Casey Stoner aims for more riding in 2026 after health regression

Casey Stoner is aiming to get back on two wheels in 2026 after he was forced to scale back his riding at the end of last year.

Former MotoGP World Champion Stoner has been on bikes in a fairly high-profile manner on several occasions in recent years, riding at Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Motor Ranch in 2024 and 2025, including on a symphonic two-stroke Beta on the former occasion.

However, after a trip to Europe towards the end of 2025 he was forced to stop riding as his health took a downward turn.

“Unfortunately, a few months ago, my health went backwards again, so I haven’t been spending any time on a bike,” Stoner told Crash.net.

“Before that, I was cycling again and my fitness was– I was very happy with where I was at.

“Then all of a sudden, got back from Europe, got a virus, and it sent me back into some chronic fatigue again. 

“So, I had to take a back seat and turn away from the bikes, but hopefully this year we can head in the right direction again and start enjoying bikes a little bit more.”

Stoner also said that he had been struggling with his fitness during the time he spent at the VR46 ranch – carpal tunnel hit him in 2024, before arm pump struck in 2025.

“It was good,” Stoner said of his 2024 visit.

“We were slowly starting to do a little bit more on bikes and things like that, but I was struggling massively with carpal tunnel. 

“I’ve never really had it in my life, I thought it was arm pump, and I thought ‘The more I ride, the better it should get’, and it was just getting worse and worse and worse. 

“So, when I was at Vale’s [Valentino Rossi] ranch I couldn’t do more than four or five corners at a time without my arms just pumping up to the point that I just couldn’t hold on.”

He added: “We went back there this year [2025], it was slightly better and it turned into a little bit more arm pump; so, actually, as the night went on, right as it was time to stop my arms started to feel better and better, so we were doing more consecutive laps. 

“But because I’ve been out of it, because of the health issues, my body is struggling to recover as quickly, so it’s struggling with blood flow in my arms. 

“Something that I did for so many years I just stopped cold turkey and basically have done nothing for seven or eight years on a bike, so it’s going to take some time to get the arm strength back.”

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