After nearly 150 professional races, Nick Beer has decided to call time on his downhill career. He is the third high profile rider this year to announce his retirement after Steve Peat and Harry Heath also stepped down.

The Radon Magura Factory rider is a former European and Swiss Champion and a regular fixture in the World Cup top 20. His most prolific years came racing alongside Stevie Smith on the Devinci Global Racing team where he picked up a handful of top tens and a sixth place finish at the 2013 World Championships in Pietermaritzberg.

Beer first started racing cross-country in the early nineties against fellow Swiss Nino Schurter however he switched to downhill in 2000 and raced his first World Cup in 2003.

In a post on his Facebook, Beer said: “I would like to let you know that 2016 will be my last year of racing. It has been a long and great journey racing bicycles since a young age.

“Close to 150 professional and even more amateur races later, I feel blessed that I could achieve many goals on just as off the track.

“Riding bikes around the world and meeting people who became friends to me, more than I ever could ask for. To stop racing is nothing to be sad about. I had a great time and I am happy to enter the next chapter.”

Beer has been selected to represent Switzerland at the World Championships in Val di Sole, but after that he will be hanging up his professional racing shoes for good. He will instead focus on his studies in Mechanical Engineering – hopefully with those credentials behind him it won’t be long before we see him back in the industry!