MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa hits Barcelona saying: “I can’t say anything yet” about his future. Rumours of retirement still bubbling along with WSB and other things

So here we are them it’s Friday, the bottom of the ninth and all the bases are loaded. We’re very sure that phrase makes sense to our American cousins (does it? tell us). It’s Barcelona and it’s MotoGP. Honda man (but only a factory Honda man for the rest of this season after being dropped by the factory last month to be replaced by Jorge Lorenzo) Dani Pedrosa was due to tell the world what he’s doing with his future yesterday.

He said nowt.

A couple of weeks ago we brought you news on a raft of rumours sweeping the paddock that had Dani calling time on his riding career after 18 years at the highest levels and on different sizes of bikes. We were told that Pedrosa was about to hang up his competitive leathers for good and take up a role with Honda that would be ‘riding coach and talent spotter’. Sounds bloody lovely.

But at yesterday’s press conference, the Spaniard was surprisingly coy about what’s happening next with him. And as a result there’s a new wave of ‘what ifs’ and ‘he might do this’ going around.

Basically, the rumour-mill has now churned out three options and they are; Dani retires and goes to work for Honda as described above, Dani takes a rider with a lesser MotoGP team and becomes a journey-man in the class, Dani goes to WSB to see what he can do there against Rea, Sykes and the rest, Dani goes to BSB and shows Leon Haslam how to get around Snetterton this weekend.

That last one, a joke. That isn’t happening. Imagine if it did. Wow.

But it’s not. So we all have to sit and wait a bit longer to find out what Dani’s doing next. And whilst we do that, here’s what he said directly at the press conference:

“It was my wish that I can say something clear for this GP after the last race but unfortunately things still are not as clear as I would like,” said Pedrosa ahead of this weekend’s race at Barcelona.

“The only thing I can say today is that I have several options that are good options.

“I need the time to think about them and I would not rush to make the wrong decision.

“At the same time I would like to have it clear because this would allow me to race with more free mind and more focus on the GP now.

“I cannot speak about the options and I cannot say if retiring is correct or no.

“I only say that there are options and still considering.”