It was a great showdown and an amazing end to the 2009 UCI World Cup Downhill Series in Schladming, Austria, as it came down to four racers in contention for the overall title.
In the end Sam Hill won the race, and the overall, with Santa Cruz Syndicate's Greg Minnaar and Steve Peat (SRAM/RockShox) giving chase and placing 2nd and 3rd overall, respectively. Josh Bryceland pulled out a great run to finish the race in 8th place, just .02 seconds behind teammate Steve Peat who struggled to find his rhythm and placed 7th on the day. Minnaar focused on his performance and came back solid, if a little conservative, from his major stack in his qualifier, and placed 3rd. Their efforts boosted the team overall points to the top and the Syndicate won the best downhill team title.
What an incredible season the Syndicate has had finishing the world cup series in a solid 2nd, 3rd and 13th place overall, winning the team overall and Steve wearing the rainbow stripes. Going into the finals Steve donned his world championship rainbow jersey for the first time in competition. It took some getting use to, but after a few days he felt right at home in his well deserved jersey, although the first few days of practice he managed to keep it muddy as the demanding track had riders falling all over the place.
Going into this race Sam Hill was the favored rider and the Syndicate did their best to close the points margin. The long, physical track had the boys tired each practice day, and when qualifier day came they struggled, with a big crash from Minnaar, and a spill for Bryceland. Peat was the only one of the boys to stay upright, but his effort just got him 7th place. Course walks, and another few days of practice had the guys focused ahead for the race.
Bryceland came down and held the hotseat for a few riders until Minnaar unseated him. He held the hotseat for a half hour until Sam Blenkinsop came down and bested his time. Anxiously waiting for the arrival of Sam Hill, Minnaar and Peat had their eyes on the big screen. Sam didn't falter and took the win, and the points shook down to Minnaar in 2nd, and Peat 3rd. Bryceland felt he could have done a bit better in his race run, but was pleased to end the season with a top ten result.
Steve says, "It's been a hell of a year hanging out with the Syndicate! My V-10 has worked the best ever and it shows in our results. I wasn't happy with my 7th place finish in Schladming. I was happy with 3rd overall in the series, and even happier with the rainbows! I just want to say thanks to all our team sponsors for supplying the best kit to go and take on the rest of the world with."
Minnaar had this to say about the race, "I felt like I was riding good all week. My bike was handling the extremely rough course really well. I new I could qualify top 5, but at the end of the day I needed a win and that was going to be hard. I was happy with the overall result of the race and to finish 3.61 seconds behind Sam was good for me, especially on this course. Obviously I would like to have won on the day and the overall, but I'm happy with 3rd in the race, and 2nd in the series overall. Thanks to the Syndicate, our sponsors, and Doug and Kathy for a great season."
It has been a storybook year for the Syndicate with Greg winning three world cups, Steve winning two and making history having the most world cup downhill wins, and finally winning the world championships. We look forward to racing again next year and hope to keep the success rolling.
MEN'S DOWNHILL RESULTS:
1st Sam Hill 4:01.10
2nd Sam Blenkinsop 4:03.43
3rd GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:04.71
4th Aaron Gwin 4:08.07
5th Brendan Fairclough 4:08.07
6th Justin Leov 4:09.28
7th STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:09.35
8th JOSH BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:09.37
9th Luke Strobel 4:09.59
10th Mickael Pascal 4:09.89
MEN'S OVERALL STANDINGS:
1st Sam Hill 1469
2nd Greg Minnaar 1349
3rd Steve Peat 1258
4th Gee Atherton 1166
5th Mick Hannah 990
6th Justin Leov 838
7th Sam Blenkinsop 828
8th Aaron Gwin 770
9th Fabien Barel 725
10th Steve Smith 620
13th Josh Bryceland 613
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
Kathy Sessler
www.santacruzmtb.com
