Tracey Hannah Announces Her Retirement From World Cup Racing 7

After racking up 6 individual World Champs medals and one overall World Cup title, the Australian will focus on fun and sharing her knowledge with other riders.

After nine years of racing at the very highest level for UR Team and amassing 43 podiums, 6 World Championships medals, 1 junior rainbow jersey, an overall elite downhill World Cup title (and maybe something more to come in a couple of days), Tracey Hannah has decided to retire from World Cup racing. Rest assured that she will keep riding and racing though, as she will remain with UR Team in 2021 on a program that includes Crankworx, other select events as well as fresh new media projects. We salute Tracey on her incredible career to date, and we look forward to seeing what she'll get up to now with a little less pressure and more time to enjoy other aspects of the sport (and life). The World Cup won't be the same without Tracey doing battle with the other fast girls, but the only constant in life is change and so we too must make do! 

Here is 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.”

Here are 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.”


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