Ex-MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden dies at 35

2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden died on Monday five days after being involved in a road accident.

Hayden was involved in a cycling collision last Wednesday where he was hit by a car while he was cycling along the Rimini coastline in Italy.

According to the Independent, the 35-year-old American had suffered head and chest injuries and was transferred to the Maurizio Bufalini Hospital in Cesena, where he was treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

The hospital on Monday afternoon announced his death, with doctors saying that Hayden had suffered "a serious polytrauma" following the accident.

"The medical team has verified the death of the patient Nicholas Patrick Hayden, who has been undergoing care since last Wednesday 17 May in the intensive care unit of the Bufalini Hospital in Cesena following a very serious polytrauma which occurred the same day," the hospital statement read.

Hayden entered MotoGPin 2003 and won the world championship in 2006, with a narrow win over Valentino Rossi, who had won the title five times in a row.

Hayden, who was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, transferred to World Superbikes in 2016. He was competing for the Red Bull Honda team this season and was 13th in the riders' standings.