Isidre Esteve: "Missing school was a possibility that did not exist"

OlianaMany know the incredible story of overcoming of the Lleida pilot Isidre Esteve who, after becoming paraplegic from a motorcycle accident in 2007, it was transformed into a regular competitor in car rally raids, especially at the Dakar. But few know that his childhood in his native Oliana (in the Alt Urgell region) was crucial in forging a personality based on effort and respect for teachers and parents.

Isidre Esteve grew up in a truly rural environment. He was the youngest of five siblings and they all lived in a farmhouse on the outskirts, surrounded by cultivated fields and a dairy farm. To go to school, he used to take the same bus that picked up other children from the surrounding villages, such as Ogern and Bassella. Until, finally, he could do it by motorcycle.

At the age of seven, I already had the habit of taking the mobilette from his father or another motorbike from his brother to ride around the paths near home, until at twelve they bought him a Puch MiniCross to use with his friends. Among the children of those times, this was a very common hobby that, despite everything, did not make him miss a single class. "School was a place where you couldn't be absent," he recalls. Skipping was not an option. "Missing it was an option we didn't consider," he argues.

Esteve acknowledges that in his childhood there were key figures whose authority was never questioned. These were his parents, the doctor, the priest, and the teacher. And he obeyed this principle with the care typical of an era.

From the Sant Jordi school in Oliana, he had all sorts of memories, both in the playground playing "el pou" or "flèndit" with marbles or testing his physical strength on the "cavall fort", or inside the classrooms, with teachers like Jaume Mosella, who taught him French. "He was the typical professor-friend type who made us love that language," recalls Esteve. By a twist of fate, learning French at school, a language he still masters, proved very useful when, as a professional pilot, he was able to communicate fluently with the members of the KTM team, with whom he competed for almost a decade.

Vocational training

It wasn't all good memories either. Isidre Esteve belongs to a generation that still suffered teachers who took physical strength as a corrective measure. “I had a teacher named Fernando – he recalls – he was missing an arm, but, wow, the other one he had left was quite free…”

Despite admitting he wasn't one of the best students of his class, he managed to get his school diploma with an average of 7.5. This grade would have opened all doors for him to continue higher studies in any educational center, but his family's modest economy could not afford to send him to towns like Ponts, Balaguer, or la Seu d'Urgell. They opted for the (cheaper) opportunity offered by the recent opening in Oliana of a vocational training school where they taught a mold-making degree. These were times when the local appliance company Taurus was booming and needed experts in milling machines and lathes. “Although I didn't have a vocation for it, I learned a lot and it excited me,” he assures.

Being educated entirely in the rural world was a circumstance brought about by the family's economic situation, but also a gift he remembers with gratitude. These were times when there was the freedom to play with friends in the village streets or ride motorbikes along paths and shortcuts. "Things have changed a lot and too quickly," he concludes with nostalgia.

Isidre Esteve made his competitive debut as a pilot at the Enduro del Segre in Oliana. He was 17 years old, and it was then that his life began to take a radical turn that turned him into a multi-champion. But this story, much better known, is another one.