Ducati Multistrada 1200 Takes On Pikes Peak 2010

The four-in-one Ducati Multistrada 1200 bike made a successful debut at this year’s Pikes Peak event, as the machine won its very first international competition. The Italian manufacturer entered two Multistrada 1200 machines in the Race to the Clouds, with the team being managed in partnership with Spider Grips.

Ducati’s top-selling model registered one victory and a 3rd place finish in the 1200cc class. In the hands of Greg Tracy, the Multistrada 1200 S took the top podium position at 14,110 feet (4,300 meters).

“The Spider Grips Falkner-Livingston Multistrada was an amazing ride,” said Tracy in the post race award ceremony. “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.”

The second Multistrada was ridden by Alexander Smith. “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.”

This marked Ducati's second attempt to win the famous hill climb, following a 2008 effort in which Ducati won the 1200cc class with the Hypermotard 1100.