After missing the previous two races of Monster Energy Supercross 2026 due to a hip injury, Eli Tomac returned for his home state round in Denver to claim a solid P3 result. In this Debrief feature, the Red Bull KTM rider reflects on his podium finish from Empower Field at Mile High.

Image: Octopi Media.

Coming back for Denver

Yeah, thankful to be back for Denver. I mean, it’s a special crowd, a special race for me to get back here. And I love being at a similar elevation to where I practice at home. So the bike always feels like it’s at home, and it is, right? So overall, I was happy on the race outside of my stall. That really put me out of the chance of staying near the front there, or even for maybe fighting for a second place. So that was frustrating, ut to bounce back to this from being beat up – pretty happy with the third.

That prototype tire

So far, it’s so good with it. I did play around with both directions on the tire today. So I tried forward and reverse, from what the direction says, or what it’s basically like a scoop or if you want to call it like a chevron forward or something. But we played with both directions and for me, I would say it was a success, especially in this harder pack condition. It gives me the right height that I’m looking for, and it even feels lighter than maybe some of the other options out there. So far, I really like it.

Image: Octopi Media.

The decision to return

Yeah, I weighed it out. But for me, I’ve been racing so long and I have such a big base built that I’m not afraid to still do a day of supercross, day of motocross. Like, I mean, not going to lose much fitness and the best thing I can do right now is to go race. So at least that’s my mindset with it, and I just like to go racing.

Stalling it in the main

I mean, I was angry and I basically double stalled it. So like I started the bike up and thenI let the clutch out and it spun again and it killed the motor again, so I had to start it again. So yeah, I was frustrated. Then I was like, ‘Wow, I really just lost touch with the front of the race.’ So that was tough. But overall, man, talk about a roller coaster. It’s been a serious one. But to get back to the podium for me was a pretty big deal.

That double-quad line

Yeah, I was eyeing it because the triple was super easy after you would do the double. But once we did dart fish and really compared it, just going low in the berm and going the 3-2, it was too easy and too easy to replicate. I heard maybe [Justin] Hill did it in the main, but it just wasn’t for me, it wasn’t worth it. It was like too much time going high in the berm.

Image: Octopi Media.

Being stuck behind Prado

I mean, he was basically taking the same exact lines I was, so it was getting pretty frustrating because I wasn’t able to move. I should have actually moved around earlier in the smaller set of whoops, that’s where I should have opened up the turn earlier – because I really kept following him there and then the one time I opened it up and got up next to him there. Then after that, I just had to really show him my fender, of course he’s doing what he can, but I was definitely stuck behind him and that, I think, allowed Kenny [Roczen] to sneak away.

Camaraderie with Jade Dungey

I’d say we’re two crusty old dogs. Listen – it’s a whole team effort, for sure. I flipped the tire yesterday for press because we had two sessions. Then today, I flipped the tire even between the heat race and the main, so it’s such an early stage. We don’t really know what works best and it was good to honestly try both directions. We were kind of in no man’s land for really knowing what was going on. Of course, this was the first week and it was available to race. So, yeah, it was just basically a whole team effort to figure out what worked best for our bike.