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The Ducati Multistrada has won its very
first international competition with a
convincing victory and third place finish in
the 1200cc class of the annual Pike’s Peak
International Hill Climb, held on Sunday
high in the mountains above Colorado
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Following the Ducati
Multistrada’s successful market introduction, the model
has now also won its very first international
competition with a convincing victory and third place
finish in the 1200cc class of the annual Pike’s Peak
International Hill Climb, held on Sunday high in the
mountains above Colorado Springs. The win further
underlines world-wide acclaim received for the
ground-breaking technology introduced by the
Bologna-based company earlier this year.
In the hands of Pike’s Peak veteran, Greg Tracy, the
Multistrada 1200 S took a massive lead off the start
line, and rode up into the clouds to take the top podium
position at 14,110 feet (4,300 meters). Tracy ran a
smooth race, demonstrating the exceptional on and
off-road capabilities of Ducati’s innovative new model,
which uses electronically controlled “riding-modes” to
deliver top performance across all terrains.
“That was an exciting week I’ve got to say,” said Tracy
in the post race award ceremony. “I want to thank Ducati
for the opportunity they’ve given me. The Spider Grips
Falkner-Livingston Multistrada was an amazing ride.
Everyone did an awesome job and that motorcycle is crazy
fast. It hit 137mph (220km/h) at one point up the hill
and worked great both on the dirt and the asphalt. When
I was growing up, and all these factory teams would win
races, I was sure they had $100,000 engines and that was
why they went so fast. I was wrong. This is my first
year on a factory motorcycle and I’ll tell you that bike
was box-stock standard. It had some carbon, and few
tweaks and that was it.”
Greg’s teammate, Alexander Smith, also put in a
formidable performance, ensuring the second Ducati
Multistrada entry also made the podium. Alexander fought
his way up the mountain in second position and looked
set for a 1-2 finish before falling in the last corner
and remounting to grab 3rd place.
“I have to repeat everything Greg said about the bike,
it was really perfect,” said Smith. “The race was good,
and if you see the start line footage you can tell how
awesome the bike was working. It was a pretty smooth
race up until the last corner where I kind of laid it
down. I got off real quick and remounted which was still
good enough for third, putting both the Multistrada’s on
the podium.”
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