for the start of the race, scheduled for 2:28 p.m., it snowed again. Race day cancellations followed shortly after.

The race on Sunday was good because it was sunny. The first race held in the morning instead of the Superpole race started in just four degrees Celsius, and the second race in the afternoon with nine degrees. The number of visitors dropped significantly: only 19,580 saw the impressive double victory of Alvaro Bautista (Ducati). The Spaniard set lap times that were below the record at the time. Jonathan Rea (then Kawasaki) and Michael van der Mark (then Yamaha) alternated in second and third places.

The current weather forecast suggests good weather for the third meeting of the season.