As always, the Santa Cruz Syndicate has dropped off their stellar event coverage, this time from Mont Sainte-Anne. It was a dramatic weekend for the crew, as Greg crashed hard and Josh grabbed his first ever WC podium.
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Source: Sant Cruz Syndicate
RATTY ON A ROLL, BRYCELAND TAKES 2ND AT MT. STE ANNE!
New school is in session and Josh Bryceland (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM/
RockShox) joins the ranks of the youngsters making headlines with his second place finish today at the UCI World Cup downhill at Mt. Ste. Anne, Canada, which is his first world cup podium! This comes on the heels of his win at the Halo BDS UK national race last week in Llangollen, Great Britain where he is also leading that series. After a first place qualifier Greg Minnaar was poised for a win but made an uncharacteristic mistake in the rocky woods which sent him over the bars and netted him an 18th place finish. Steve Peat finished 15th, which was a frustrating result for him.
The week unfolded well with mixed weather conditions. Lot’s of practice in the sloppy mud went well for the boys and the qualifier went even better.
Greg put together a very smooth run with a time that clinched 1st position. Josh was pleasantly pleased with a solid run that held up for 3rd. Steve felt like he was riding well in practice but didn’t put it together in the run and wasn’t happy with 11th place qualifier.
Saturday’s practice was under beautiful sunny skies and the track tacked up and was drying quickly. I was taking photos of Josh and overheard the comment, “That man will be on the podium tomorrow.” Everyone could see the confidence in Josh’s riding and it was great to see a great performance net him a great result in the final.
Josh says, “I was happy to improve on my qualifying which is something I’ve struggled to do and I put a smooth run together on one of the longest tracks on the circuit. I got to finally get a world cup podium and follow up the previous weekends success at the national round. I felt more nervous about going up on the podium than I did about the race!”
Greg says, “I felt pretty decent on the track and I like this track. I had a great qualy and felt I could’ve backed it up in the final. I’d been playing around with suspension and my bike felt good all week which was what I needed to try to topple ‘ole Gwinny. Unfortunately I made a mistake in the woods and took a tumble, but the season isn’t over yet. I’m still in second overall due to Gee’s bad luck; he would have been up there without a puncture.”
Gestev always puts on a fantastic event here at and big thanks to Chantal, Patrice, Lisa and Anne-Marie for another great Mt. Ste. Anne experience!!
MEN’S RESULTS:
1st Aaron Gwin 4:31.77
2nd JOSH BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:32.23
3rd Brook MacDonald 4:32.28
4th Danny Hart 4:34.45
5th Cameron Cole 4:35.49
6th Troy Brosnan 4:37.89
7th Steve Smith 4:38.57
8th Sam Blenkinsop 4:38.92
9th Andrew Neethling 4:39.09
10th Justin Leov 4:39.48
15th STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:41.25
18th GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:42.42
MEN’S OVERALL STANDINGS:
1st Aaron Gwin 868
2nd GREG MINNAAR 695
3rd Gee Atherton 547
4th Danny Hart 506
5th Steve Smith 459
6th JOSH BRYCELAND 431
7th Brook Macdonald 431
8th Sam Blenkinsopp 371
9th Cameron Cole 356
10th STEVE PEAT 347
Thanks to the Syndicate sponsors:
SANTA CRUZ BICYCLES
SRAM, ROCKSHOX, AVID, TRUVATIV
ENVE COMPOSITES
MAXXIS
CLIF BAR
MUC-OFF
LIZARD SKINS
WTB
CHRIS KING
Gore® RideOn™ Cable Systems
FOXHEAD
BIRZMAN
FIVE TEN
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