Here’s another entry in the Big Bikes Gone Wild series: Honda ambassador Renato Zocchi has bagged a fifth-overall finish at the Gibraltar Race’s Iberian Ring course while flogging the company’s new XL750 Transalp.

That’s not so surprising as you might think at first. This seems to be more of an endurance event than a race (Zocchi previously flogged a Honda X-ADV scooter to a class win in the Gibraltar Race). Also, Zocchi was entered in the multi-cylinder class, where he was fourth-place. But still, consider that Zocchi was riding a brand-new-for-2023 machine (not even available in North America yet), with no racing pedigree behind it. This race took place only weeks after the bike was publicly released.

If you can understand Italian, you can see his tale of the race below (and maybe you can give us the gist of it, in the comments?).

A very respectable finish, anyway, showing the new Honda is quite capable of handling the tough stuff, even though the Transalp model has not historically been as dirt-focused as the Africa Twin.

The Gibraltar Race has different courses it takes, including one through Africa. The Iberian Ring route goes through the mountains of the French Pyrenees, Portugal and Spain, using public roads.

What about the US market?

We know the Transalp will be here, eventually—and that’s pretty much all we know. At the end of May, Motorcycle.com found documents indicating the machine would come into the States as a 2024 model, but Honda hasn’t confirmed pricing or arrival date or pretty much any other useful information. So, we keep waiting… and watching Euros race the thing!