After a very serious back injury that could have ended his career, Julien Beaumer, Red Bull KTM’s rising star, refused to give in and has got his reward instantly in the outdoors with a podium in only the second race of the season. Beaumer also took second in moto two at Pala to not only underline his talent but also his determination to come back and achieve his goals in the sport.
Beaumer said of his performance in the first two outdoors: “I wouldn’t say above my expectations but I would say it’s something that I wasn’t expecting to come this early. Obviously nine months off it takes a little bit to get back into the race pace and obviously coming in I had six weeks on the bike so I didn’t really know where I was at.”
But dd he ever question if he would come back? “Obviously you sit in the hospital and you question a lot of things. I would say yeah I questioned a lot of things while sitting in the hospital, but I know how I am and when you make the decision to go Pro Racing, you understand that the consequences is there no matter what. Whether it was a crash I had in Charlotte or engine malfunction or anything, you never know what’s gonna happen, so I think I told myself, ‘look I’m willing to die for this no matter what. I don’t care. I’d be happy if I died riding my dirt bike so it is what it is, let’s close our eyes and then let’s go for it.’ I’m gonna work my ass off and if if I get rewarded for for working my ass off, I get rewarded, if it goes wrong, it goes wrong, but at least I knew I was doing what I wanted to do and I was happy with with my decisions.”
On how he feels after a day racing at Hangtown: “My neck is good. I did lower (down the spine) so I went basically my lumbar. It’s stiff, like today did a number on it, the track a little bit rougher than I would say last weekend a little more choppy so I’m a little sore today for sure I’m gonna be sore tomorrow but I got good guys in my corner Doc G and everyone around me so I’m not too worried obviously it’s it’s a back injury you’re gonna have you’re gonna have days where it hurts more than others but now we’ve done everything right and I’m really happy with the way things are trending.
Was he nervous riding for the first time after the injury? Yeah, I rode with the hardware in for four weeks and that was nerve-wrecking for me. I was on a turn track so it wasn’t too consequential, but it was it was one of those things where I was like there werw days where I was like ah, we hadn’t made the decision yet whether I was gonna take it out or not. And I’ll tell you one thing, if I didn’t take it out it would have been really tough to race because I wasn’t fused or anything, I just had the the rods.
There was a lot more consequence with things breaking and whatnot so I was nervous for sure and then we decided to do a surgery April 2nd, we did that surgery and I remember the first day I got on the bike I was like okay, yeah we’re good now.”
Beamer is all in and he has the talent to go far.
Watch the full, very honest, interview below:
