Eli Tomac is ready to start racing again.

After a devastating injury at the Round 16 Denver Supercross race in May, Tomac is back on the bike and ready to reclaim his 2022 title as 450SX champion, starting with the season-opening race on Saturday in Anaheim.

Before becoming injured, Tomac won seven of the 16 races he competed in during the 2023 Supercross season. He was on the podium for another four races.

Over the past nine months, Tomac, 31, has been preparing to race again after rupturing his Achilles tendon in Denver. After landing wrong on the track’s triple jump, Tomac was forced to forfeit the race and the Supercross championship title along with it, coming in second to competitor Chase Sexton.

“In that moment, it was the worst thing that you could imagine,” Tomac said Friday in an interview with The Journal. “I was in a position where I just needed to finish the race. And I was leading the race at that time and I had the championship in my control. I didn’t finish the race, I got injured and that was it. So that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through as an athlete.”

At first, Tomac said he struggled with a lot of frustration surrounding the events of the race and his subsequent injury before buckling down on therapy so he could race again.

“I initially was basically angry at the world and just really frustrated about the scenario and how it went down. In our sport, you put those G forces on your body and in those situations, things like that can happen,” Tomac said. “A ruptured Achilles is one of the hardest injuries to come back from.”

He added that the boots riders wear also lend support to the lower body to help prevent injury, but after rupturing his Achilles, he modified his boot to receive more protection and support.

In October, Tomac was able to get back on the bike, about six months after the injury. While he wasn’t able to do the intense kind of riding he was accustomed to, he was permitted to ride on flat tracks to begin getting some conditioning back.

“I wasn’t allowed to put myself in a high G-force situation,” he said. “It was more flat riding, and I was riding a dirt track and basically just staying on the ground.”

After a few weeks of flat riding, he was able to begin riding over jumps and begin slowly conditioning himself to Supercross riding.

Ahead of his first race back, it was easy Friday to hear the excitement and anticipation in Tomac’s voice as he shared his goals for the first race post-injury.

“My goal at the first race is the podium, to come out here with good points so I can kind of see where I’m at,” Tomac said. “There are so many variables in the first race, and you learn so much in a race environment, but me personally, I’ve always shot for the podium as my expectation here.”

Tomac also expressed his goals for the season as a whole, setting his intention to win what had been lost last season.

“My goal is to win the championship,” he said. “I don’t think that’s an unrealistic expectation for how my foot feels and the strength of my Achilles and how I’ve been riding. I’m riding at the same level that I was last year, in the opinion of my trainer and my team around me. So my expectation is the same as it was the year before. Win races and go for the championship. I wouldn’t be lining up if I didn’t think I could do that.”

At the opener in Anaheim, Tomac will not only be racing familiar competitors like Cooper Webb and 2023 champion Chase Sexton, but will race for the first time against new 450 class racers Jett and Hunter Lawrence. Jett Lawrence went 22-0 to win last year’s 450 Motocross title during his first season after moving up from the 250MX class. Hunter Lawrence joins the field after winning the 250MX title.

After mentioning Jett Lawrence’s “phenomenal” season, Tomac said, “One thing’s for sure in this sport is that it’s very competitive, and it gets stronger and stronger every year for the racers in the 450 class. There’s eight to 10 guys, in my opinion, who could win a race.”

When asked about his advice for young people in Cortez who look up to him as a hometown hero and as someone who accomplished a big dream in a small town, Tomac emphasized the importance of pursuing dreams and passions.

“Just believe in yourself, and whatever you’re passionate about, go for it,” he said. “I think all the successes and good outcomes will follow.”

“The most important thing is to chase whatever your passions are and what you’re motivated to do, and it basically makes you limitless. Just go for it; it doesn’t matter where you come from,” he said.

During the Round 1 news conference Friday afternoon, a reporter asked Tomac if he thought the “forced time off” had helped extend his career, rather than shorten it because of the injury.

“Once I decided to go racing again, my neck stopped hurting, my back stopped hurting, so I’m like, ‘I’m back, I’m fresh, I’m ready to go again.’ It may have extended a season or so, but I’m just taking it by this season right now,” Tomac said, adding that he is only signed up for the Supercross season so far.

Tomac, who races with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, will ride as No. 3 this season.

Speaking on the outlook of Tomac’s 2024 season, his team said, “2024 is much of the same for Eli Tomac, same team, same bike, same support system that gave him his 2022 title. The challenge now is putting his gruesome 2023 season-ending injury behind him and charging forward with a clean slate and new motivation. The field in 2024 is one of the deepest and most talented this sport has ever seen, young rookie talent to veteran champions like Eli and Cooper Webb coming head-to-head in what will shape up to be a historic season of racing.”

Tomac went pro in 2010, becoming the only rider in the history of the sport to win his professional debut, according to information provided by team Yamaha. He is currently ranked second place on the all-time Supercross win list with 51 wins, behind Jeremy McGrath, “the king of Supercross,” with 72 wins.

He is also the 2020 and 2022 450SX Supercross champion, four-time AMA Pro Motocross 450 class champion (2017-2019, 2022), 2019 Monster Energy Cup runner-up (2015, 2017 and 2019), 450SX class championship runner-up, 2018 Monster Energy Cup $1 Million Race winner and 2016 Monster Energy Cup champion.

Tomac will race in Anaheim for the 450SX season opener at 5:30 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday.