Intense Factory Racing closes shop after five years
End of the line for Aaron Gwin's World Cup downhill squad
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Intense Factory Racing
After five years together, Aaron win and Intense Bicycles are shutting down the Intense Factory Racing program. That leaves Gwin, who owns the team, and three riders as well as the team’s staff, without a program for 2024.
Squamish, B.C.’s Seth Sherlock is one of the longest-serving Intense Factory Racing riders, aside from Gwin. Sherlock joined IFR as a junior back in 2020. The Canadian’s had significant success with the team, landing Enduro World Series podiums along with his results on the downhill World Cup circuit.
In 2022, Gwin added fellow U.S. racer Dakotah Norton to the program as well as U.K.’s Joe Breeden. Norton had a particularly good run with the Intense Factory Racing program, landing elite men’s World Cup podiums in Snowshoe and Loudenvielle in 2023, several US Cup races and 2022 downhill national champs.
Gwin had a much rougher ride as IFR team owner. The iconic U.S. racer spent much of the 2023 season on the sidelines due to injury. That followed a couple years of injury and bad luck.
It looks like Gwin’s focus will be switching from team ownership to bike park expansion. The U.S. racer recently announced that he’d purchased Windrock Bike Park in Tennessee.
