[kropotkin thinks...] - WSBK 2011 Updates: Xaus At Ten Kate, Maxime Berger With Super

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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With the 2010 season now long gone, the line up for the next World Superbike season is nearing completion. The biggest gap in the line up so far was the empty seat in the Ten Kate Honda garage, alongside Ulsterman Johnny Rea. There had been some speculation that Ten Kate would field only a single bike in the 2011 WSBK championship, after HANNSpree pulled out of the title sponsorship role, but that speculation appears to have been premature.

For Ten Kate announced yesterday that Ruben Xaus is to take the second ride for the Dutch Honda team, taking the place of Max Neukirchner, who departs to ride the MZ in Moto2. Xaus had been dropped from the BMW squad after a difficult year full - rather unsurprisingly, given Xaus' reputation - of crashes. Reading between the lines of the press release, it is clear that Xaus has been brought in to a development role, helping to bring on a Honda CBR1000RR that many observers believed had suffered a lack of development during the 2010 season.

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