Ashford's Leon Camier admitted he was chasing a lost cause after crashing out of both races during the third round of the World Superbike Championship at Valencia.

The 23-year-old, pictured, travelled to southern Spain bidding to beat his career-best finish of fifth last time out in Portugal but the Alitalia Aprilia rider skidded off after seven laps during race one before repeating the trick after 12 in race two.

To make matters worse, Camier had led the second race for 10 laps following red flags after a crash involving fellow Brit Simon Andrews.

Leon Haslam and Noriyuki Haga shared the race honours.

“It has been a pretty hard meet, the heat didn’t help and we had some problems with the front tyre in the first race which meant I had to work really hard to keep hold of the bike,” said Camier.

“Despite that I was feeling pretty strong but going right into the back straight in the second race I hit a bump or something and the front just folded and that was that.

“I thought I was in a good position to do well in Valencia because we have been looking really strong lately so that is pretty disappointing. There is always the next one though."

The next round in the series is at Assen in Holland in two weeks.

World Superbike Championship races will be broadcast on Eurosport, with the European rounds also available in High Definition. Eurosport is on Sky 410 and Virgin Media 521. Eurosport HD is on Sky 412 and Virgin Media 522.