VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P119
F
or Oklahoman Justin Bo-
gle, the 2014 Supercross
season appeared to be
over before it began. More seri-
ously, his racing career came
that close of being over,
too. Literally, just a few
days before the Su-
percross season
was about to kick
off, Bogle suffered a
near career ending
crash while practic-
ing in California. After
getting spit off his bike
over a large and high-
speed triple jump, Bogle
was carted off to the hospital
where he was diagnosed having
broken the L1 through L5 verte-
brae in his back. And that wasn't
all; he also suffered a broken
shoulder and had other smaller
injuries. He was a mess and his
future was in serious jeopardy,
especially when you consider
that he was already coming off
a couple of other major inju-
ries, which had stalled out the
21-year-old's racing career ever
since he turned pro in 2012.
So when Bogle and his train-
er—as well as his entire GEICO
Honda team—celebrated with
extra exuberance at the end of
the 2014 Supercross Series in
Las Vegas with the number-one
plate in hand, you can certainly
understand why. His champion-
ship was just short of a miracle
when you take in consideration
where he came from in just a
short time.
Luckily for him, Bogle was
able to compete in the East
Championship, which started in
Dallas in mid-February, and that
gave him a few extra weeks to
TOUGH
JOURNEY
TO THE
TOP
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY
SIMON CUDBY AND KIT PALMER
JUSTIN BOGLE IS NO
STRANGER TO ADVERSITY,
WHICH IS SOMETHING HE
CERTAINLY HAD TO FACE EN
ROUTE TO HIS FIRST 250
SUPERCROSS TITLE
Things
looked bleak
for Justin
Bogle at the
start of the
year.
