Ducati, look to Triumph: the British dream that is upending Motocross in just 3 years

Ducati, take note from Triumph: in just three years, a Motocross protagonist and now at the top in MX2. A brief story of an innovative and winning project.

The Bologna-based Ducati entered the Motocross World Championship full-time last year, after “dress rehearsals” in 2024 (but the Desmo450 MX project began in 2021). Will it reach the top in off-road? What’s certain is that it has a very interesting benchmark: Triumph Motorcycles, which in just three years in the World Championship has made incredible progress and is now threatening the top of the MX2 class, currently in the hands of the feisty Belgian Sacha Coenen on KTM. The 250 was the big initial project; this year, the Spaniard Guillem Farres (who also triumphed last weekend in Portugal) and the South African Camden McLellan seem to be reaping the rewards of hard work. The Motocross season is very long, but the signals are loud and clear! “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” as Paolo Ciabatti reiterated about Ducati’s project: a phrase that also applies to Triumph, even if the progress has been particularly rapid.

A multi-million investment for a thoroughly modern fairy tale. The official debut came in November 2023, when the TF 250-X model was unveiled to launch the new Motocross challenge. A bike “born from a blank sheet, developed entirely in-house,” as brand general manager Steve Sargent emphasized at the presentation of Triumph’s new “little one”: a true revolution for the Hinckley brand, which in over 120 years of history had never built a specialized motocross bike. A 4-stroke engine with high-performance technical specifications, an exclusive aluminum frame, titanium valves, and a full weight of 104 kg: a compact and lightweight motocross bike, enhanced by the best components also available on the market. The innovative TF 250-X features a design defined as essential, light, compact, and at the same time bold, immediately recognizable on track thanks to refined, sporty graphics playing on the brand’s black and yellow color pairing. The “big sister” followed, the TF 450-RC, developed and signed by Ricky Carmichael, with which the brand is tackling the MXGP class of the Motocross World Championship.

Of course, the winning project didn’t come overnight: roughly 150 prototypes were developed and tested before nailing the right model, drawing on the collaboration of true off-road legends like the aforementioned multi-time AMA champion Ricky Carmichael and Ivan Cervantes, who certainly provided invaluable guidance. We should note that MXGP and MX2 World Championship off-road is new terrain for the British company, though perhaps a few subtle pointers also came from the brand’s desert and scrambler challenges of the past: you surely know the Bonneville, Tiger, or TR65 models; the TR6 Trophy is also iconic, seen in the famous film “The Great Escape” with Steve McQueen, an accomplished motorcyclist whose favorite Triumph was the TR5 Trophy. That’s history; the present tells us that Farres and McLellan are carrying the Triumph name very high in MX2: GP wins, 1-2 finishes, even a brief stint in the points lead—small but steady pieces of history adding up. In the overall standings, Coenen isn’t far away—so it’s fair to dream, right?

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