MotoGP – Pedrosa life as KTM test rider off to a bad start

Bruno Gomes

January 10, 2019

Do you remember the article we published a few days ago, about how many stitches Dani Pedrosa had in his body? Well, it’s clear that the body of the Spanish rider is indeed very affected by the crashes he suffered along the years racing in MotoGP, and those problems continue to affect Dani Pedrosa as his life as KTM test rider is off to a bad start.

KTM Racing has issued a press release, in which the Austrian team reveals they won’t be able to have Pedrosa’s input on the development of their RC16 MotoGP prototype for most of the next season. The reason: a broken collarbone.

Having tested the KTM RC16 in December, on a private test session in Jerez, Dani Pedrosa was expected to participate on the official pre-season test sessions, starting in February in Sepang, Malaysia. But the Spaniard, enjoying a much needed Winter vacations, suffered a broken collarbone in result of what he describes as a “gesture of strength”.

As such, this injury isn’t the result of a crash while riding a bike, or it doesn’t seem to be a result of a significant impact. Instead, and from what we take from Dani Pedrosa words, the Spaniard simply broke his bone while doing a strong movement with his arms.

Although Dani Pedrosa has many past injuries, the worst are the ones in the back and collarbones. Specifically, the right collarbone.

As a result of so many crashes in MotoGP, Dani Pedrosa already broke the right collarbone twice in his racing career, having steel plates attached to the bones to help them heal properly. But the bone itself has been severely weakened as a result of the crashes, meaning bone growth is slower than supposed to be. Pedrosa needs to have stem cells treatments to the bone to counteract the osteoporosis and lack of blood flow to the bone, and recovery takes a lot longer than usual.

He will be subject to surgery to fix the broken collarbone, and will then have to stay of out action for most part of the season, so that the bones grow as they should. It’s expected that Dani Pedrosa might join KTM’s development program later in the season, but that’s still to be confirmed.

This definitely isn’t the best start to Dani Pedrosa’s career as KTM test rider.