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Overview
One of the two Xaus Factory race bikes used throughout the 2001 season
One of just six Factory F01 998s produced in total
Sister bike to the World Championship Troy Bayliss winner
This bike won in Germany and Imola in Italy
Multiple race podiums - 1st or 2nd place in the final six races
Contributed to Ducati winning the 2001 Manufacturer title
Leased to GSE for James Toseland in 2002
Acquired directly from the factory in January 2003
Part of the Historic Collection since Dec 2010
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Ruben Xaus’s multi race winning Factory 2001 World Superbike
2001 World Superbike Championship was a fairytale season for Ducati, they took 24 podiums from 25 races, 14 of these wins. This earned Ducati the riders title with Troy Bayliss as well as the manufacturers title with the help of Ben Bostrom and Ruben Xaus.
This bike is one of the two factory Xaus bikes used throughout the season and the sister bike to the Troy Bayliss World Championship Winner. This actual bike is the one that Ruben Xaus rode to his very first World Superbike race win at Oschersleben, the first ever win for a Spanish rider in World Superbike.
2001 was Xaus’ debut season in World Superbike and although he took some time to adjust to the top level of Superbike racing he quickly adapted and finished the season strong with 6 podiums in a row, two wins and four second places in the final three rounds.
Although stickered up as a 996, Ducati’s Works bikes for 2001 were actually the very first of the 998s. Because they had not yet launched the 998 road bike they maintained the 996 stickers in order to market their currently available road bikes. The accompanying factory certification supports the fact that this bike was internally referred to as a 998.