DuHamel: on the road to recovery

I had a chance to sit down and speak with Miguel DuHamel at Pike's Peak last week. In that conversation DuHamel stated that he will not ride at Las Vegas, but is trying to make the Daytona Dunlop tire test in December. He also said that the broken left femur injury that he suffered at Loudon was very bad, and that two years ago normally the injury meant that the leg would have been amputated. DuHamel lucked out by having a very good orthapedic surgeon visiting the Concord hospital when he arived and if it was not for this Doctor and several others he saw afterwards, that he may not be as well off as he is now.

And that is really saying something, as DuHamel's body has been under a horrific amount of stress. He looks gaunt and thin, saying he has not been as light as he is now 135 pounds, in twenty years. Miguel said that he is finally starting to put weight on and hopes that this is the road back.

DuHamel will have surgery next spring to remove several of the screws in his leg but that the rod pounded in there (and they do pound it in, just like a post-hole-digger) will stay for next season at least.

On other subjects, DuHamel said that he feels terrible about not riding right now especially since the RC45 is so good, that the groundwork he and the team did for two seasons is finally coming good.

I asked him about the darkest moments of his injury and DuHamel said that if it had all ended in New Hampshire, the fact that he had never won a world championship would have bothered him for the rest of his life, but that having won more Superbike races than anyone in America, and having won the Superbike championship, he would have felt largely content. DuHamel makes it sound like the year 2000 is the year he will return to Europe to race for a world championship, which has been his lifelong dream.

DuHamel will ride 600 Supersport and Superbike next season and is relishing riding the all-new Honda CBR600F4. DuHamel says that he has seen the bike and has sat on it, and is confident the new Honda 600 will be a winner, right out of the box. DuHamel also mentioned that he is toying with the idea of riding three classes next season, which would mean a return for DuHamel to the AMA 250 GP class. "Those bikes are so good, so light and fast, you can just pin it and hang on. I love riding 250s," he said.

Miggy asked me to tell all of the fans who sent cards, letters and faxes to his office or hospital room that he appreciates the thought that went into them, and that they were of great help to him in his recovery.

-- Dean Adams