SYNDICATEâ€™S MINNAAR RACKING UP THE WINS, 1ST IN BROMONT!!

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 “oneLife” 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.