Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Michael Byrne has come full circle in 2008. He had to have his right knee completely reconstructed because of an injury suffered late last year, and he can now finally claim to be healthy. Last week in Colorado, Byrne showed that his speed was getting much closer to the frontrunners’, and at Red Bud, he finally broke through to grab an overall podium finish with a 4-4 score for third overall. And just in time, too, as his contract is up at the end of the year, and rides like this will quickly put him back on the radar of teams that need riders for next year.

 

Racer X: Take us through how tough that was to get all of your injuries taken care of and come back to be competitive finally so many months later...
Michael Byrne: I mean, at first, I went back to Australia right after I injured my knee. I had surgery the next day, then kind of hung out in California for seven to ten days, and then I flew back to Australia to see my family over Christmas. So I did that for a couple of weeks, then I came back and pretty much stayed in California for probably a month, just starting on therapy and starting to try to get range of motion back and stuff like that. Once I’d been there for a month or so and I could spin on the bicycle and do weights and stuff like that, then I just went back home to Georgia and was just working. There was a lot of therapy, a lot of cycling, a lot of weights to try to get my leg strong again – and a lot of time to think about a lot of stuff, like what I really wanted. I’m not one of the youngest guys out there anymore, and I haven’t really achieved what I wanted to achieve yet, so it was a good time to reflect on a lot of things that I’ve done in my career, and figure out what I really wanted.

It seems like a common theme that you guys are so busy for so long that when you finally have a devastating injury that keeps you off the bike for a long time, you guys go soul searching and find your true motivation. James Stewart said something similar, as did Ricky Carmichael back in 2004...
Like you said, we’re so busy, and we get such tunnel vision with everything in our life that it just gets too hectic, and when you’re forced to sit there, and you have no choice – because none of us are going to sit there if we have the option – and for me, and I’m sure for James, too, I’ve had so many injuries over the last three or four years that to be forced to sit out and actually let your body heal, when you come back, it’s amazing how much different you feel and how much stronger you can progress when you don’t have a nagging injury here or a sprained this or a twisted that. I think it helps a lot to come back and be fit and healthy.

 

What about your outlook? How much did the time off help you to refocus and rededicate yourself to racing and training?
It helped because sometimes it becomes such a routine, and it feels like work, and it shouldn’t be like that, you know? This is what we love to do, and to have that time off and to really know what you miss in life... And I had fun, too, just being a regular guy and not having to train every day. But then you really realize what you want to do and what you really love and it makes it so much easier to get up and train and get back into it.

Did it ever cross your mind at any point that, hey, maybe this is an injury that you may not be able to fully recover from?
I mean, at first, it was tough. It was super hard. Therapy was really tough, and there were many a days that it hurt. There were some times when you wondered if you were ever going to get better. It kind of goes in stages – you make progress, and then it kind of slows down for a couple of weeks, and they’re the hard weeks, but then it kept progressing. I think that it helps being an athlete and being in shape. I was probably the fittest I’d ever been when I injured myself getting ready for supercross this year, and I think that helped me tremendously to get back into the shape I’m in now. I’m looking forward to the rest of the races.

 

At the first couple of Nationals, you finished okay, but your speed didn’t look like it was there. Now it does. What was going through your mind back in the start of the series, because you never know your speed until you go racing.
Honestly, at Glen Helen, I was just happy to be there. I figured if I could get anywhere near the top 10 and Glen Helen, I’d be happy, because I had only really had three weeks on the bike, and three weeks on the bike when you had had six months off, it’s not like you can ride every, single day. You can maybe get three or four days of motos in and then your toasted – your hands and everything. So when you say you have three weeks to get ready, it’s not like you rode every, single day. You maybe rode nine or ten times. But I was super excited about Glen Helen. I just really wanted to be back out there, but I was super cautious, too. Glen Helen’s not the most friendly track sometimes. I just tried to stand up more and change my style a little bit and just let the bike work and stay out of trouble. Luckily for me, I got a really good result – a sixth place at the first race. I was super happy with that, and then I’ve just been trying to build on it. At the first couple of races, I was definitely a little cautious about catching my knee. I didn’t want to twist it or pull it or go back to square one. I was pretty afraid of doing that at first, and it wasn’t until probably the last two or three rounds that I’ve really just totally forgotten about it and things are finally getting back to normal as far as training goes.

 

It looked to me like the first time you genuinely had the speed to run with the Ferrys and Shorts out on the track was last weekend in Colorado, and it seemed like your obstacle to overcome was much smaller for you to find your way here this weekend...
I think I just tried to get through those first few races and to be healthy and try to get good results, but then have that week off so that then I could figure out what I needed to work on. As soon as I got to the break, I knew my speed wasn’t there at the start of the races, so I was working on that a lot. That was my main focus. Then I went to Colorado, and it was a little bit better – I’d improved. In the second moto, when I was trying to get in the battle with those guys, I kind of wasn’t really used to pushing it that hard and having that intensity, so mentally I got kind of drained. I didn’t really have anybody behind me, so once they got away from me, it broke my spirit a little bit, but I knew I’d made improvements. So, last week, it was the same thing – just try and get good practice in, and don’t overdo it, and work on speed, and here we are today. It worked out better than I’d expected.

It’s kind of been a perpetual contract year for the last three years, with 2006 seeing the end of your Kawasaki contract, followed by a one-year deal last year and another one this year. So is there some added pressure to perform knowing you need to find a home next year?
When you have that time off, you sit there and you realize that this is what I want to do, and I’ve got to put in more effort here, and do this, and do that. You can critique yourself and what you’ve been missing, and that’s what I did in my time off. It’s going good, I just want to try and take it race by race and keep the ball rolling.