Slaw
Red Bull KTM’s Julien Beaumer has been in the title fight, out of the title fight, and now right back in it.
That pretty much sums up the last year of his career.
Beaumer broke through in Monster Energy AMA Supercross in 2025, emerging as one of Haiden Deegan’s biggest championship challengers before injuries and inconsistent results derailed his Pro Motocross campaign.
He was hoping to reset in the SMX Playoffs, but instead his career nearly came to a halt. A violent crash at the opening round in Charlotte left him with a serious back injury that threatened far more than just the remainder of his season.
Over the following months, Beaumer rebuilt himself—both physically and mentally. He sat out the entire Supercross season to make sure he returned at full strength. With his riding limited early in the recovery process, he and his father focused on the fundamentals.
“When I started riding with that, when I had the hardware in, I started riding like a little turn track, whatever,” Beaumer said after the Spring Creek National. “My dad was very focused on, ‘Hey, we can’t push, but let’s just focus on technique. Let’s try to build your foundation a little bit better.’ I spent four weeks basically cruising around, working on my foot placement and things like that.”
Those months of rebuilding have paid dividends outdoors.
Beaumer opened the Pro Motocross season with a fifth-place finish at Fox Raceway before earning his first career 250MX overall podium at Hangtown. Another podium followed at High Point, putting him firmly in the championship conversation entering RedBud.
Then came another setback.
Early crashes at RedBud left him 18th overall and appeared to knock him out of title contention.
Instead of fading, Beaumer responded. He finished fifth overall at Southwick before breaking through with the first overall victory of his professional career at Spring Creek on Saturday in one of the wildest 250 Class races of the season.
Now second in the championship standings, just 24 points behind leader Levi Kitchen, Beaumer has worked his way right back into the title fight.
This is your first ever overall win. You’ve got to be feeling pretty good after that. Talk to us through it.
Julien Beaumer: That first moto, I felt just amazing. I was able to be patient early on and about the halfway mark, I really put in a good push. And then, when I saw two laps to go, I saw the gap and I knew I had some areas where I could pick it up and probably close it. I just felt really good. The second moto, I struggled a little bit. They watered the track quite a bit and I just struggled with trusting the bike a little bit early on. Towards the end of the moto, I started to get going and then just tried to make a pass in a tricky spot, made a mistake, and went down. But overall, I mean to get this first overall wins like a monkey off the back. I’m ready to come out swinging at Washougal.
In that Moto 2 crash, how close was that to being not very good because it looked like you almost maybe put your hand down on top of the chain or something like that. Was it that close or did it just kind of look like it?
I’m going to tell you, I’m getting a little frustrated with my rear brake rotor, because it burnt my ass and my finger is just now recovering from RedBud when it burnt my finger. We need to put like a guard on that thing or something because it’s not been my friend lately. But, I sat pretty much basically right on the rear wheel and just burnt my ass. Other than that, it was fine.
When you got up from that crash, did you realize that you still had the overall position? And when did you realize you had the overall lockdown?
I knew that the guys in front of me didn’t have a great first moto, so I was kind of fine with where I was. I just wanted to get maybe a couple extra points making that pass. When I got up, I mean, I wasn’t too worried, other than my ass hurt, but I wasn’t really too worried other than that.
So follow up to that: you kind of knew you had the overall. Did you just manage it on the way in and you weren’t worried about trying to get third?
Once I got up, I kind of knew I had the overall. I saw the guys behind me and I kind of knew I was in a pretty good spot. I just tried to be calm those last two laps, not doing anything that would put me back on the ground. When I came over the finish line, I was like, oh wow, finally got one of these.
Can you just expand on those emotions? It’s been the storyline all summer since you’ve come back and you’ve been doing really good. You got hurt last year, broken back, bad injury, come back and get your first win.
I think everything was running through me after the crash in Charlotte last year. And it was kind of like one of those things where, in the past, I think leading into the season, I’ve had maybe one or two top fives overall. And I think maybe one top-five in a moto. So, the odds were kind of against me coming into a series that I’m not the best in. Coming off of a nine-month long injury that I wasn’t even sure in April if I was going to be able to line up for Round 1. It shows how much work me and the team have put in. From when I was released to start training off the bike in January, I pretty much told myself I’m going to put everything I have into this. I don’t care what I got to go through, what I have to do. And it’s showing right now. So just to get through that one was amazing.
And just going on that, you’re talking about all the hard work. Would you say you have been working harder now after the crash?
I wouldn’t say working harder, but I would say just a little bit more disciplined. I just look at things a little bit different now, obviously. Consistency is everything. And from the moment I was able to start training again, I treated my camp as if everything had to be perfect and I’m still the same right now. Everything during the week has to be perfect for me to be the best I can be on the weekends. I think just now I have a different perspective on it. I look at things a little bit different and I did a lot of studying when I was hurt. I think now I have a little bit more of an understanding of how my body needs to feel and the things I need to do to be the best version of myself on Saturdays. I’m really happy with where we’re at.
Come back aside, can you just talk about your evolution in motocross? You took that big step up in Supercross, started winning races last year. You didn’t really get a chance to show that again in Supercross this year, but now it seems like you’ve taken that same step up outdoors. Injury aside, do you feel like you actually have kind of found that next level of yourself?
Yeah, 100%. It’s weird because during the week, I’m not crazy fast. But for me it was a lot of when I started riding with that, when I had the hardware in, I started riding like a little turn track, whatever. And my dad was very focused on, “Hey, we can’t push, but let’s just focus on technique. Let’s try to build your foundation a little bit better.” And I spent four weeks just basically cruising around working on my foot placement, things like that. And when I came back and I was able to fully start riding after that surgery, it was like, okay. That, I think, kind of was the biggest thing that hurt me in the beginning was I just didn’t have a great foundation outdoors. And it was something that I was able to work on a lot in the lead up to this and I think that’s why I’m where I’m at right now.
It seemed like you were really passionate when you mentioned just now about the studying that you did in your off time. What were you studying and what are some of those things that you’re applying right now in the racing that you’re doing?
A lot of footage of the races, re-watching races, seeing Jett and Hunter are the two best guys, just trying to watch where their feet are, things that they do differently. And then aside from it, a lot of nutrition stuff, electrolytes, the supplements that you put into your body, vitamins, things like that. Trying to really maximize myself. And I sat there and looked things up, read articles, on how to perform the best that I can perform. I think right now I’m just in a point where I have a really good program, a really good schedule that I don’t step out of and my body is responding extremely well. I think that was a big thing and I knew coming into the season it’s going to be trial and error. I’m going to have to try things, see where I’m at. But, I would say for three or four weeks now, I’ve been on a program where I eat at the same time. Everything’s almost perfect and it’s showing.
Photos: octopi.media
