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"If you want to win it all... make no mistake: you have to risk it all."

Bradley Smith sat edgily in his seat as the haunting voice of Ewan McGregor echoed around the famous walls of the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square on Tuesday night.

The 20-year-old had walked the red carpet into the premiere of the in the knowledge that he himself will be joining motorcycle racing's A-list in just over a year's time - and he admitted after watching Mark Neale's brilliant new production that he felt more than a little nervous about the prospect.

The announcement last Sunday night that Smith had , which will see him compete for one more season in Moto2 before taking the step up to MotoGP, is great news for British fans who are guaranteed at least one home-grown rider in the premier class for the next three seasons.

It is also great news for us at because while the spectacle of the world's best riders pushing the limits at 200mph on two wheels regularly gets the adrenaline of our hardcore audience of just over one million viewers pumping, there is nothing like a home hero to get the entire nation on the edge of their sofas.

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Like many parents, Loris Capirossi will have gone back to the school run this week and waved his son Riccardo off at the gates with a mixture of melancholy and relief.

It has been an intense summer for the Italian, spent contemplating his own future and that of his young family before finally making the decision to after 22 years as a Grand Prix motorcycle racer.

Capirossi's emotional announcement to a packed press conference at Misano will have been made all the more difficult because, deep down, he knows that on the right package he could probably still be competitive, even at the age of 38.

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