photo credit: Dave Trumpore, Gary Perkin and Ross BellPress Release: Polygon URTracey Hannah announces that she will stop racing the UCI World Cup circuit after the 2020 season but will still keep competing.
Tracey is only putting a stop at racing world cups and will be taking part in other race series, fun events and do special media projects. So far over her world cup career, Tracey stood on the podium 43 times, grabbed six World Championships medals, one junior rainbow jersey, an overall elite downhill World Cup champion title, and maybe more to come in a couple of days.
Here’s what Tracey has to say:
| After 9 years racing for the UR Team I have decided to stop racing World Cups. It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I joined the team when I was 22 years old, Fabien took me on with no expectations and zero pressure. During my first year on the team I won the first round of the World Cup series in South Africa. I was having an amazing first season on a pro team. At the 6th round I crashed hard and was seriously injured, I broke my femur, collarbone and had some internal injuries. Within the same 12 months I would go on to break my collarbone 2 more times.
Ever since the moment I had a pro ride I have never wanted and never have given less than the best I possibly can. I have battled fear, injury, disappointment, insecurity, and failure to get up, keep going and be competitive for the podium. For the past few years I have had constant full time coaching and a weekly training schedule, most of my off season is spent “not doing” things so that I don’t get injured, sprain something or lose the ability to be able to perform 100% in training. It has come to the point where I am not in a place to give entirely everything in me to this level of racing anymore. It is an extremely high stress environment and I have high expectations and put pressure on myself at every single race to perform. To be one of the best in the world consistently takes meticulous weekly preparation that lasts over a span of sometimes, several off-seasons. Each season you learn something new, something that you only have the chance to train for during the next training time, every race you go into details about what went right, what went wrong and how can I better myself.
My ultimate goal in racing was to win a World Cup Overall Championship, I have done this and it is something I will never forget. I would have loved to win an elite World Title, each and every single World Champs I have raced I gave the most I could give on that day, in that run, for that moment. My World championship was Cairns 2017, even though I did my absolute best I didn’t take home the gold medal, but I felt the rainbow that day.
I have only ever been on one Pro team and the UR Team is it. It has been an amazing 9 years racing World Cups with the team, we have been through extreme highs and lows, injuries and strengths, great times and the worst times, we’ve shed many tears and much champagne. I am so thankful to Fabien for giving me a chance 9 years ago and never giving up when I went through the worst injury of my career, bad results and emotional lows, he is the hardest worker I have ever met and has been the best team manager I could have asked for.
Thank you to his wife Magalie, the second hardest worker I have ever met, thank you for being the most dedicated helper on the team. None of my results would have been a reality without teamwork.
Thanks to all the staff past and present for making our dreams possible. This is not the end, I will continue riding next season, 2021 marks my 10th year with the UR Team and we are working on a program where I will continue racing at more fun events such as all Crankworx disciplines, Sea otter dual slalom, Masters of Dirt and other popular events.
Hopefully the global health situation gets better and will allow me to engage with more riders and fans around the world. I'm also going to work on coaching to be able to transfer what I have learnt and help more riders to reach their full potential. Finally, I'm still planning on sending it and I'm going to work on some special media projects to show this aspect of my riding. |
photo credit: Dave Trumpore, Ross Bell, Victor Lucas and Jules LangeardHere’s a few words from Fabien Cousinié, the team owner:
| It has been a pleasure and an honor to be part of Tracey's career and see her evolve from a semi-pro racer to an international rider and team leader. I still remember like yesterday when I flew to Brisbane in 2012 to bring Tracey's first bike. She was working a full-time job, training hard after work, the whole city and trails were flooded and it was not a problem at all for her to go shred hard and film under the monsoon.
Having a rider as motivated and as committed as Tracey made it easy to keep pushing years after years. Tracey has impressed me with her ability to come back after so many injuries but also to learn how to avoid injuries in the last few years. I'm of course extremely proud of Tracey’s 2019 world cup title riding fast when she needed and staying healthy and focus through 8 rounds but I'm even more proud that we have been able to enjoy ourselves besides the racing, making memories for life from all our trips, parties and good times.
