The-39-year-old Australian crowned his world championship winning season with a pole position and a double win at the brand new Portimao circuit.

Although a relative late arrival on the world scene, the extremely popular 'Baylisstic' has had tremendous success in the last decade, winning the British Superbike Championship in 1999 and going on to add three world crowns and the odd MotoGP win in between.

Many will be tipping Bayliss's replacement at Ducati Noriyuka Haga as the main challenger for honours in next year's championship. But one of the five Brits who have also secured rides for 2009 Leon Haslam signalled his intentions to be among the front-runners with a podium in the second race at Portimao.

Haslam – riding his BSB HM Plant Honda for the final time – was joined as a wild-card entry by team-mate Cal Crutchlow, who also ran amongst the front-runners until tyre problems slowed his progress.

Despite Bayliss not competing in World Superbikes in 2009, it still looks to be the most competitive championship to watch next year.

BSB champion Shane Byrne will be one of at least nine riders competing who have all won races at this level, and this doesn't include the current AMA champion Ben Spies, who will be joining flying Yorkshireman Tom Sykes on the very competitive works Yamahas.

Added to that is the news Japanese MotoGP rider Shinya Nakano will be joining Max Biaggi on the all-new V4 Aprilia.

Although Troy Bayliss has stated he has no firm plans to do much in his early retirement, I'm sure he will be planning to watch his former adversaries battle it out with the new boys for World Superbike honours.