Santa Cruz Syndicate welcomes Greg Minnaar!

Nov 20, 2007
by Tyler Maine  
The Santa Cruz Syndicate is excited to welcome Greg Minnaar onto the Syndicate for the next two downhill racing seasons! We expect the addition of Minnaar to raise the bar even higher for the Syndicate and are eager to get the new Santa Cruz V-10 underneath him. Having Steve Peat, Nathan Rennie, and Josh Bryceland work and train together with Minnaar should elevate the playing field to new levels in the downhill arena.Rob Roskopp (owner, Santa Cruz Bicycles), has had an eye on Minnaar for a few years now, and when Honda made the decision to end their involvement in downhill racing, Roskopp saw this as the chance he was waiting for to add Minnaar to the successful Syndicate program. Having talented bike racers with big personalities is a prerequisite for the Syndicate, and Minnaar brings his professionalism, engaging personality and dedication to his craft to the squad. Something that impressed Roskopp the most was Minnaar’s performance at the World Championships in Fort William, Scotland, when in his race run, he crashed and continued on to a successful 4th place finish with a dislocated shoulder and broken scapula suffered in the crash! Witnessing that type of mental determination and control was compelling for Roskopp to aggressively pursue signing Minnaar.

Roskopp comments, “I’m very excited to have Greg on the Syndicate. I admire his talent, professionalism and work ethic and have wanted him on the Syndicate for some time. The Syndicate will now have a broad range in the downhill squad from young, up and coming Josh, to seasoned pros and legends, and will truly be a very international group. Having Greg will be amazing, and I look forward to seeing him race on the V-10.”

photo

“The most important factor for me in choosing a team I race for is the level of support, and the ability to race at my best. It’s clear that the Syndicate is driven by people who love to race. To have a race winning bike beneath me as well as team mates that will continue to push me, makes me very excited about the upcoming season. We are going to be a pretty tough team to beat!” says Minnaar.

Something we strive for in the Syndicate is to create an environment where each rider can express their unique individuality and develop their personas in the sport. Supporting and maintaining the momentum Minnaar has attained in his career will be a feature of his program.

Steve Peat remarks, “Greg is going to be a huge asset to the Syndicate. He and I have been friends since he first visited the UK, a long time ago, and I can see how his drive to win along with his professionalism will be a huge plus for us on the circuit. Welcome aboard Greg!”

Josh Bryceland excitedly says, “That's awesome news! I can't think of a much stronger group with Steve, Nathan and Greg! I have looked up to Greg as much as I have Nathan and Steve the whole time. His style and his consistency will just make the Syndicate even stronger! Also, we can both be newcomers together, ha-ha!”

Nathan Rennie welcomes Greg to the team with his sense of humor, “Looks like there are going to be three naked 6’ 3” men in the back of Steve’s van this year. I had enough trouble understanding Steve’s accent.... Welcome, and oh, by the way, that’s my sandwich Greg.”

Once again, it is with great pleasure that we make this announcement and welcome Greg to the Syndicate!

-Kathy Sessler
Santa Cruz Syndicate
Team Manager

www.santacruzmtb.com

Author Info:
brule avatar

Member since Mar 27, 2001
3,581 articles
Report
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup

56 Comments
  • 8 2
 100 bucks says Hill will beat all of them. You only need one person on a team to win the worlds or any race. How much money does sant cruz have to support this team and the riders pay. I'm sure the riders have number on their contracts
  • 5 1
 yeah, i'd put my money on hill.
  • 0 0
 naah, hes going down. and gee on the up! look at fort bill. plus santa cruz ruled there.
  • 9 0
 holy crap the syndicate will be unstopable
  • 7 7
 what about fairclough (sp?), what about steve smith, he is getting up there. what about duncan riffle (again spelling?)?, what about fabien barel? what about the athertons? you seem to be forgetting about all the other really good racers. races are not won by rennie&peat&hill ONLY. im not saying they are a bad team or any of that, cuase their team is killer. But it seems everyone has forgotten about other riders
  • 2 0
 The article is about the sydicate and written by the Syndicate team manager so what do u expect them to talk about? There hardly going to have news on Brendan are they. Barrel has moved to a New Subaru team
  • 0 0
 yeah..the whole point in this article is that honda shut down and santa cruz have signed up greg. theres now 3 amazing elite riders and a very talented junior on board the team.
  • 0 0
 its about time that he got on a santa cruz .fabien barel should switch
  • 0 0
 im not talking about the article, im talking about everyones comments.
  • 0 2
 sam hill has been unstobable since he started elite. wat about 2stage bikes ther far beter than santa cruz or iorn horse greg should have singd to them
  • 3 2
 but think about it santacruz now has to split their cash between 4 and ironhorse is probably a bigger company and only needs money for sam and sabrina so they can spend more to develop the sunday with even more crazy ideas and anyway v10s are ugly i have a sunday expert and id pick it over a v10 any day but i supose thats just my opinion
  • 3 1
 it dosent matter if the bikes are ugly dude,its about the winning! it aint a beauty contest! ps i dont mind the bikes.. either.
  • 1 1
 lol what an idiot.... for 1 second u sounded like u were talking sence....1st line not bad , iron horse a bigger company?horse crap ...and stating that ' V10's are ugly' jsut show how little you know and how much crap u talk
  • 1 0
 Sure money for developing bikes is important but your overlooking a major factor, why do you think that the iron horse will develop better than the V10?

