Rubén Xaus

Rubén Xaus (born 18 February 1978 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) is a retired motorcycle road racer. During his career he competed in both the Superbike World Championship and the MotoGP. He is nicknamed 'Spider-Man', as his lanky frame leads him to hang over the bike in an unusual way.

Rubén Xaus
Rubén Xaus
Nationality	Spanish
Born	(1978-02-18) 18 February 1978 (age 46) Sant Cugat del Vallès, Catalunya (Spain)
Website	rubenxaus.net

Early years

His father, who competed in amateur mountain bicycle races, gave Xaus his first motorcycle at the age of five, a Montesa 25cc. Aged 14 he was racing dirt-bikes, but his father convinced him to turn his attentions towards road racing. Xaus took part in the 125cc Catalan Championship, the 125cc Solo Moto Criterium, and that same year he took victory in the 80cc Catalonia Supermoto Championship.

In 1994 he competed in the Open Ducados Supersport series in Spain – finishing 17th place, improving to third the following year. In 1995 he entered the FIM Thunderbike trophy and contested four 250cc Grand Prix. Xaus finished sixth in Thunderbike in 1996, moving to World Supersport in 1997 taking 17th overall.

In 1998 he rode in the German Pro-Superbike series, taking sixth place overall. In 1999 he finished fifth in the Supersport World Championship, taking his first ever victory at Misano. In 2000 he rode one of the official Ducati factory team Supersport bikes, finishing seventh and taking one victory.

Superbikes

For 2001 he moved to the factory Ducati Superbike team in partnership with then-champion Troy Bayliss. He struggled early in the season, with a best result of 5th from the first 8 meetings. However, in race 2 at Oschersleben he became the first Spaniard ever to take victory in the Superbike World Championship. A pair of 2nds at Assen (helping Bayliss to clinch the title) and a second win at Imola gave him sixth in the championship. Sixth place in 2002 was followed by fifteen podiums and seven victories in 2003, finishing runner up to teammate Neil Hodgson.

MotoGP

Xaus made his move into the MotoGP World Championship in 2004 as part of the satellite D'Antin Ducati team. The team was grossly under funded and could not afford testing time, but Xaus adapted better to the situation than teammate Hodgson. Consistent points-scoring performances and a first podium at Qatar saw him snap up the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title and 11th place overall in the championship standings. In 2005 he moved to the Fortuna Yamaha Team to ride alongside his friend Toni Elías. But a more pronounced power delivery and difficult chassis and Xaus's charging/forced riding style meant he looked a different rider to the one of 2004. He crashed numerous times, finishing 16th overall with a best finish of 10th .

By season

Season	Class	Moto	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2004	MotoGP	GP4	16	0	1	0	0	77	11th	–
2005	MotoGP	Yamaha YZR-M1	16	0	0	0	0	52	16th	–
Total			32	0	1	0	0	129		0

Superbikes part 2

For 2006 he returned to the Superbike World Championship, with a ride for the new Italian satellite Ducati team Sterilgarda Berik, alongside team owner Marco Borciani. He twice set the fastest lap, but his fast charges often ended in crashes, and he was only 14th overall.

He ended the 2007 season 6th with a total 201 points (next behind the former world champion Troy Corser), scoring the team's first victory in Valencia.

For 2008 Xaus was joined by Max Biaggi on a Ducati 1098R for Sterilgarda-GoEleven, under the team management of Borciani. He finished 2nd in race 2 at the season-opening event in Qatar and took a victory at Misano in Race 2 in front of Biaggi and Bayliss, but has had no further podiums. At Donington Park he believed he had finished 3rd in a race stopped by heavy rain, but found out immediately before the podium celebration that he had been disqualified for not returning to the pits quickly enough after crashing immediately before the race was stopped. He then refused to leave the podium and verbally assaulted the marshals, including the rider who inherited the third spot on the podium - his team-mate Max Biaggi. With three rounds remaining he lies 10th in the standings.

On 26 June 2008, Xaus signed to ride the BMW S1000RR bike for the factory BMW Motorrad team in the 2009 WSB Championship.^[1][2]

Personal data

On 16 March 2007 Xaus married long-term partner Mariona. The wedding was held in Andorra, where the couple live with their daughter Julia, who was born in November 2006.^[3]

Xaus' hobbies include mountain biking, snowboarding and golf. He is 183 cm tall and weighs 74 kg.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Pts
1995	250cc	Honda	AUS	MAL	JPN	SPA	GER	ITA	NED	FRA	GBR Ret	CZE 23	BRA 16	ARG Ret	EUR Ret					NC	0
2004	MotoGP	Ducati	RSA Ret	ESP Ret	FRA 14	ITA 5	CAT 6	NED 7	BRA 12	GER 11	GBR 11	CZE Ret	POR Ret	JPN 9	QAT 3	MAL 13	AUS 11	VAL Ret		11th	77
2005	MotoGP	Yamaha	SPA 18	POR 10	CHN 10	FRA 12	ITA 14	CAT 10	NED 12	USA 11	GBR Ret	GER 13	CZE 18	JPN 10	MAL 15	QAT 14	AUS 12	TUR 14	VAL 15	16th	52

