SYNDICATE’S MINNAAR RACKING UP THE WINS, 1ST IN BROMONT!!



Aug. 1, 2009

Bromont, Canada



Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Greg Minnaar(SRAM/RockShox) reels it in for his third win of the season in Bromont, Canada winning his 11th career UCI downhill race in the 111th UCI World Cup Series event. His brilliant race run eclipsed the times of Fabien Barel, Sam Hill, Gee Atherton and Aaron Gwin for a big win this weekend under sunny skies on a rugged race track. Steve Peat makes a costly mistake and comes 7th, and Josh Bryceland steps it up and places 9th.



Coming off of the race at Mt. Ste. Anne the Syndicate rolled into Bromont early for a few days of relaxation before the race week started. The boys went golfing and had massages. We had a Christmas dinner complete with white elephant gifts that had the night ending up with fireworks going off, Steve singing his hair people running around in funny underwear and crazy flip-flops.



Practice started and everything went well. The mechanics had the Santa Cruz V-10’s pimping and the boys got their lines dialed. Weather was on and off with rain during the week. Regardless of the conditions they enjoyed the challenging track. Steve was fighting a bug and felt under the weather but he was able to pull off a good qualifier in 4th. Greg was focused and qualified 3rd, and Josh wasn’t pleased with his 15th place qualifier.



Race day went smooth as silk and the race program is dialed with everyone playing their part perfectly. The guys had their hot lunch and a nap at the Syndicate mansion and were ready to deliver the goods with me bringing the boys to the track. Josh had a great result and did a stint in the hotseat and he emerged 9th at the end. Steve charged the course but had a dab in a section that cost him precious time and he came 7th. All hopes were now on Greg and he didn’t disappoint rolling into the hotseat with Sam and Fabien to follow. The split times were revealing and hopes were building, and in the end Greg was the victor !to the excitement of us all as he raised his shirt in celebration to reveal a "oneLife" mock tattoo.



Greg’s mechanic, Doug Hatfield describes the ride up the lift for the race start when he, Ricky Bobby and Greg rode to the top, "The fans were so great and they were under us on the lift. They were cheering for Greg and us so loudly and had lots of noisemakers and when Greg lifted his shirt to reveal his "oneLive" tattoo they went nuts cheering. It was incredible!"



Greg describes his week; "I had a lot of pressure coming in from Mt. Ste. Anne’s terrible weekend. It was a pressure to be on top. We had a good week in Bromont leading up to the race, which helped ease the pressure. A game of golf definitely took my mind off of racing. My qualifying race I tried to go for the win, but I rode to timidly. I hammered all the open sections but rode really cautious in the technical areas. I knew I could put together a better run in the final but I had to go faster on the top as I was 8th fastest on the top section in the semi final. When It came down to the final I made an error up top and didn’t feel that I carried as much speed as I should have so I pushed really hard in the middle and lower sections to make up time that I thought I had lost. I’m now a bit closer to Sam in the overall points so it’s definitely going down to another big weekend in Schladming. I’m just oneLifing it for life."





Josh says, "The course here in Bromont is short but tough. There is no rest and it’s full on rocky, gnarly. I think after qualifying in 15th I knew I had a bit of work to do so I changed some lines on the track and worked hard. My race run wasn’t as good as I had hoped but another top 10 makes me happy and it’s a step in their right direction. I’m looking forward to world’s and the finals and I’m just going to hang out with the Sessy’s until worlds."



A disappointed Steve says, "I’m pissed off with finishing 7th. I had a weird week with being ill. I’m not happy to come away with a result like that. I felt good on the track and my bike was hooking up awesome. I made a dumb mistake in the final. Not a good place to do it when times are so tight. At least the Syndicate came away with a good day. The points are still really tight. Bring on Schladming!"



The Syndicate is stoked to be back in the overall points lead. Just 16 points separate Greg from Sam Hill’s individual overall lead and Steve is in striking distance just 69 points back of Sam. It’s going to be a showdown in Schladming for the finals, but we’ll be heading down under before that for the World Championships.







Men

Time

Diff

1 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate

2:31.65 0



2 Fabien Barel (Fra) Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team

2:32.11

0.46

3 Samuel Hill (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Cat

2:32.28

0.63

4 Gee Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal

2:32.68

1.03

5 Aaron Gwin (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team

2:33.06

1.41

6 Michael Hannah (Aus) GT Bicycles

2:33.32

1.67

7 Steve Peat (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate

2:33.48

1.83

8 Chris Kovarik (Aus) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense

2:34.44

2.79

9 Josh Bryceland (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate

2:35.72

4.07

10 Brendan Fairclough (GBr) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Cat

2:35.74

4.09





Over all standings after Bromont



1 HILL Samuel MER 142 (4) 185 (2) 100 (8) 180 (2) 182 (2) 250 (1)180 (3) 1219


2 MINNAAR Greg SCB 240 (1) 113 (6) 165 (3) 240 (1) 156 (4) 59 (24) 230 (1) 1203


3 PEAT Steve SCB 165 (3) 250 (1) 230 (1) 117 (6) 73 (16) 200 (2) 115 (6) 1150


4 ATHERTON Gee ANC 132 (5) 150 (4) 200 (2) 175 (3) 119 (6) 155 (3) 147 (4) 1078


5 HANNAH Michael GTB 210 (2) 170 (3) 132 (4) 140 (5) 71 (17) 98 (9) 108 (7) 929


6 LEOV Justin TRK 110 (6) 80 (10) 126 (5) 70 (13) 165 (3) 95 (10) 86 (11) 732


7 FAIRCLOUGH Brendan MER 49 (33) 145 (5) 101 (7) 59 (24) 128 (5) 102 (8) 86 (10) 670


8 BLENKINSOP Samuel YET 60 (25) 102 (8) 79 (14) 165 (4) 70 (18) 90 (11) 80 (13) 646


9 GWIN Aaron YET 64 (19) 67 (19) 65 (20) 89 (10) 67 (19) 153 (4) 127 (5) 632


10 BAREL Fabien SUB - - - 66 (17) 212 (1) 132 (5) 210 (2) 620
11

9 SMITH Steve MSE 61 (24) 78 (12) 93 (9) 69 (15) 110 (7) 104 (7) 59 (23) 574


12 BRYCELAND Josh SCB 42 (39) 57 (27) 85 (11) 104 (7) 73 (15) 78 (14) 90 (9) 529





Thanks to the SYNDICATE Sponsors:

