Spanish website’s Motocuatro.
com was the first to launch the rumor that Dani Pedrosa was not racing at Catalunya because he further injured himself in some sort of accident (training with his bicycle, with a supermotard or he had a domestic accident) which kept the media busy all during the Spanish weekend trying to find if there was any kernel of truth to the story, despite repeated denials by Repsol Honda and Livio Suppo.
However Pedrosa’s absence from the garage was considered suspicious as Montmelò was his home race and he could have shown up just to sign a few autographs and get his picture taken because that’s promoting (everyone shows up for their home race, even if they’re injured) so Italian website Motocorse.
com decided to dig deeper into the story and did some pretty cool investigative work, piecing together several items and coming up with something worthy of any procedural police TV drama.
Here’s what the Italian sleuth found: at the New Park bowling alley in Barcelona, this photo (above on the left) of Pedrosa posing with some fans was taken on Saturday May 28th and note that the Repsol Honda rider isn’t wearing an arm sling and the article also mentions that Pedrosa also bowled that evening.
The questions that Giorgio Mulliri of Motocorse asked himself were; is Pedrosa left handed and did something really happen between May 28th and June 1st when Pedrosa opted out of the Catalunya GP, especially after yesterday’s interview with the MotoGP official website when the Spaniard appeared wearing a sling and looking appropriately depressed? Did Pedrosa actually worsen his condition confirming Motocuatro’s rumors?The website even put together a timeline of the events:May 15th: Pedrosa breaks his right collarbone after a hard pass by Marco Simoncelli sends him crashing;May 18th: Pedrosa undergoes collarbone surgery;May 28th: Pedrosa goes bowling, not wearing an arm sling;June 1th: Repsol Honda and Pedrosa announce that he will be skipping his home race;June 3rd: Pedrosa goes to dinner with his crew, and a couple of Italian journalists present at the restaurant note that he’s wearing an arm sling and that he has trouble holding his fork;June 5th: Motocuatro publishes their story that Pedrosa may have further injured himself while training;June 6th: Pedrosa announces that he’ll skip the Silverstone GP because his recovery is slower than expected and crew chief Mike Leitner denies that Pedrosa re-injured himself.
June 7th: Pedrosa is interviewed by the official MotoGP website clearly depressed and wearing a sling.
With Alberto Puig and Livio Suppo being so closed mouth, will we ever learn the truth? No way, but you can bet that everyone at Repsol Honda will be hounded to death at Silverstone, as soon as Motocorse’s sleuthing story hits all the websites.