There's a postcard that I received from my daughter when she was lucky enough to be studying in Lausanne. It features a gnarly, graying French cyclist smoking a pipe, as he pedals over the crest of a mountain pass. It reads: "Ou ne monterais-je pas disent tous les rois de la route"

On Saturday, I met a another champion face-to face. I rode up Pikes Peak on a borrowed 2012 Ducati Multistrada 1200 to find him. A limited, numbered Pikes Peak edition Multistrada, by the way. I know it, I have some pretty trusting friends, this one is golden.

There stood the real thing. The King of the Mountain. Six-time Pikes Peak winner and stuntman Greg Tracy.

So, imagine my surprise when he walked away from the crowd of important people, who were directing this affair, to greet me personally, and by personally I mean shaking my hand and giving me a brother-hug. Yea, actually, he did. To say that the guy is a class act is an understatment, because that was our first meeting.

I'd love to tell you all about the commercial, but I am sworn to secrecy for the next two weeks. If I told you I'd..., well, just keep an eye out for it.

If you've never driven Pikes Peak, put it on your list of things to do. There are other redoubtable mountain roads in the world and even here in Colorado, but you can't ride them at 130+ mph. Greg does. Let that sink in a bit while you look at the pictures. Trust me, there are white-knuckled drivers crawling up at barely 15 mph. This is a road that can make a grown man throw up something he ate back in the fifth grade.

And yes, Greg actually signed the Multistrada for my buddy. Now this is a guy you want to watch and cheer on to victory.

Read full race coverage all week at: http://www.examiner.com/classic-motorcycle-in-national/ray-roske

_{copyright©2012rayroske}