Antoine Meo And Ducati's DesertX Race To An Erzbergrodeo Front Row

Most employees in the Ducati factory of Borgo Panigale near Bologna, Italy, are knee sliders: starting with big boss Claudio Domenicali, who has been riding and testing the red sportsbikes around the tracks for decades, or press officer Giulio Fabbri, who regularly grinds away the elbow pads during photo sessions with the newest models. That's why the company came to the prototype of the DesertX at EICMA in the fall of 2019 rather like the virgin to the child: in the "Scrambler" business unit, they wanted to explore the adventure potential of the air-cooled twin-cylinder to see what else would be feasible beyond the Desert Sled. The prototype was based on the Scrambler 1100 and received way more attention than the other, Supermotard-style concept based on the 800. The engineers received sufficient input for the off-road features from rally legend Beppe Gualini, who himself has started 65 times in African rallies and has headed the Ducati Riding Experience (DRE) in Italy for years. Also on board was Matteo Graziani, multiple Italian Rally champion, and finally Frenchman Antoine Meo, five-time Enduro World Champion between 2010 and 2015 on Husqvarna and KTM.

At the beginning of 2022, the DesertX was presented to the press and caught quite unanimous praise for the on- and off-road rideability. Ducati had instantly raised the bar by which competitors would have to measure themselves in the future in the ADV segment – at the first shot!

Now, we all know how successful Ducati is in selling sportbikes or SBK and MotoGP replicas with incredible price tags. But this won't last forever, which is why even a brand as successful as Ducati needs to explore new market segments. The Scrambler had already made the first step a few years ago, now comes the DesertX as an ADV bike with sporty genes and it is rumored behind closed doors that even hotter projects with knobby tires are in the pipeline in Borgo Panigale…

Thanks to the commitment of Ducati Austria, who wanted to bring its own rider into the race, the project got moving towards the end of 2022, and Meo finally saw the chance to realise a long-cherished wish (even five-time world champions still have dreams) by starting at Erzberg for the first time in his career.

Two weeks before the event, the team went to Eisenerz, in the center of Austria, to tune the chassis for the rocky hill climbs and the ultra-fast prologue track. It became clear during the first tests that Meo could ride the DesertX like in Ducati's breathtaking presentation video on the motocross track of Dorno in 2022, where he easily put the 500-pound bike sideways in the air over a 100 foot long table top.

After the test, the goals for the race week became clearer: to heave the DesertX into the finish of Sunday's main event would hardly be possible, even for a champion like Meo. However, the offroad commitment of the Italians would still be proven by the participation in the Mitas Rocket Ride, a pure show knockout event, plus in the prologue, which determines the starting grid for the main race.

Few changes to the machine were necessary because the base bike already had the best genes for racing, so engine and mapping remained completely untouched, as the power was already enough to eat up the rear tire in the first few miles. From the Ducati Performance accessories catalog, the racing exhaust was used for weight reduction, and the reinforced skidplate was also fitted. Narrower rims were mounted to fit the Metzeler Six Days Extreme SOFT tires (21x1.85 front with tube and 18x2.5 rear with mousse). The standard 46 mm Kayaba fork with 9.1 in. of travel was replaced with a 48 mm one with a closed cartridge design and 9.8 in. of travel. At the rear, a Kayaba shock with 46 mm piston stroke was used to increase the suspension travel to 9.4 in.. To further reduce weight, one brake disc including the caliper was removed from the front wheel, and the heavy LED modules were taken out of the headlight, while the daytime running lights remained in use.

ABS and traction control were removed, and at Meo's special request, a lower handlebar was fitted.

The Mitas Rocket Ride, in which 277 riders compete in a series of five extreme climbs in as short a time as possible, kicked off the event, with the 48 best making it through to the Superfinals. There, six riders competed in each heat with a Motocross-style start. The top three advanced to the next round until the final race with the remaining six. Meo qualified sixteenth and reached the final round via the elimination races, where he finished fourth, the first two-cylinder bike to do so. He offered a fantastic spectacle and became a crowd favorite when he simply left the 300cc two-strokes standing with his "Pompone twin" on the slopes of the hill climbs. By the way, only one other rider on a two-cylinder bike made it to the Superfinals: Pol Tarres on the Yamaha Ténéré 700; but he was eliminated during the shootout.

At the Erzberg Iron Road Prologue on Friday and Saturday, the 1,200 participants then had the chance to qualify for the 500 starting places at the final race on Sunday. Winding through the quarry over 1,970 ft. of elevation, Meo left no stone unturned on the 8.4-mile course and took the win in the two-cylinder class on both days ahead of Pol Tarres (Yamaha), Xavier De Soultrait (KTM), and second Ducati rider Patrick Neisser. Apart from the victory, he managed to qualify for the 32nd spot on the front row of the starting grid of Sunday's final race with a sensational time of 10:51:376 minutes! No other rider had ever managed to be in the first row of 50 riders on a twin cylinder bike before! Reigning Enduro World Champion Andrea Verona from Italy was the overall winner of the prologue with a time of 10'06''266, while Patrick Neisser won the Akrapovic Speed Challenge with the highest measured speed of 124.98 km/h.

Ducati had left its mark on the Erzberg: the reigning Extreme Enduro World Champion and two-time Erzberg winner Manuel Lettenbichler congratulated Meo, organiser Karl Katoch and the Red Bull team even tried to persuade Antoine to start on the front row on Sunday, because this had never happened before at the mountain of iron.

But Meo waved it off: the risk of scrapping the bike on the track would have been too great. "We still need the machine for other events" was the word from the team. We are curious to see what else may come!