Xaus desperate to ditch 'Ducati style'.

Ruben Xaus will be out to kickstart his 2005 season in front of his home fans on Sunday, when MotoGP arrives at Barcelona for the Catalan Grand Prix.

"Catalunya is my home race, so I always look forward to it," said Ruben. "A lot of people were cheering for me last year after I qualified on the second row. I was impressed, the grid was full of important people, like politicians and so on, people I normally only see on TV! It was more like being at a big football match."

Rolfo, Xaus, Italian MotoGP Race, 2005
Rolfo, Xaus, Italian MotoGP Race, 2005
© Gold and Goose

Ruben Xaus will be out to kickstart his 2005 season in front of his home fans on Sunday, when MotoGP arrives at Barcelona for the Catalan Grand Prix.

"Catalunya is my home race, so I always look forward to it," said Ruben. "A lot of people were cheering for me last year after I qualified on the second row. I was impressed, the grid was full of important people, like politicians and so on, people I normally only see on TV! It was more like being at a big football match."

Indeed, Xaus had one of the best results of his rookie MotoGP season at Catalunya last year, taking his D'Antin Ducati to a popular sixth-place finish and the current Fortuna Yamaha rider can count on other impressive rides at the track, mostly on production bikes.

"At the 1996 Catalan GP I won the Thunderbike race (a now defunct series for 600s on street tyres)," recalled Xaus. "I had been using another tyre brand, changed to Michelin for morning warm-up and won the race. The following year I won the 24 hour race, on another CBR600 running Michelins. The track is great, it has everything in 4.7km: long corners, short corners, uphill, downhill, a long straight and heavy braking."

Xaus will be looking to exploit every ounce of such local knowledge this weekend as he seeks a return to his 2004 form. The #11 has been somewhat subdued since his switch to Yamaha - with a best finish of just tenth to date - and had started to face severe pressure from rookie team-mate Toni Elias, until his Le Mans testing accident.

"My problem is my riding style. I stop the bike, turn it, then stand it up, so I lack some sidegrip," explained Ruben. "This isn't a tyre problem, it is my problem, so I need to work at adapting my riding style, which isn't easy. I have been used to riding Ducatis for a long time. The Yamaha is good but very different, and I see Troy Bayliss having similar trouble after switching from Ducati to Honda."

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