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NORCO UN-PAUSING THEIR FACTORY DH TEAM
Norco Announces Un-Pause of Factory DH Team
November 28, 2022 - Port Coquitlam, BC - Norco Bicycles will reinstate its 2023 Norco Factory Team program focused on the UCI World Cup DH series.
Almost immediately after taking charge, newly appointed CEO Sean Sullivan reversed last month’s decision to pause the program.
“It’s impossible to quantify the inspiration and pride Norco has felt in supporting these talented athletes for the past 30 years, and pausing the team didn’t reflect that commitment,” he explained.
“These riders play a huge role in the development and testing of our bikes and technology, and they are the embodiment of what drives us.”
The team will challenge a full international DH calendar with a three-rider Elite roster featuring:
• Gracey Hemstreet - 2022 World Cup Junior Women Overall Champion • Lucas Cruz– Following his best-ever Elite season • A yet-to-be-named Elite DH veteran
“At the end of 2021, we decided to prioritize DH, so the XC team was informed before 2022 even started that they’d need to find a new home by the end of the year,” said Team Manager Kevin Haviland.
“This wasn’t a decision we took lightly, but building a DH team around some of the best riders in the sport lets us continue our legacy of fostering talent, while developing, testing and proving technologies that benefit every rider on the trail.”
Additional announcements regarding full rider roster, team co-sponsors, race schedules and other details will be made available as the re-booted Norco Factory Team takes its final form in time for an exciting 2023 season!
"A yet-to-be-named Elite DH veteran" -> Sam trying to find a new ride, ready to sign a deal only for Norco to come back knocking and giving him a happy-but-not-so-happy plot twist?
I guess it depends if the rumour posted earlier on this page is true.
Gwen will excel and grow exponentially with Trek so no big loss on her part.
Norco will bring back the XC team once their new XC bike is ready. 2 years and we should see them back in XCO.
I do wonder if Kirk McDowell will be actually part of the factor team for 2023. Though he works for Norco as an engineer and was riding their Prototype he was essentially a paid privateer. He was not an actual part of the factory team.
After watching the Innes Graham RAW, is there any chance he gets more factory support to make a proper run at a full EWS season? Or does he even have the interest in that? All I know is he's one hell of a talent on a bike.
He might not be interested; this excellent Sleeper Co profile of him delves into that a bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBsQ3CWokp0
What about some up and comers from Canada?
Jack Menzies to YT? What about PB reality star Emmett Hancock?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CllXaWKpueQ/?igshid=YzdkMWQ2MWU=
212 days is Val di Sole...👀 Hill making an official push back to the big bike?
embedding the hill post just b/c that photo is so freaking sick
lol is that yours? so sick!
What year is that? That doesn't look like a Horizon pedal...
2014: http://www.dayofdirt.com/thehub/latest-news/mtb/sam-hill-crashes-out-of…
Charlie Harrison is retiring from racing.
That is a very classy goodbye post. Chapeau!
best of luck, charlie! its always cool to see a local kid make it that far, let alone podium. Where most shuttles don't exceed 1000 feet in SoCal.
nik nestoroff and KHS part ways as he focuses on enduro, sharing future plans soon.
Serious question, did KHS ever release get their own enduro or DH bikes to their team? There's a few KHS riders local to me, and there were always on rebadged Genius's or Sessions.
Pure speculation here, but I wonder if their ability to get sufficient frames manufactured/shipped might have been undercut by the pandemic. As I understand it, production time at most factories was in extremely high demand, and maybe KHS couldn't offer high enough pay or volume to compete with other brands clamoring for their spot in line?
Again, purely speculative.
there's also at least one high profile(?) KHS rider on a Kona Process. most of the KHS videos that get put out don't show the frame/bike..which always seems a bit odd for a bike company, but eh!
Apparently he was seen on a fezzari
hearing transition is back to WC racing with heavy jr. squad. hope it's true!
KHS has always been, and will always be, a catalog bike brand and it is a US/Korean company. The racing part is a passion play by the US GM of KHS, I worked for him when he was the GM of Diamondback bicycles (remember DBR Racing in the late 90's-early 2000's). I remember the day we all got fired by Derby Cycles when they purchased Diamondback and moved the brand from Camarillo, CA to Kent, WA. I assume the riders get whatever kind of personal bike they want and put KHS stickers on it, no way KHS would ever spend money on developing race bikes in any kind of cycling format.
I'm sure the team could race KHS bikes but have you seen what they offer.
https://khsbicycles.com/
But in the past, the team did in fact race on KHS bikes. So something has changed.
back in the day they had some good gear.
Now it stands for knowledge, health, Shitboxes
But KHS has been running Astro catalogue frames for... over 10 years now? I remember news items saying 'we're developing a new DH bike' and it was the exact same Astro frame brands like Mondraker (they ran Astro frames in the first year(s) of Barel era before the stealth design and zero suspension was developed), Cult (Slovenian), Kraftstoff, Solid bikes and the like would also run. Maybe some changes to the angles at most, but all the major parts of the frame were obviously the same.
Angel to UNNO
Kerr to Canyon
Blenki to Cube
Millie to Canyon
G Williamson to Madison
via ‘Making up the numbers’ podcast
Not that long ago it seems ... https://astroeng.com.tw/page/news/index.aspx?kind=14&root=7
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