Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/821592
A t the beginning of 2017, Taylor Robert was back on home soil, fresh off his landmark victory in the ISDE. The factory KTM rider not only won the overall, but led the American Trophy Team to a historic victory in 2016, the first time the U.S. team has ever won in the 91-year history of the event. His 2017 season was off to a great start, and it looked as though he was going to be the one to beat in WORCS and the National Hare & Hound Championship. But it all came to a screeching halt when Robert suffered a devastat- ing crash at King of the Motos, one that left him with potentially career- ending internal injuries. But three months after undergoing a series of surgeries, including several days of being sedated with his abdomen "left open," Robert is back on the bike and back to winning races. He recently topped the Sage Riders National Hare & Hound race in Utah. We caught up with Robert to hear about his crash, his road to recov- ery, and what the rest of his season might look like. Q. Do you remember the crash? Yeah, I remember the whole thing. I didn't pass out because I hit my head. I passed out because I didn't have any oxygen [due to a collapsed lung]. Q. What happened that day? Cody [Webb] obviously is an insane technical rider so he got the jump on me. He got out in front and he had maybe 30 seconds on me and I just started reeling him in the first couple miles and where I went to go pass him was where I hit a rock and it just sent me over the bars and augured me into the ground. I think I would have been okay if I could have rolled out of it, but after seeing all the damage to my body and going back and look- ing at my gear and everything, we determined that what really caused all the damage was my bike hitting me, and more specifically the tire, because I had tire marks all the way across my stomach and the right side of my body. Q. What was the initial dam- age? At first, we didn't really know what was going on because they sat there and watched me for two days. Then they started giving me food again and that's when they realized there was something wrong with my intestines. The race was on Sunday, I went into emergency surgery on Tuesday because they found out my intestines were split open, and then they found out it was worse than they thought it was going to be, so they left me open from basically Tuesday night 'til Friday morning, then I had another surgery on Friday and then wasn't on the recovery road until that Saturday. So almost a week after the race, I still, that was when I finally was like, 'We're going to get through this alright.' Q. Was your life in danger during that time? I mean there was never really the thought that I wasn't going to make it. I did sit there in ICU for two, two and a half days on a ventilator and stuff, but it was mostly just because they were waiting to see if every- thing was going to heal the way they wanted it to. It was just like, it was more like, 'is he going to have a colostomy bag, or are his intestines going to work right?' Q. Did you have any broken bones? Yeah, I had L2, 3, 4 and 5 verte- brae fractures—it was just the wings off the side of the vertebrae that fractured but nothing was separated or anything—a sacrum fracture, rib fractures and then a minor MCL tear in my knee. Q. At this point, what is the plan for the rest of the season? I'm out of the championships for both series that I was doing, so right now it's just get back out there, get some seat time under my belt. For now, I guess my main focus is going to be Six Days because that's the only thing I really have that I can win as far as championship type stuff goes. Jean Turner CHAT ROOM PHOTOGRAPHY BY KTM MEDIA/FUTURE7MEDIA IN THE WIND P44 TAYLOR ROBERT