Henny Ray Abrams | January 15, 2009
MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO, ITALY, JAN 15: They talked about it yesterday and showed it today.
The bike that the first ever team of MotoGP World Champions will campaign in the 2009 MotoGP World Championship was unveiled today high in the Italian Dolomites by the riders who hope to bring the crown back to Italy.
Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden, the 2006 champ, and 2007 titlist Casey Stoner took the wraps off the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 in a light snow at Malga Zeledria, a remote spot just above the Campo Carlo Magno pass that can only be reached by skis or snow cat.
The GP9 is a radical departure for Ducati, with the V-4 engine surrounded by a carbon fiber frame rather than the trademark Ducati bird cage.
Stoner and Hayden will get their first 2009 test of the machine in Sepang, Malaysia on Feb. 5-7
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
