Sam Hill is Not. Done. Yet.

While much of last winter's turmoil of team changes, rumors, and speculation has been resolved, the future plans of a few key players have still been left up in the air.

The abrupt dissolution of the Nukeproof Chain Reaction Cycles team left many racers without a ride for the 2024 season, and we reported that CRC's balance sheets indicated that the brand owed Sam Hill £34,265 or about $43,674 US.

Earlier this week, Hill teased at exciting news coming soon, and now the cat is out of the bag, thanks to this post on Instagram.

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Here's Sam's complete statement:

Where do I even start? Obviously 2023 didn’t go to plan. I wanted to return to DH, challenge myself and relearn the speeds of the current top elite men. The sport has changed since I last fully committed to the World Cup circuit and I knew it was going to be a big adjustment for myself. I felt like I was building momentum & getting comfortable on the DH bike again but then unfortunately as you all know broke my foot. I flew home and had surgery straight away. Fast forward a couple months post surgery, I was in the talks of re-negotiating my contract with Nukeproof to go racing again in 2024 as I was feeling super motivated to make my comeback AGAIN. Things were looking positive until I got the news from my manager that Nukeproof and the parent companies who own them had gone into liquidation and I was basically made redundant effective immediately. It was definitely not something I had seen coming and was a huge shock to wrap my head around as an athlete. I’ve never not had a bike deal or a direction my career was going in and to be honest I just wanted to give up all together. In 2013 when I first signed with Nukeproof, I took a huge risk and left a big brand to go for a smaller, more family run company which thankfully took me down the path of winning 3 more world titles, created a line of my own products and being the face of their race team. Signing with brands has never been about money for me. I mean it’s nice to be lucky enough to be paid to race but I’ve always just wanted brands to support me and give me the space to ride, provide results for them and just be me, Sam. Nukeproof was all of that and they always supported me no matter what my goal was for racing. Everyone who created Nukeproof were family to me, my wife and kids. The team was all apart of my success and for it to all be over, without a proper goodbye, one last whirl or any warning has been really, really hard. I thought I would ride and be apart of the Nukeproof family forever and possibly have a manager roll myself when I retired racing. 

I loved being with my team and have made friendships for a life time. Everyone has been asking what’s been going on, so I guess this is my goodbye to Nukeproof. I would like to thank everyone involved in the brand whom I have worked with over the last 11 years: Nigel, Michael, Rob, Dale, Steve, Lyn, Katie, Bdog. My team mates over the years: Matt, Joe, Majestic, Elliott, Kelan, Dan, Corey. My absolute lord of a mechanic Jacy. You took the leap with me in 2013 and have been by my side through every high and every low mate. I appreciate everything you have all done for me and the opportunities I have had. I hate that it’s ended the way that it has. I don’t like the R word and I’ve been close to it with all this going down… But it’s not the end for me. I will be back and going as fast as I can soon. I’ll stop racing when I’m ready to stop racing and not be forced to stop racing. Seeya between the tape somewhere soon everyone.

While some folks hoped Sam would announce he'd acquired a stake in Nukeproof/Wiggle/CRC, instead it sounds like the longtime multi-disciplined podium threat is as committed to racing as ever.

Hill is no stranger to an underdog story. His legendary 3rd place at Champery in 2007 is still one of the greatest DH racing stories of all time, and his subsequent dominance (overall winner 2017, 18, and 19) in the EWS stood out, even as the discipline grew and matured.

It's no secret that Hill had aspirations to race a full DH season in recent years, until a broken foot, and Nukeproof's problems sidelined him

We're excited to see Sam back between the tape in any capacity, and hope he gets the opportunity to leave the sport on his own terms.