Okay, so BMW was missing, but the victory of the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S with two podium positions at Pike Peaks comes very close to provings its endurance road and off-road abilities. The Multistrada won in the 1200cc class with Greg Tracy in first place and Alexander Smith in third.

Ducati is claiming that it was mostly a stock motorcycle, with Tracy saying:

“When I was growing up, and all these factory teams would win races, I was sure they had these $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. It had some carbon, and few tweaks and that was it.”

While Smith repeats the fact that the bike was “perfect” we don’t need the PR spiel to be convinced. Not only does the win go one step closer to legitimising the Ducati Multistrada as a bike, it should also be a nice boost in publicity for Ducati in the US. The guys from Autoblog.com are now hoping for a Ducati vs BMW stand-off similar to the Mini vs Porsche one we’ve seen in the world of four wheels.

Photos exclusive to Asphalt&Rubber

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Ducati will take on the Pikes Peak race with its Multistrada 1200S in an attempt to reclaim some racing kudos that we last saw in 2008 when Ducati used a Hypermotard 1100 prototype at the race. That model became the 2010 Hypermotard 1100 EVO and Ducati went on to win in the 1200cc class. The same team from Ducati of Newport Beach and Spider Grips of Southern California will race the 2010 Pikes Peak.

The new bike looks like it has a smaller windscreen, hand-guards and a modified tail section with a good looking paint job. It will be used by riders Greg Trachy and Alexander Smith who both used the Hypermotard in 2008. If nothing else, the Ducati Multistrada 1200 is turning out to be 2010’s most intriguing bike and we’ll be interested to see what its Pikes Peak race credentials are like.

Pikes Peak Ducati Multistrada 1200S

Continue reading: Ducati Multistrada 1200S prepares for Pikes Peak

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