Why talent isn't enough for Pedrosa

After the glory of winning the 125cc World Championship at the age of 18, Dani Pedrosa broke both his ankles during a practice session at the Australian Grand Prix. Since then, not a single part of his body has escaped the dangers that such a sublime talent with motorbikes brings with it.

The Spaniard's medical history is quite frankly frightening. He has injured both ankles at the same time; his humerus, radius and a number tendons in his left arm; the big toe on his left foot on several occasions (he also has arthritis in that foot); he has had three operations on his left knee; he has broken nearly all the fingers on his left hand, as well as his right femur; and he has undergone several operations on his left collarbone and several on the right since October of last year.

The only season that the rider has finished without injury was 2004

It is the latter injury that has seen him forced to sit out the championship this year.

His body, which is slight and lean, is an uneasy bedfellow for the talent of one of the finest riders on the MotoGP grid. Last weekend's race in the Netherlands was the fourth he has had to miss since Italian rider Marco Simoncelli caused an accident in Le Mans, which saw Pedrosa break his collarbone once again.

The only season that the Honda rider has managed to finish without injury was 2004, the year that he won his first 250cc title. He has always had to battle with himself, in particular since he began to compete in the MotoGP category, in which his barely 51 kilos of bodyweight hinder his ability to control a machine weighing 150 kilos and capable of producing 200 horsepower.

His weight and his height - just 160 centimeters - are a huge handicap in MotoGP. That and his fragility mean that he is highly likely to injure himself when he falls.

This has plagued Pedrosa since he began racing in MotoGP, back in 2006. "It's a physical thing," members of his team say. "In the lower categories it was different. Maybe he even had a slight advantage back then, but now he has everything against him. And there is little he can do. Everyone is born with a different genetic make-up, and that's the musculature that he has."

Someone who is very familiar with the problems that Pedrosa has had is his trainer, Dani Simone, who has taken care of the rider for more than four years. "We made him put on body mass so that he was at the required weight, and from there we worked on his strength, particularly his upper body," he explains. "I took him on in 2006 and he weighed 48 kilos, and we got him up to 51, which is his ideal weight, because if he puts on any more he loses agility, and those two things need to be combined."

Conscious of these difficulties, lat year Pedrosa tried his luck with a different trainer, Adam Constanzo, who works with the drivers at the McLaren Formula 1 team. He started out the year weighing 53 kilos, which he lost as the season progressed. He gained muscle tone, but was forced to eat more, despite his reticence to do so. "My stomach is small, and I don't like eating out of obligation," he complained at the time. "Constanzo makes me eat more than I would normally."

"Despite having such short arms and weighing so little, he's the best when it comes to steering," says Simone, who made sure that Pedrosa ended up with abs of steel thanks to as many as 700 sit-ups a day, all so that he could handle the weight of his Honda and properly control it.

But he has not won the battle against the asphalt. Every time he falls, he breaks something. And that's despite his extra protection.

"He has more layers than anyone else to protect him," his team explains. "When he takes a hit, there's a greater chance he will hurt himself."

He will be returning this week for the Mugello Grand Prix in Italy, but he is well aware that his championship chances for this year are as good as over.