With the 2025 World Cup season behind us, riders are already looking ahead to 2026. Next year will look a little different for many riders, as contracts end and teams shake up their rosters. For Canada\u2019s Lucas Cruz, next season looks a little different and a little the same.<\/p>\n
Cruz revealed he\u2019s leaving the Norco Race Division as of the end of the year. Leaving the team but, by the sounds of it, not the brand. He\u2019ll also still be racing select World Cups next year, so we\u2019ll see what his arrangement with Norco looks like going into next season. Several other riders with the Canadian brand race without being full Race Division team members.<\/p>\n
Cruz thanked the Norco team for its support in his return to racing in 2025. The 2023 Canadian national champion<\/a>\u00a0missed all of the 2024 season due to injury. Cruz had a heavy crash during practice at the opening World Cup round at Fort William<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t thank Greg and Alan enough for the belief in me and the support through a life changing injury last year. I came back stronger and more fit thanks to all the inspiration from the staff putting their best foot forward every day and especially Gracey, Kirk and Greg out there on track racing their hearts out,\u201d Cruz said online. \u201cThis year was a grind but I\u2019m proud of the racing I did improving every weekend and pushing myself to the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n 2025 ends six years with Norco\u2019s downhill team for Cruz. \u201cI have nothing but good memories, stories and relationships with everyone who has been or is part of the program today,\u201d the past Canadian champion added.<\/p>\n After nearly folding all race teams a few years ago<\/a>, Norco not only revived its downhill program but elevated it to new heights. The squad\u2019s added major names like Greg Minnaar<\/a>, first as an athlete now as a mentor, and Danny Hart. The full 2025 Norco Race Division roster included Minnaar, Cruz, Hart and Gracey Hemstreet, Bodhi Kuhn, Erice van Leuven and Lina Frener.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the Sunshine Coast\u2019s Gracey Hemstreet, though, who has really pushed Norco Race Division onto the international stage. The young Canadian won several elite women\u2019s World Cup rounds in 2025 to finish second overall behind powerhouse Austrian, Vali H\u00f6ll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the 2025 World Cup season behind us, riders are already looking ahead to 2026. Next year will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,132047,117138,132048,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-215911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-lucas-cruz","12":"tag-mtb-news","13":"tag-norco-race-division","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}