Henny Ray Abrams | January 15, 2010
Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden showed off his vastly improved skiing skills in the ski race on the slopes of Madonna di Campiglio, the Italian ski resort high in the Dolomites that is hosting the 20th anniversary of Wrooom, the combined Ducati/Ferrari team launch.”They wasn’t waiting at the bottom to offer me a ski contract, but I got to the finish,” he joked.Last year, Hayden gamely snow plowed through a handful of gates with his instructor skiing backwards in front of him before pulling off early on the course. This year he was on his own and flying down the slopes, which including some Black Diamond hills, the steepest kind.”Yeah, I mean it was fun,” he said on the final day of Wrooom 2010. “I didn’t expect to break no record or nothing. But it’s my second year here. I can’t really claim beginner no more now that I’ve had a couple days on the slopes.”Although he didn’t make it onto the podium, Hayden was happy with his performance.”The instructor didn’t hold my hand on the way down: They gave me the green light,” he said. “We actually did a lot more skiing today and yesterday. I did some black slopes, which is picking it up a little bit.”Next Hayden moves to four wheels. He’ll face off against teammate Casey Stoner and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and a few others, in pair of ice races on the specially designed ice course in the center of Madonna di Campiglio. They will first drive identically prepared Fiat Pandas before switching to go-karts.The next time Hayden sees the team it will be for the first test of 2010 in Sepang, Malaysia in early February.
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.
