About — Health Advocacy Racing Team

What is Cross Country MTB?

Cross Country Mountain Bike is a high-octane racing sport full of sprints, battles of fitness and skill, technical rocks, flowing trail, tight trees, and beautiful venues.

Our riders hail from various regions of the US and target the Professional Cross Country Tour (Pro XCT) races along with select, high profile American classics. Their goal is to achieve outstanding results on the national circuit, at National Championships, and earn their places at the UCI World Cups and World Championships.

Our mission in health advocacy.

Along our racing and training travels we share our passion and experience in healthy lifestyle through simple habits of exercise, nutrition, and mental health. Through resources at our team tent, clinics at middle schools, with youth cycling programs, and through involvement in high school and junior development teams, we aim to provide people with simple, memorable rules and anecdotes of healthy living.

What habits?

Healthy living doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive or difficult.

Slowly swap processed foods for unprocessed foods. Mold your diet one small eating habit at a time. Snack on fruit instead of chips. Fill up on some roasted veggies before your burger so it will satisfy you better. Drink lots of water to stay satisfied longer and more energetic.

Go for a walk instead of lounging in front of a screen. Stand up and walk a lap around the house/office every half hour between work tasks. Do some yard work as exercise. Start dancing as exercise.

Swap “I can’t” statements for “it’s difficult” or “I’m still working on” or some other positive. Be honest with yourself and know that you can do awesome things through small habit changes.

Choose one small start, commit to it. Once that small change is habit, add another small change.

About the team founders

Jeremy Norris is a professional cross country mountain biker, ISSA Nutritionist, USA Cycling coach, and Colorado league high school mountain bike coach living in Fort Collins, Colorado. Jeremy fell in love with the sport of mountain biking through racing with Estes Park High School Mountain Bike Team in the Colorado high school league. He raced for Boulder Junior Cycling over the summers where he got a taste of the national racing scene and got to watch the international professional races. With a handful of podiums at junior State Championships, U23 and Collegiate National Championships, and local pro races Jeremy went pro at the age of 18 racing for Tokyo Joe’s Racing Team. Since then, Jeremy has been consistently moving up the ranks chasing international standings with a steady eye on World Championships and the 2028 Olympics. He also found a passion for giving back to where he fell in love with the sport and has helped coach seven elite junior and high school teams around Colorado in mountain bike, road, and cyclocross. He currently coaches for Ignition Coach Co., Ciclismo Racing, and Fort Collins High School in Fort Collins, CO.

Samuel Elson is a professional cross country mountain biker currently living in Henderson, NV. He is also a USAC coach and is in his senior year at UNLV to obtain his bachelor’s degree in Microbiology. Samuel grew up in northern Minnesota, where he started cycling at a young age. He started racing mountain bikes through the local Minnesota MTB Series, and later competed in the Minnesota High School Cycling League. His favorite cycling discipline is on the mountain bike, but he has also dabbled in cyclocross and road cycling. During his time in Minnesota, Samuel gathered numerous state titles across different disciplines. After working his way up in the junior ranks, Samuel turned pro at the age of 18. Since then, his focus has been on UCI mountain bike races, hoping to travel to Europe for World Cups, World Championships, and even the Olympic games in the future. Most recently, Samuel helped establish Elson Endurance, a coaching group he started with his father, Brandt Elson. The goal of Elson Endurance is to help train others to not only become better athletes, but also balance life with training so that it is as enjoyable as possible.