Gabri Rodrigo, the pilot who retires at 26 to open a hamburger restaurant

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«It was in August 2021. Just the day before I had signed a contract to finally go up to Moto2.

But in a training session in Montmeló I ran out of brakes and, at the end of the main straight, at 300 kilometers per hour, I had to throw myself off the bike.

There everything changed.

I began to ask myself what value I gave to my life, to think if it was worth so much risk.

And I only lasted one more season as a pilot ».

At 26,

is now starting a new life.

Ever since he was a child, everything had been going faster, faster, more.

At 13 he made his debut in competition and at 17 he was already in Moto3 traveling around the world, competing against

,

or

.

In eight seasons, he was on the podium twice.

And just when he was promoted to Moto2 his career as a rider took a twist.

It was fear.

The discovery of fear.

“My mindset really started to change in quarantine.

Until that moment, since I was a child, I had been on the wheel: training, running, training, running, I was not interested in anything else, I did not think about danger.

But in the pandemic I saw that there were more things in life, I opened my eyes, I became aware, ”Rodrigo recalls that last September, after a shoulder injury, he said enough is enough.

Despite his youth and the contract in force, he decided to retire, park the motorcycle.

«I did not want to drag myself, run without desire, but it made me ball to explain it to my surroundings.

To my coach, my manager, my team.

I didn't know how they would take it, luckily everyone supported me a lot, "says the former Barcelona pilot, critical of the precocity required by his now ancient sport:" When you start you are a child, but everyone treats you like an adult.

You live away from home, you have a lot of pressure and they don't offer you much help.

You must mature very quickly.

I don't think that at 16 or 17 you should allow yourself that pace."

your new business

Most of his former professional colleagues, in fact, barely pass ESO, sometimes they don't even finish it.

Rodrigo endured the Baccalaureate and even passed the Selectividad, which has now offered him another path.

He studies Marketing and Restaurant Management at the Hofmann school as he prepares to open his own business next month.

It will be a hamburger joint next to the Sant Gervasi stop with a peculiarity: there will only be one hamburger on the menu, only one.

«We are clear about bread and meat, but we continue to test the rest.

We want to refine a lot, “says the former pilot with a curious biography.

Born and educated in Barcelona, ​​he always raced as an Argentine, due to his family's origins, especially his father,

, very Argentine, practically a character from a novel.

Fighter in Cuba at the call of

, upon his return to his country he was persecuted by the dictatorship of

, for which he fled to Spain, where he found work at Editorial Bruguera.

He ended up editing

, among others, and founding the RBA publishing house, which he still presides over.

Perhaps that business knowledge was what led him to offer a pact to his son Gabri when he told him that he liked motorcycles.

«My father has always been anti-motorbikes.

When I told him that he wanted to race, he agreed with the only condition that he never put me on a street bike.

To this day I still have not got on and I will keep my promise even if I am already retired.

My father is a very humble person, who has lived a very hard life and thanks to him I have the values ​​that I have.

He taught me to be aware of how difficult it is to achieve something », Rodrigo summarizes that he will follow the next MotoGP World Championship that begins in March with a very different attitude.

When he ran, he followed his sport, but if there was an accident he looked the other way.

Now he won't have to.

«Before, if something happened, I didn't want to know in which corner it had been, the details of the injury... those things cannot come to mind when you're on the bike.

Now I will continue the races without problems.

I have managed to maintain the love for motorcycling, not spoil that passion that I had since I was a child.

I will remember my time as a pilot with great affection », he concludes.

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• Articles Javier Sanchez