For 2021 I'm excited to still have Tracey on the team and working on a new chapter of her career! Knowing how competitive she is, I know she will still bring home some medals whatever she races and I'm also sure she will still show us how to ride a bike and share her passion like no-one else. |
photo credit: Gary Perkin, Dave Trumpore, Ross Bell and Victor LucasThe future is going to be exciting and busy for Tracey!
I get it that there’s all this working machinery behind schedules and logistics, but it’s frankly pathetic from a comparison to other racing sports, standpoint.
Enduro is way tougher on your body, yet somehow, there’s races all over the damn place.
I stand by my statement, it’s pathetic
I could be wrong about this, but I feel like the World Cup could benefit from ignoring some of the trade teams wishes when it comes to logistics. I don't know what goes into the plan, but the "Middle Ground" has seldom been chased. That middle ground would be to get the World Cup into a dozen different venues across the globe, ignore the trade team's desires to "map it out geographically to sync up for their travel convenience" and just stuff a DOZEN international venues into the year and let the racers and teams figure out their budget, travel & team logistics to make and/or skip venues, etc.
I firmly believe the World Cup could be help at 2 East Coast and West Coast North American venues, 1 if not 2 South American venues, a South African, Australian and as many European ones as possible and Ft. Bill.
Trade teams & regional teams would have to decide which racers to send to which venues and develop a plan to support racers in a uniform manner at each. It can be done and presenting the challenge to the industry to see who they send to battle would be one heck of an international chess match.
You'd get to see regional riders sneak into podiums when suddenly a trade team wants that spot and supports them legitamitely. The same 20 or so elite riders would have to hunt out the best places to garner points, RedBull would have to prioritize coverage at select venues over others, but that could lead to a 2nd or 3rd broadcast crew buying rights to a broadcast and deepen the money pool.
RedBull and UCI are literally constricting the World Cup pool of money by capping it with their own "capacities". Making it truly worldwide breeds competition all across the board and would give us a longer story to watch unfold.
I think the consequences of DH is potentially higher than supercross - DH you bail you hit a solid tree.....supercross not as much.
Enduro I don't believe they push AS hard primarily because they have to have a bit in the tank for the next stage? DH is more a "sprint" lay it all out or nothing?
I dunno, we seem to see more large injuries in DH vs enduro.
The level damage you can do to yourself is so much worse and much easier to get there on a dirt bike .
I don’t know if the injuries are more now than in the 26 er days. Bikes are so much easier to ride and the tracks are less tech but faster, so I could see less acl tears and more back/neck injuries, I guess. Still Moto is another level of injury imho.
I don't know anyone in MTB that has completely shattered both ankles.
Oh...and he landed it. Didn't wreck. I quit moto to go to college. Todd Bennick (Dak Bennick's dad) came and rode our track and I tried to do some things he did and almost hospitalized myself. Moved on to MTB and blew my ACL right out of college racing Nationals at Seven Springs.
Just tell myself that if I had stuck with moto instead I'd be invalid.
And , not on a 90ft triple... lol .
Still deal with it every day almost 10 years later. I got plenty hurt on dh , it’s just not the same level of violence . Glad your on 2 feet!
Tracey has always been my favorite racer (tied with Peat!) and I finally got the chance to meet her last year at Snowshoe and she was (as expected) so gracious and fun to talk to, despite just winning the overall by the thinnest of margins. I could tell she was mentally exhausted from all the pressure she had trying to fend off a hard charging Marine Cabirou for seemingly half the season. But again, she made time for fans and well wishers. Polygon could not have a better representative and I look forward to her future endeavors and hope to say hey again some day at Whistler.
Congrats on an epic career and all the best to Ms. Hannah!
Sounds like the right decision, at the right time, and that she's moving on to other great bike things, but us fans are going to miss her on the WC circuit.
Also happens to be one of the very, very best riders out there, too.
Very best of luck for your future adventures, Tracey
Also, the epic battle of the 2019 overall was compelling. Captivating. Tracey vs Marine was the main event for me that year. Short film material surely...
Who will I barrick for now in the women's? Not the wicked french! No. The tea sipping pommies? Never! But who from the southern hemisphere is up around the women's podium...
www.pinkbike.com/news/Tracey-Hannah-Bike-Check-Val-di-Sole-2012.html
I have the same Makulu in red, still rides like a beast.