Santa cruz have what you need to improve a bike, rider feedback. And they have 4 of the best riders in the world all with different styles giving feedback and information on how to improve the bike. It doesnt matter how much money youve got if you havent got the feedback you need to improve the bike it not going to move forward. If needed to build or improve on a bike, I'd take the input of four of the best riders in world over an increased budget any day.
  • 1 0
 to all the guys that are putting their money on hill, when greg is in the zone he is the best rider in the world bar none!! put simply, greg had the fastest split on every section at worlds this year by atleast a few seconds except the section he fell on, even the sections after he fell he was faster than hill and he was riding with a broken scapula and dislocated shoulder!!! my point is that no one can ever count anybody out!!
  • 5 1
 Great to hear that he found a team!!gonna be a sweet team this year
  • 2 0
 Damn now thats stacking a team. Just remember Sam Hill is just one guy and Santa Cruz is creating an army to pull him apart. Should be one hell of a season to watch!
  • 1 1
 ya i would bet on ironhorse cause sam hill has had a fantasic year but rannie and peaty just havent well lets just hope things go well and they step it up so the santa cruz boys can fly the colors
  • 1 0
 its good to hear tht greg found a team santa cruz has their team pretty much dialed for next season souds like its gonna be the most competative season yet i think
  • 1 0
 Hot danm! Thats going to be one awesome team! Greg on a V10, thats a sweet deal...
  • 0 0
 wooooaaaa, fucking team you know, the syndicate will be invincible...I thought greg would ride with morewood this year but he made a good choice Go greg go!!!
  • 1 0
 i see the rider sponsors...it's World Cup to in the Team TLD Rennie VS Royal661 Peaty VS Alpinestar Minnaar
  • 1 1
 ya wow. that is one stacked team they have there.. i think ironhorse needs to pic up some people all they really have is sam hill
  • 3 0
 I would be so stoked to see Fairclough join Hills posse and reign in a little pain of their own. But really the Syndicate is THE powerhouse now as far as teams go.
  • 4 2
 the best team in downhill...
  • 0 0
 Hopefully this helps lead to a crazy good v-10 one day soon also! Syndicate for world dominancy in '08! Unless Sam Hill has something to do about it......
  • 1 0
 Go Greg go!!!!! Whip whip some ass on ur new steed...
  • 0 0
 ioaoiajoiajoajaiuahuiahaiuhaiuhaiahuiahauiah!!!
  • 1 3
 as i said earlyer on another site:


o god, well at the world cups this year what they should do is, other then hill, just have the santa cruz team go and see who wins, save the time and effort from the others
  • 0 0
 OMG it's nice. The Santa Cruz Team's gonna be unstopable Razz .. But Hill is very competitive na' mean.
  • 0 0
 Kathy is gonna be taking allot more pics next year. Congrats to GM and Roskopp.
  • 1 0
 good lord, their team is now one of the best....
  • 1 1
 now the other boys gonna have some hard time trying to stop the Syndicate team... Peat and Gracia start your engines!
  • 1 2
 Gracia? shit hes old news hes not even a contender anymore. Dont get me wrong hes a great rider, just not that fast anymore.
  • 0 0
 hmm iron horse and santa cruz, the two most stacked teams in the fucking world!!
  • 0 2
 santa cruz is a bigger company than iron horse, and sabrina will probably end up on that french only team so sam will be getting a lot of attention from IH
  • 0 0
 wonder how greg will cope with conventional style drivetrains.
  • 0 0
 yeeee, never thought of that
  • 0 0
 What is the Syndicate other than a SC marketing tactic?
  • 1 0
 so having a team of dh riders is just marketing...
  • 0 0
 Cant wait to see Greg pics whipping the hell out of that V10...
  • 0 0
 YEAAAA SANTA CRUZ IS GONA OWN EVEN MORE!
  • 0 0
 damn, the Syndicate is going to dominate.
  • 0 0
 "...by the way, that's my sandwich Greg..."
  • 0 0
 Yeah, Minnaar on a V10... that will be something for the record books...
  • 0 0
 nice..fabien joined the honda team i think
  • 1 1
 honda pulled out of racing, unless they still have that team thats running the turner frames as well there is no honda this season unless you want to race something with an engine
  • 0 0
 V-10's rolling up...
  • 0 3
 Im going to put some money on Sam hill but i will also throw in 50 bucks thats i will win the 08 cup or wait lets make that for like 2013 i will win that cup Razz
  • 0 0
 holly shit nice
  • 0 1
 Sam hill kicks ass so he will be on top next year again
  • 1 2
 Santa Cruz is stacked!!!
  • 0 3
 i know
Below threshold threads are hidden







Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv56 0.059198
Mobile Version of Website