We were all shocked here at Dirt when Claudio Caluori hinted that Josh Bryceland would be retiring from racing at the World Champs.

As a World Cup winning racer with plenty of years left in the tank it seems strange to think of the World Cups without him.

Claudio suggested that Josh was worried about his carbon footprint, and so was stepping down from the circuit. However, it seems that may not be entirely true.

On a photo of Josh next to a truck on Facebook, one fan asked: “Confused man. If you retired to reduce carbon footprint but you are still travelling via the same modes? How does that add up?”

To which Josh replied: “Don’t listen to Claudio brother! I haven’t retired.”

It’s nice to know Josh won’t be gone completely, but does it tell the whole story? Is this a case of no smoke without fire, or have we just all been swept up by the Silly Season hype train?

As it stands we’re clueless as to what Josh is doing next year, but it would be a real shame if he wasn’t on the World Cup scene, it wouldn’t be the same without him.

It seems that everyone is holding their cards to their chests this year, by last Christmas we had most of the grid figured out – only the Gravity Republic’s switch to Specilaized and Gwin’s last minute move happened later. Keep your eyes peeled for everything to be revealed in the New Year.