By Manuel Pecino /Photos courtesy 2snap /Copyrights reserved

I was there when a boy named Dani Pedrosa arrived to World Championship paddock back in 2001. That’s why it’s going to be strange for me to not see him at the circuits or read his name in the standings. Along his 18 years as GP rider I have witnessed his joys and disappointments. Dani Pedrosa is a close chapter for the World Championship and vice versa. But before leaving him behind, I wanted to have a conversation I had never had in all these years…

“How did happen me arriving into de World Championship? … I came to the GPs because I competed against other children whose parents told mine I should try to run in something more important, in a promotion cup, and in the end I decided with my father to sign up for one of those championships, which was the Movistar Cup.” The speaker is Dani Pedrosa, the now former GP racer.

As a result of your withdrawal from the competition, many photos from those early beginnings have come to light. Photos where you see a very little Dani Pedrosa running sometimes with suits very different from the impeccable leathers of an official MotoGP rider. The road to the top is never easy, right? Many weekends on the road, many disappointments …

“… from 5 years old, more or less. It’s when you start. There you never consider if you are going to become a professional rider or not. You are still learning to ride a motorcycle.”

But do you remember it as a difficult time or did you do it because you really liked it?

“No, no way, I wanted to do it every day! What happens, of course, is I had to wait for the weekends.”

Some of your now ex-colleagues told us that looking back and seeing everything it cost them to get where they are, they would not do it again. And you, would you repeat despite all those efforts?

“Yes, definitely. It’s a life experience … In my case, for example, the good part is that I, I don’t know why, since I was little, almost since I was a baby I would tell you, I knew what I wanted. And comparing it with friends or ex-colleagues from school that went to university, almost always they finished and were like ‘I don’t know what I want to do’ or they tried one thing and they didn’t finish it, they tried something else … The luck that I have had since I was little, I’ve always known what I wanted and I’ve been able to do it. My family allowed me to do it, and later life allowed me to do it as well… That’s why I would do it again.”

So in your case there no looking back nostalgically and regretfully remembering weekends of sacrifice that prevented you from doing “normal” things?

“No, none, on the contrary, it was what I wanted.”

And when you arrived to the championship, was it how you expected? Because I imagine you had a preconceived idea, possibly idealized, of a kind of life of continuous trips around the world and things of this style.

“Well, no. I had a concept…well I didn’t even think that you had to take so many planes to go to the races. I just sat on the couch in front of the television and saw that there was a race that I would like to be in, but that’s it. I didn’t think you have to leave on Tuesday to get there on Wednesday because everything starts on Thursday. I didn’t have an idea of how the raced worked and what it entailed: the press, the sponsors, the events…”

So, were not you surprised because you didn’t have any preconceived ideas?

“I was so eager to get on a bike that the only thing I had in my head was to ride a motorcycle; I didn’t know what it meant to do races.”

Your leaving is all the news, as they say, but how do you think you will remember your time in the races? What do you think will stand out to you most?

“Well, I think the excitement and the passion we’re talking about: those weekends, that passion, those stories…That energy, those desires that were there. That’s the memories I’m left with, but above all the story of where I’ve come from and how far I’ve gotten…When I look at my father…The other day he showed me some boots and gloves that were mine and are tiny, tiny things. Looking at them I thought, ‘from that day to where I am now, look what we did’.”

Yes, I get goose bumps! People only see the end, the tip of the iceberg, right?

“Yes, but well, that’s what you carry inside: you, your father, your mother…For example, my brother. My brother had to sacrifice a lot so that everything was for my good…Those are all things you take with you.”



And what about the negative things? Because I imagine there have also been some negative memories. Do you forget the bad experiences and leave them behind?

“My balance is to the positive, as I see it. From the negative things that have happened to me, the injuries or not being at the right time in the right place when others were, all that leads you to learn, you know yourself better, your reactions, your character. These situations give you a much stronger concept of yourself. It helps you know yourself much better.”





If you had to choose one of the 289 races that you ran in the World Championship, which one would you choose? Would you be able to choose the best of all your races?

“Probably…I would probably choose Valencia 2012 when I started from the pit lane, or the one in Assen in 250s wheret I started from the front row but the bike failed and I was last. And there I had two moments where my brain disconnected, totally! I went between people on the dry asphalt that had in plan ‘they better move or I’ll move them’ and I went through spaces that were opening the minute … It’s as if people noticed I was arriving and they had to move away.”

Like a video game

“Yes, more or less … Those were two moments that I was at the limit, the risk limit, knowing and being aware that I was not in control and that was what God wants.”

And how coming out of that trance situation? Do you come back suddenly and you realize that you are going “very crazy”?

“Yes, it is like that. Let’s say that when you have overtaken everyone and you passed this state that we could call an ’emergency’, and you are on the podium or later, suddenly it is as if you wake up and say ‘Ugh, what now?’ You have to focus again. Because suddenly you see… it’s wet!…the footprint is so narrow!…This is bothering me! …Two people can’t fit here!…Suddenly you are much more aware of the situation you are in, while before you are in a way…in another dimension.”

The same question as the top race, but now about a full season. If I remember correctly there were three in which the MotoGP title was within reach.

“2012, my favorite season, that I remember is 2012, yes. It wasn’t won because of Misano and so on, and I was also close in the next one, in 2013, where I had the cable incident with Marc and broke my clavicle in Germany. But I prefer 2012 over 2013; I felt better.”

With the microphone off, I asked Pedrosa one last question … “Who do you feel you owe more for having achieved what you achieved as a rider?” … Mentally I had prepared a list of possible answers. I imagine that they were the same names that you are thinking of: my parents, Alberto Puig, Telefonica, Honda, Repsol … Well, if I gave you a hundred opportunities, you would probably run out all of them without getting the right answer.

“I would say my brother” … “Sorry, your brother”, I answered without being able to hide my surprise. “My family was a humble family and my parents made a great economic effort so that I could race, often spending on myself a money that probably would have corresponded to my brother. I was able to do what I liked most and ended reaching my dream. My brother also spend most of his childhood weekends on races which he did not even like! He never had the chance to do what he really liked, because of me. He was kind of sacrificed. That’s why I think my brother Is the person I owe the most … ”