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BIOGRAPHY

The first time Daniel Pedrosa got on a motorbike was at the age of four and his machine, a motocross Italjet 50, had side-wheels. At the age of six, Dani began racing on minibikes. His first pocket bike was a miniature copy of a street Kawasaki. Other bikes followed, circuits and races with friends, always for fun and not even imagining what was yet to come.

It was in 1996 when the ten-year-old Dani entered the Spanish Minibike Championship. Dani began to race on kart circuits all over Spain, always joined by his parents and with the bike in the car trunk. They were also joined by Danis little brother, Eric, 5 years younger than Dani, who is taking his first steps in motorbike riding as well. That same year, Dani finished his first race in sixth position, due to a problem with the exhaust pipe of his bike. With the second race came his first podium finish. He liked the experience and decided to enter the same Championship the next year, after finishing second overall in his first season.

But he had bad luck and a few days before the 1997 season Dani got chicken pox. The result was that he wasnt even able to put on the helmet. It was the beginning of the season and given the problem, Pedrosa finished that season eight points behind the leader, in the third overall position.

Although Pedrosa managed to get the title in 1998 he still enjoyed racing as a mere hobby. The Aprilia 50 Cup and the Open RACC were popular promotion cups in those days and Pedrosa considered the possibility to enter one of them. But due to the lack of means and support and despite his good results, Dani decided to leave motorbikes aside and to change over to mountain bikes.

When he was just about to get the licence to start racing on bicycles, the family heard from a friend that the Movistar Activa Cup, a promotion cup with competition bikes, was being organised. The change from minibikes to racing bikes was huge and Dani was still young, but in early 1999 they decided to send an entry form to take part in the trials that would be held at the Jarama circuit in Madrid. The weekend before the trials Pedrosa learned to ride a bike with a gearbox on an industrial area nearby his home with a borrowed bike. It was his first time on a circuit and he was not only nervous; the bike was so high that his feet didnt reach the floor.

Despite everything, the 13-year-old passed the trials and took part in the Movistar Activa Cup that year finishing in a meritorious eighth position. Of the twenty-five riders taking part in the Cup that year, only three were able to become part of Alberto Puigs team, who, given Pedrosa's huge potential, included him among the chosen, with Joan Olivé and Raúl Jara. 

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