The Camel Pons Honda squad has today officially announced their rider line-up for the 2005 MotoGP campaign. Former factory Ducati rider Troy Bayliss and Grand Prix Stalwart Alex Barros will compete for the Sito Pons managed, Camel sponsored satellite Honda team, and, both will use Michelin tires.

Barros, who rode for the Repsol Honda team during 2004, will take chief engineer Ramon Forcada with him and will be joined by telemetry technician Lluis Leonart.

The veteran Brazilian returns to the Spanish garage that he inhabited during his first stint with the Pons outfit between 1999 and 2002 winning 5 Grand Prix and taking 14 podium finishes. With almost 250 Grand Prix starts to his name, Barros is one of the most experienced men in the premier class and with Bayliss as team-mate, they should make a formidable pairing for next season.

The 2001 World Superbike Champion, Troy Bayliss, who ended his five-year association with Ducati Corse after the Valencian Grand Prix earlier this month, takes Santi Mulero to the Honda customer team as chief engineer and will also be assisted by telemetry technician, Ramon Aurin.

As reported on Soup earlier today, (link) both team boss Sito Pons and Roberto Zanni of JT International (controlling organisation for Camel tobacco brand related products) were up beat about the prospects of their partnership for the 2005 season.

This news of course confirms the departure of both Max Biaggi and Makoto Tamada.

As we reported last week, amongst other rumors, Biaggi looks set to sign as an official works rider to partner Nick Hayden and Tamada looks likely to be aboard a 7th Honda V5 in a team run by former Pramac man, Gianluca Montiron.

All of this news, of course, means that the working relationship between the Camel Pons team and the Bridgestone tire company is officially at an end.

The new pairing is due to test this week at Jerez.