Following the Ducati Multistrada's incredibly successful market introduction, the top-selling model has now also won its very first international competition with a convincing victory and 3rd 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 2nd 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 3rd, putting both the Multistrada's on the podium."
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