Reigning World Superbike Champion Tom Sykes has played down the fact he could lift his second successive crown at Magny-Cours this weekend, saying that is it getting towards crunch time.

The factory Kawasaki man, who looks set to be joined by Jonathan Rea in 2015, has a whopping 31 point lead with only 100 left to play for in the remaining rounds. If he crossed the line in race two with 50 points over Sylvain Guintoli, he will take the big trophy.

“A big weekend coming up and it is potentially getting down towards crunch time. I am very relaxed and yet also excited to go to Magny Cours. It is a circuit we have done very well at in the past so I am looking forward to getting back on my Ninja ZX-10R,” said Sykes.

“Despite scoring a podium in race two at Jerez we had a few issues at the previous round, especially in race one, so I am hoping we can be a lot stronger this time out. At this present time we are in a good championship position with the biggest margin for error. Hopefully we can stretch it a bit more this weekend.”