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Minnaar Doubles Up Wins, Syndicate Dominates Gravity Podiums at Sea Otter
April 20,
2008
Monterey,
California
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
Troy Lee Designs
Chris King
