Debut in the air: Andrea Iannone tests the Bagger at Misano, launching the former WorldSBK rider’s new challenge

Andrea Iannone, first contact with the Bagger in a private test at Misano. His World Cup debut is getting closer.

Bagger World Cup nearing its debut in Italy, and Andrea Iannone will be there too. The rider from Vasto won’t arrive completely unprepared, since he’s already had his first outing at Misano aboard the Harley Davidson Road Glide, supplied for the new one-make world cup for bikes with saddlebags. This weekend the second round of the championship kicks off, the first also featuring the former Superbike rider in action as Niti Racing’s third rider, alongside the other nine guys who originally formed the official grid and already debuted at the first event in Austin. The schedule at Mugello

The mood seems positive; in a few days we’ll have the first real answers, given that there are no benchmarks to rely on at the Misano World Circuit, which has never hosted the Baggers. Andrea Iannone has closed the chapter on the Superbike World Championship (the deal with his new team didn’t go through) and put behind him a test with the Ducati V4 S, also at the track named after Marco Simoncelli, coinciding with the official tests of the protagonists of the Italian Speed Championship (CIV). An official trial with Cecchini Racing (the super technician Fabrizio Cecchini was nonetheless spotted in the garage during this first Bagger test) that sparked imaginations and speculation focused on the possibility that Iannone would actually contest the top Italian series in the Superbike class. Something another WorldSBK rider, Michael Rinaldi, is doing, for example. Nothing came of it; there was silence about the situation and the Abruzzo rider’s goals, until the twist with the announcement of his presence throughout 2026 in the Bagger World Cup, starting next weekend at Misano. He will be the second Italian in the category alongside Filippo Rovelli (ParkinGO), who immediately reached the podium on the Texas track. We’ll see how the Abruzzo rider fares...

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