Santa Cruz Bicycles

SRAM

RockShox

Truvativ

Avid

DT Swiss

WTB

Crankbrothers

Lizard Skins

Clif Bar

Troy Lee Designs

Chris King

Five Ten

Portable Shade

Galbraith Chiropractic

Cast: santa cruz bikes

July 25, 2009 - Mt. Ste. Anne, Quebec, Canada

Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Steve Peat celebrates his 50th career UCI Downhill podium by placing 2nd in the UCI World Cup Downhill in Mt. Ste. Anne, Quebec. Greg MInnaar’s race run was marred with a high speed crash, yet he managed to salvage a 22nd place finish, and young Josh Bryceland put together a 18th place run. Not a stellar weekend, but “Old School” pulled it together for the Syndicate and Minnaar is licking his wounds. Sam Hill takes the win and the leader’s jersey going into Bromont next week. Aaron Gwin has his first career UCI podium and Gee, Fabien, Sam, and Steve destroyed him with a champagne blast.

It was a great week here with a Syndicate reunion after being apart for 4 weeks, everyone was jovial and the atmosphere was fun and relaxed. Greg enjoyed a day on the links in the shadow of the MSA racetrack, fired off some long drives, and lost a few balls.

Things may have been too relaxed when wrench Martyn “Tango” Hoyle drilled through his hand and off to hospital he went. Luckily the drill missed nerves, bones and ligaments and 3 stitches fixed him up. Jokes about it ran through our pit while he took the ribbing all in good stride and he was still able to get Josh’s V-10 perfect in spite of the accident.

We were greeted with a new downhill track with a lot of changes from year’s prior. The track is still very fast interspersed with tree sections and newly added berms and jumps. The guys were flying in practice. Qualifier came and Steve qualified 2nd and Josh had a solid 10th. It was a huge disappointment when Greg flatted losing valuable points. Luckily he is a top 20 protected rider, so he still made the show.

Race day, hoping to overcome a bad qualifier, Minnaar set off in his race run pinning it. He lost some rhythm through some berms, but got back into the flow again quickly. Flying along a high-speed section his rear wheel skipped out sending him skidding along the ground, pulling his glove half off. He carried on after throwing his glove off but had lost a lot of time and speed in the crash. Finishing an uncharacteristic 22nd, Greg tended to his bruised body and spirit. He says, “OneLife tribute to MJ, ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’”.

Josh says, “After qualifying 10th I was excited and really wanted a good result here. Unfortunately my race run didn’t go as planned. My top section was really bad but I didn’t let it phase me and I continued on and I managed to still get an 18th, not what I wanted. The track was really rough here and me and Tango managed to get the V-10 dialed in and it was really good on such a physically demanding track. “

Steve was pleased to finish 2nd, as he felt his run wasn’t all that good. “I’m pretty happy to come out of Mt. Ste. Anne with 2nd place. My bike was working awesome all weekend and the track was it’s usual tough, hard old self. The Syndicate didn’t have the best weekend but we’re all still in the mix. Bring on Bromont,” said Steve.

Steve remains 2nd in overall standings while Greg drops from 1st to 3rd, with Sam taking the #1 spot, the first time this season the Syndicate hasn’t held it the overall lead. Josh drops back one position to 13th overall. The Syndicate retains the overall team points lead by only 10 points over Trek World Racing who took top team honors on the day. We are looking forward to next week in Bromont as the series is looking like a four horse race. We will every attempt to get the leader’s jersey back in the house.

MEN’S DOWNHILL RESULTS:


Rank Name Nat. Result

1 Samuel HILL AUS 4:38.44

2 Steve PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE)GBR 4:41.48

3 Aaron Holmes GWIN USA 4:42.91

4 Gee ATHERTON GBR 4:43.51

5 Fabien BAREL FRA 4:44.63

6 Chris KOVARIK AUS 4:45.53

7 Steve SMITH CAN 4:46.39

8 Brendan FAIRCLOUGH GBR 4:46.58

9 Michael HANNAH AUS 4:47.58

10 Justin LEOV NZL 4:47.73

18 Josh BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE)GBR 4:52.31

22 Greg MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) RSA 4:54.58


MEN’S OVERALL STANDINGS:



1 Sam Hill 1039

2 STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 1035

3 GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 973

4 Gee Atherton 931

5 Mick Hannah 821

6 Justin Leov 646

7 Brendan Fairclough 584

8 Sam Blenkinsop0 564

9 Steve Smith 515

10 Aaron Gwin 505

13 JOSH BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 439



Thanks to the SYNDICATE Sponsors:

Santa Cruz Bicycles

SRAM

RockShox

Truvativ

Avid

DT Swiss

WTB

Crankbrothers

Lizard Skins

Clif Bar

Troy Lee Designs

Chris King

Five Ten

Portable Shade

Galbraith Chiropractic

Cast: santa cruz bikes