Minnaar, Bryceland, Syndicate Take UCI Titles

The Santa Cruz Syndicate bagged all the titles they chased this year in Schladming, Austria at the Nissan UCI World Cup Series finale. It was a tight points race and Greg Minnaar proved his dominance in this series winning three of the seven events and by placing fifth today he clinched the title, his third series overall win of his career in the elite men’s downhill. Josh Bryceland sat out the final race with a broken collarbone but still had enough points to retain his hold on the junior overall title. And a collective effort by the Syndicate members this season paid off with the top downhill team champion’s crystal trophy going home in the hands of the Syndicate’s fearless leader, Rob Roskopp thus capping off a magic year. Greg went into the finale as the point’s leader 116 points up on Sam Hill. Both Greg and Sam’s performances seemed to suffer with the burden of the points on their backs. Hill was the expected race favorite as he has won at Schladming a number of times, but his time was eclipsed in the end by a spectacular performance by young New Zealander Sam Blenkinsop winning his first world cup race with a 1.64 margin. Steve Peat went in with fourth place points that would not change with any points shifting, so he had nothing to loose and rode a strong race to place 4th on the day, and 4th overall. Nathan Rennie, after being sick in Canberra and placing 2nd there had been struggling with illness since and nearly didn’t come to Schladming feeling that he couldn’t travel. He put in a valiant effort towards the team overall qualifying 9th, and placing 19th in the final picking up 47 points for the team which gave the Syndicate the margin of 36 points over the Animal Commencal team needed to take the overall team title. Rennie finished the series 7th overall. Greg says this about the race and winning the title, “All week there was obviously a lot of pressure on from being so close to winning the overall. It’s not because of the race, as such, but because you are so close to winning it that you don’t want to loose it. Sam and I both had a lot of pressure on both of us and I think it affected both our riding. I don’t feel I rode to my full potential. My race was hard. I started off really comfortable, I felt good and after just a little slip up top I decided to back things off a bit because I didn’t want to risk a crash or anything else. I heard someone shout at me on the course that I was going slow. I was thinking a lot of stuff and I just didn’t want to crash. I think from that aspect it was a pretty bad race, so at the bottom I wasn’t really that stoked just because of the fact that I didn’t have a good race. It felt pretty bland and I also didn’t have all the adrenaline pumping from having a good ride, so it was mixed emotions at the bottom, even knowing that I had just won the overall.” The celebrations for the conclusion of the world cup season started on the podium with Greg leading the charge polishing off a magnum of champagne then carried on into the pits as the Syndicate celebrated with champion champagne hosing down Roskopp with it then hoisting him up in the air. The mechanics, Ricky Bobby, Doug Hatfield and Nigel Reeve celebrated a perfect season with zero mechanicals in the races thanks to their zealous work keeping the bikes perfect. Nissan hosted the after party flying in a DJ from London and lots of dancing, cigar smoking and celebrating was done into the early morning hours. Next week Steve, Greg and Nathan will compete at the Jeep 24Straight Dual Slalom race then attend Interbike. UCI DOWNHILL SERIES OVERALL RESULTS: 1) GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 1354 2) Sam Hill 1293 3) Gee Atherton 1207 4) STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 1099 5) Sam Blenkinsop 794 6) Fabien Barel 717 7) NATHAN RENNIE (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 620 8) Justin Leov 614 9) Chris Kovarik 608 10) Julien Camellini 505 32) JOSH BRYCELAND 184 JUNIOR WORLD CUP CHAMPION DOWNHILL FINAL RESULTS: 1) Sam Blenkinsop 4:10.16 2) Sam Hill 4:11.80 3) Gee Atherton 4:12.36 4) STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:13.20 5) GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:17.56 6) Justin Leov 4:18.33 7) Fabien Barel 4:18.49 8) Aaron Gwin 4:21.44 9) Mitch Delfs 4:21.60 10) Andrew Neethling 4:21.87 19) NATHAN RENNIE (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:24.40 UCI MTB TEAM STANDINGS: 1) SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE 618 2) Animal Commencal 582 3) Yeti Fox 351 4) Monster Energy/Iron Horse 325 5) Team Maxxis 303 6) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 257 7) Playbiker/Iron Horse 247 8) Subaru Mt. Bike Team 246 9) Suspension Center 246 10) Kona 228 Thanks to the Syndicate Sponsors: Santa Cruz Bicycles SRAM Rock Shox Truvativ Avid Maxxis DT Swiss WTB Crankbrothers Lizard Skins Clif Bar Troy Lee Designs Chris King Five Ten Kathy Sessler www.santacruzmtb.com