OH, the glamorous life of the World Superbike star.

Having dumped your bike in the gravel of a venomous Spanish circuit, you might expect business class pampering on the first flight out of Valencia.

Not for Neil Hodgson, after a mixed start to his championship campaign. Hodgson is currently somewhere, anywhere, between Toulouse and Calais, driving back his motorhome to Birmingham in preparation for the next time it will be in use, at Monza at the end of May.

In the meantime, the Burnley rider will be on a mini-world tour -- to South Africa, Australia and Japan -- hoping to accentuate the positives and eliminate the negatives of yesterday's two races at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

The negatives were obvious. Lying in sixth place on the fourth lap of the opening race, the reigning British champion lost control of the front end of the bike and suffered a harmless crash at turn six.

All the winter preparation and the anguish of a difficult couple of days' qualifying suddenly seemed for nothing and Hodgson was already playing catch-up against the established stars of the world stage.

And the likes of Troy Corser made no such mistakes. Having secured an early lead, his Aprilia powered away to a convincing first round victory.

The pressure was now on Hodgson to salvage something from his least-favoured venue on the circuit.

"There was no easy way of riding the second race after crashing in the first. It was a question of scoring as many points as possible, but the main thing was to finish," he explained.

Starting from the front row of the grid having recorded an impressive Superpole, he entered the first bend in third place but was soon overtaken by reigning world champion Colin Edwards and Ducati's Ben Bostrum.

A newly-streamlined Corser had again cleared off at the front, with fellow Aussie Troy Bayliss, tucked in for a repeat of his first race second-placed finish.

Bostrum, however, was adjudged to have jumped the gun at the start and was awarded a stop-start penalty. Then, while pulling out of it-lane, he broke the speed restriction and was handed a second penalty.

It was too much for the Californian to bear and he threw in the towel. With local rider Gregoria Lavilla challenging Bayliss for second, the race order had been established and Hodgson was neither challenged in fifth or able to challenge Edwards for fourth.

"I wish I hadn't been quite so tentative at the start, because I was running at the same pace as Edwards. And, if I hadn't let him get away early on, I would have been able to finish in front of him.

"But the worrying thing was that we were well down on top speed, nearly 15kmph slower than the fastest bike.

"You cannot afford to give these guys that much. In the British championship, you could get away with it and perhaps brake a little later. But at this level you cannot do that.

"My focus is now the next round at Kyalami. I really like the circuit and I'm confident that I can improve my position in the championship standings," Hodgson added.

His return from that fifth-placed finish was 11 points but the real test of his ability to live with the world's best will come in the next month.

Hodgson hates the tight and twisty circuits -- of which Valencia is the worst -- and prefers to ride at tracks with faster corners such as Kyalami and Phillip Island, Australia, where the next two rounds take place.

Conclusions can, however, be drawn from Valencia. Aprilia are a new force, threatening the Ducati-Honda domination, as Corser's team-mate, Regis Laconi, was also a surprise package of the first race. Genuine title contenders are Corser, Edwards, Bostrum and Bayliss.

But Hodgson showed enough in the second race here to demonstrate that he has the ability, and willpower, to fulfill the expectations of a demanding British biking public. First race result: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Aprilia) 37m 17.253s, 2 Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 37m 20.862s, 3 Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 37m 20.948s, 4 Regis Laconi, France (Aprilia) 37m 23.933s, 5 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 37m 28.823s, 6 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 37m 39.961s, 7 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 37m 42.572s, 8 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 37m 42.807s, 9 Hitoyasu Izutsu, Japan (Kawasaki) 37m 46.992s, 10 Robert Ulm, Austria (Ducati) 38m 05.425s.

Second race result: Corser 37m 15.171s, 2 Bayliss 37m 20.293s, 3 Lavilla 37m 24.478s, 4 Edwards 37m 34.442s, 5 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 37m 38.684s, 6 Yanagawa 37m 39.714s, 7 Chili 37m 46.414s, 8 Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 37m 51.455s, 9 James Toseland, GB (Ducati) 38m 01.175s, 10 Stephane Chambon, France (Suzuki) 38m 02.692s.

Championship points after one of 13 rounds: 1 Corser 50, 2 Bayliss 40, 3 Lavilla 27, 4 Edwards 23, 5 Yanagawa and Chili 18, 7 Bostrom 16, 8 Laconi 13, 9 Hodgson and Chambon 11.

Manufacturers: 1 Aprilia 50, 2 Ducati 40, 3 Kawasaki 27, 4 Honda 23, 5 Suzuki 18, 6 Yamaha 3.

Next round: April 1 - Kyalami, South Africa