A handful of gods and an arena full of two-wheeled heroes. That’s pretty much how you can describe the World Ducati Week that took place in Italy recently.
It’s a duel on horseback. Except that the riders are sitting on two hundred of them. When cornering (Marc Márquez once pulled off a 70.8° lean angle without falling), riders don’t just drag their knees across the track, but their elbows as well. Nowhere else will you find such an intimate connection with the road surface. If the designation “asphalt cowboys” can ever be applied literally, then in reference to the riders of the MotoGP World Championship.
The modern hero wears a helmet, not a hat. At least at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, named after one of these same heroes who had to leave this world far too soon, aged just twenty-five. This is where World Ducati Week 2024, WDW24 for short, plays out, celebrating the motorcycle lifestyle in all its facets and paying tribute to heroes with evocative Italian names such as Francesco Bagnaia, the current MotoGP champion, Enea Bastianini or Michele Pirro – and, of course, the Spanish brothers Marc and Álex Márquez. For one long weekend, this pilgrimage site is dominated by the color red. Ducati red, to be precise. World Ducati Week, held on the east coast of Italy near the tourist resort of Rimini, can count itself among the world’s most popular motorcycling events alongside Daytona or Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The program includes shows and exhibitions, the Race of Champions – which, according to MotoGP champion Bagnaia, is “the most important race of the season” – and the Ducatisti Parade with thousands of Ducati enthusiasts. The parade starts at Misano Circuit and passes through the streets of the Riviera Romagnola, leading the crowds to the Scrambler Beach Party in Riccione.
Everywhere you turn, the sea breeze gently blows names and designations such as Monster, Diavel, 996, 916, Multistrada, Supersport and, of course, Panigale into your ear. On no other bike is the connection between the racing world and road-going excitement as clear as on the Panigale V4, which is celebrating its world premiere here at WDW24. “Riding a motorcycle is a direct physical experience where you almost completely determine everything yourself. A car relieves the driver of many more tasks and duties, but it also imposes many more demands on him,” says Alessandro Valia, Ducati test and development rider, during the presentation of the V4. The motoring press nods in agreement. Valia continues: “The new Panigale V4 was even faster on the track, as demonstrated during a comparison test where one amateur, one professional and I were all one second faster on the lap on average. That is a sensational value!” The reason for this is, among other things, the new Race eCBS combined braking system. As the first of its kind in the world, it allows riders to brake much later than usual when leaning. When the brake is released, it releases only the front wheel while providing a brief burst of braking power on the rear wheel. This causes the bike to turn more inwards. MotoGP professionals do the same thing intuitively with their foot on the rear brake. Now this has been translated into digital technology for the entire braking system. “For us, this is a big step ahead in allowing ambitious amateurs to ride even better,” says Valia.
In its seventh generation, the Panigale, like no other bike, represents the road-going offshoot of MotoGP: 216 hp at 13,500 rpm, 120.9 Nm, and all this with a weight of less than 200 kilograms. These are performance figures that would have pushed seasoned racers to the limits of their riding skills just a few years ago. But just like in racing, the technical development has now been transferred to series production. And the Ducatisti are lining up in droves. For them, the technical features read like the wistful lyrics of a western song around the campfire, sung by asphalt cowboys to the setting sun, while one of them sets the unfiltered beat with his Akrapovič exhaust: Ducati Power Launch (DPL), Ducati Quick Shift (DQS) Up/Down 2.0, full LED headlights with Daytime Running Light (DRL), Sachs steering damper, quick select buttons, pit limiter, automatic indicator reset.
WDW is a huge party with a diverse audience where families and hardcore bikers come together. This year, the event drew 94,000 visitors, a new record and an increase of eighteen percent compared to 2022. Daniel Konrad, managing director of Ducati Germany, sees this as confirmation of the brand’s enormous growth potential. “We are obviously delighted to see this kind of development and are very confident about the future.” He puts on his helmet and starts up a Scrambler. “Two years from now, we will be celebrating one hundred years of Ducati.” Then he heads for the beach party, riding off into the sunset.
Text & Photos: Matthias Mederer · ramp.pictures
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