Santa Cruz Syndicate (SRAM) racer Greg Minnaar headlines the downhill and dual slalom winning both gravity events at the Sea Otter Classic this weekend.
Sharing the love with Greg on the downhill podium were teammates Steve Peat and Nathan Rennie placing 4th and 5th respectively, with Chris Kovarik 2nd and Justin Leov 3rd.
Minnaar was on the top blocks in the dual slalom with Steve Peat 2nd, Andrew Neethling 3rd and Kirt Voreis 4th. Minnaar’s double wins this weekend show that he has made a seamless transition to the Syndicate squad and seems to be getting on quite well on his new Santa Cruz bikes.
DUAL SLALOM:
Minnaar surprised himself with his double victories. In the dual slalom he and Peat worked their way through the rounds to meet up in the final guaranteeing 1st and 2nd for the Syndicate. Voreis also was absolutely flying and on form and made it to the small final. It is with good reason that he teaches dual slalom clinics for Bikeskills, and the Syndicate boys lent him a hand with his clinic on Thursday. It would seem that he might have shown Minnaar and Peat a thing or two as they aced the race. Kirt says, “It’s good to be out of the Allride van and on the race course. It felt awesome to be on the podium especially next to my teammates! Racing lives alive and well in my heart always and forever.”
Minnaar said, “It was great to be in the final with Steve. I was very relaxed having a friend next to me. From that aspect it was pretty cool. I wasn’t concerned with crashing or anything knowing the Syndicate had the top two positions regardless of which of us won. I was very happy to win the event. I haven’t raced here since 2002, so I’m stoked to be back.” Peat said, “I was happy to make it to the finals. It was a great day for the Syndicate to have two in the final. My Blur 4X was hooking up good. I had tough rounds with EC, Houseman, Voreis, Lopes and then Greg. I had to dig in deep on every round. By finals time my legs were absolutely spent, I had nothing, Greg got lucky!”
DOWNHILL:
The Syndicate racers impressed even themselves on Sunday in the downhill. With Greg picking up another win he had this to say, “At first I never expected to double up. You always race to win, but I didn’t expect it, especially in the downhill. I manage to nail all my lines in the final, which I was pretty happy about. Thanks to all the staff and mechanics, and it being the first race of the season it was hectic with new bikes being built and all, and the mechanics did a great job.”
Rennie says of his 5th place run, “My run was pretty good but with such a short course any mistakes can put you back a bit. I had a solid run, but just a few small mistakes put me into 5th. I’m happy on the first race to have the Syndicate take three out of five of the podium spots.” Peat says, “I had a decent run, but I had a little slide out on a corner up top before a pedaling section, so I lost some time there. The track here is fun for about 100 yards, and then it’s not fun anymore. I choose to ride my V-10 and it definitely was the right choice. I’m stoked to make two podiums this weekend. It was a hellava great weekend for the Syndicate and great job to the boy’s!”
Jamie Goldman placed 3rd in the Dual Stunt competition, which pitted racers head to head racing over manmade obstacles. Kyle Strait took the win. Goldman was also busy this week being a guide to blind racer Bobby McMullen helping him to a 30th place downhill result, beating 14 people in his class. Goldman says, “We pinned it in the race run going faster than anything we had done in practice. Bobby nearly crashed in a section but was able to get back on course. He had a great race.”
Prior to arriving at Sea Otter the squad was attending Syndicate training camp doing photo shoots, bike testing and training rides. Between photos shoots, the riders got to ride at the local skatepark, the Aptos Post Office jumps and hit up Alex Reveles backyard jumps and mulch pit. Minnaar got into his backflips, Jamie Goldman and Kirt Voreis were going off and Josh Bryceland was stoked to join in the fun.
Next up for the Syndicate the downhill crew goes to Europe for the World Championship test event, first World Cup and Lisbon Downtown. Goldman goes to the Qashqai events, while Voreis takes his Allride tour on the road.
DOWNHILL TOP TEN:
GREG MINNAAR: 2:11.2
CHRIS KOVARIK: 2:12.0
JUSTIN LEOV: 2:12.0
STEVE PEAT: 2:13.0
NATHAN RENNIE: 2:13.4
JARED RANDO: 2:13.7
DAN ATHERTON: 2:13.9
JURGEN BENEKE: 2:14.1
ANDREW NEETHLING: 2:14.3
AARON GWIN: 2:14.4
Thanks to the Syndicate Sponsors:
Santa Cruz Bicycles
SRAM
RockShox
Truvativ
Avid
Maxxis
DT Swiss
WTB
Crankbrothers
Lizard Skins
Clif Bar
Troy Lee Designs
Chris King
Five Ten
Kathy Sessler
Santa Cruz Syndicate
Team Manager
www.santacruzmtb.com