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1997	Honda	SMR Ret	GBR Ret	GER 19	ITA 14	EUR 12	AUT 15	NED Ret	GER DNS	SPA 15	JPN 15	INA 5	17th	20
1999	Yamaha	RSA Ret	GBR Ret	SPA Ret	ITA 2	GER Ret	SMR 1	USA 23	EUR 2	AUT Ret	NED 3	GER 2	5th	101
2000	Ducati	AUS 23	JPN 18	GBR Ret	ITA 6	GER 2	SMR Ret	SPA 18	EUR 7	NED 1	GER 4	GBR Ret	7th	77

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos.	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
1998	Suzuki	AUS	AUS	GBR	GBR	ITA	ITA	SPA	SPA	GER 15	GER 16	SMR	SMR	RSA	RSA	USA	USA	EUR	EUR	AUT	AUT	NED	NED	JPN	JPN					51st	1
2001	Ducati	SPA Ret	SPA 8	RSA 9	RSA 5	AUS Ret	AUS C	JPN 18	JPN 22	ITA Ret	ITA 6	GBR 7	GBR 10	GER 19	GER 6	SMR 10	SMR 6	USA 7	USA 10	EUR 6	EUR 12	GER 2	GER 1	NED 2	NED 2	ITA 1	ITA 2			6th	236
2002	Ducati	SPA 5	SPA Ret	AUS 3	AUS 3	RSA 3	RSA 2	JPN Ret	JPN 9	ITA 6	ITA Ret	GBR 8	GBR 3	GER 3	GER 3	SMR Ret	SMR Ret	USA 2	USA 19	GBR 5	GBR 6	GER Ret	GER 5	NED 4	NED Ret	ITA 3	ITA 3			6th	249
2003	Ducati	SPA 2	SPA 2	AUS 2	AUS 2	JPN 4	JPN 4	ITA 7	ITA Ret	GER Ret	GER 5	GBR 3	GBR 3	SMR 1	SMR 1	USA Ret	USA 1	GBR Ret	GBR 4	NED 1	NED 2	ITA 1	ITA 1	FRA 2	FRA 1					2nd	386
2006	Ducati	QAT 15	QAT 10	AUS 7	AUS 8	SPA 7	SPA Ret	ITA Ret	ITA 15	EUR 4	EUR 7	SMR 9	SMR 9	CZE Ret	CZE 14	GBR 10	GBR 10	NED Ret	NED 5	GER 15	GER 9	ITA Ret	ITA Ret	FRA DNS	FRA					14th	103
2007	Ducati	QAT 10	QAT 9	AUS 7	AUS 6	EUR Ret	EUR 4	SPA 1	SPA 4	NED 3	NED Ret	ITA 12	ITA 13	GBR 9	GBR C	SMR 8	SMR 7	CZE 12	CZE 10	GBR 4	GBR 6	GER 12	GER 6	ITA Ret	ITA 6	FRA 8	FRA 10			6th	201
2008	Ducati	QAT 4	QAT 2	AUS 4	AUS 4	SPA Ret	SPA 7	NED 16	NED 4	ITA Ret	ITA 7	USA 14	USA Ret	GER 6	GER 8	SMR 4	SMR 1	CZE Ret	CZE Ret	GBR DNS	GBR DNS	EUR Ret	EUR 8	ITA Ret	ITA 12	FRA Ret	FRA 5	POR 9	POR Ret	10th	178
2009	BMW	AUS 19	AUS 11	QAT 13	QAT 10	SPA 13	SPA 16	NED 14	NED 11	ITA 7	ITA 9	RSA Ret	RSA Ret	USA 21	USA 16	SMR 14	SMR 16	GBR 15	GBR 9	CZE Ret	CZE DNS	GER	GER	ITA 12	ITA 13	FRA 11	FRA 12	POR 8	POR Ret	17th	74
2010	BMW	AUS DNS	AUS DNS	POR 10	POR 12	SPA 12	SPA 11	NED Ret	NED 10	ITA 6	ITA Ret	RSA 14	RSA 11	USA 10	USA 11	SMR Ret	SMR Ret	CZE 5	CZE Ret	GBR 17	GBR 11	GER 7	GER 9	ITA 12	ITA 9	FRA Ret	FRA DNS			15th	96
2011	Honda	AUS 16	AUS 10	EUR 12	EUR 10	NED 8	NED 14	ITA 15	ITA 12	USA Ret	USA 18	SMR 11	SMR 8	SPA 16	SPA Ret	CZE Ret	CZE DNS	GBR	GBR	GER	GER	ITA 17	ITA 11	FRA DNS	FRA DNS	POR	POR			17th	49

References

1. "Ruben Xaus signs with BMW Motorrad Motorsport". World Super Bikes. 2008-06-26. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
2. Insidebikes World Superbike News Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
3. SBK – Official Site – News

External links

• Rubén Xaus at MotoGP.com
• Rubén Xaus at WorldSBK.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Régis Laconi Yvan Muller Gilles Panizzi	Race of Champions Nations' Cup 2001 with: Fernando Alonso Jesús Puras	Succeeded by Colin Edwards Jeff Gordon Jimmie Johnson