Throwback Thursday: 16 Years of Greg Minnaar & Santa Cruz

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 Or perhaps the w16

 He's off Global Orange?

 So you're telling me that he doesn't ride for Haro anymore?!

 That was an AMAZING moment.

 It would appear that Roskopp agrees. Well, maybe not on the actually taking the payday part, but hey, at least he's actually sharing his opinions about PON-era SC.

Although I'm personally disappointed to not see Minnaar finish out his career on a Santa Cruz, I can't be the only one who's stoked that the GOAT will be back next year with a brand that will leave no stone unturned in getting the legend up to speed. #greatestever

 @DirtCrab: your last point is the key here, he will have a brand that backs him completely. Not that SC didn’t, but I’m sure the same frame(sort of) kinda gets old.

 Yup, soul is gone and with it, any inkling of me ever owning one again. Too bad, were my go to bikes for a long time.

 The Syndicate made Santa Cruz. Since the fall apart of the Syndicate, the bitter taste drops onto Santa. Definatley not the brand i was looking up to anymore. The VP Free was my dream bike back in the days. Now I wouldn't even touch a Santa with a ten foot pole. yes i know, the vp free released before the Syndicate. But the Syndicate made Santa visible for me.

 @mikedk: I'm 100% with you and I know I've heard this from others as well. way to piss off a the older demographic with disposable income... now buying bikes for our kids.

 It is very interesting. On the farewell podcast, Greg mentions being "blind sided" by it, but they don't want to get into many details because the SC media guy "isn't happy about the situation" and wanted to keep it cheerful. Then in Rob Roskop's instagram post, he says "I can understand why you wanted to leave", while going on to talk about the new SC leadership doing a terrible job. I hope we get to know more at some point.

 corporate decision?
if you have the future (probably) goat aka jackson on the team and a soon to be retired goat but only have X amount of cash to spend on the team and you need to let someone go. who do you kick out?

 @mammal: can you share the link to the podcast? I am also puzzled why they let him leave when he is still delivering decent results and is a legend of the freakin sport....

 I can't help but feel that the arrival of Jackson as a stand out racer changed the power dynamics within the team, and as other folks have already pointed out, the increasingly corporate nature of those pulling the levers at Santa Cruz probably has a lot to do with this. My guess is that those in control of the corporate purse strings don't value his prior contributions and legacy, but rather question whether his continuation with the team was necessary.

IMO its a poor PR move that tarnishes an otherwise storybook relationship between the GOAT and arguably the best DH team ever. That said, I'm over 40, and perhaps they think Jackson is a big enough star to be the future of the team/brand.

But wtf do I know?

 @cro-magnon: If this is the case why Minnaar? Greenland seems like the easy choice, yes he's a good racer but his name doesn't float around the industry like Jackson and Greg.

 @DavidMcComb: You're right!
Could be budget cut and Jackson price increased after last season so they couldn't afford two end of the tier earners.

If rumors are true, there will be a junior women coming. So wild guessing: Budget cut + jacksons plus earnings + junior women = Gregs salery.

 @joaoamaral66: look up "The roller door" podcast, it's SC's in-house podcast.

 @DavidMcComb: Maybe Greenland's contract wasn't up yet and Greg's was? Hard to say.

 @jaytdubs: they could value his prior contributions and still question if his continuation was necessary. Corporate decisions arent made with hate and dislike

 @Treehouse15: agreed, its not black and white. As a fan of Minnaar and the Syndicate, and not being in the decision making position, my view is skewed.

 @Treehouse15: Spot on, but also I think there's a lot of people chyming in with thoughts about "corporate decisions" who don't understand the relationship between Santa Cruz and the Syndicate. I don't know about now, but the Syndicate was a separate entity from Santa Cruz since it's inception. They were both owned by Roskopp, but the Syndicate was not technically the "factory" team of Santa Cruz.

I can't see the Syndicate (or Santa Cruz) wanting it to go this way unless they were far apart on something (retirement?) I wonder if Santa Cruz had planned a huge farewell tour with Greg, then he pulled a Brady and changed his mind about retiring.

 @cro-magnon: you are smart guy and your comment make lots of sense. Even though many do not like it, running a sport tream is a business. Greg was possibly very expensive and they count every penny and the most important is the perspective Goldstone is more perspective than Greg and with limited budget they need to chose.

 @jaytdubs: Santa Cruz and is now part of a much bigger company and it you know anything about large companies you’ll know that the 2024 budget will have had to have been submitted and approved at least half way through 2023. All the noise was that Minnaar was due to retire at the end of this year and if that was indeed the plan then SC will have likely not budgeted for his salary in 2024. So when Greg changed his mind because of a lacklustre season what are SC supposed to do? Dropping Greenland so they can keep Minnaar most likely would mean buying Greenland out of the remainder of his contract not strategically smart when Greg would be leaving at the end of 2024 anyway.

 @powderhoundbrr I think the 2020 one is the best looking personally. But maybe that's just me. To each their own.

 ..

 Not taking away from Nico's efforts but do you think he had the same level of competition as Greg for the majority of their careers? Quite amazing Greg was still competitive in 2023 and still able to take world champs title in 2021 so long after starting to race. Nico's first 5 wins were 1st place out of 3 competitors back in the mid 90s. It's the same reason I think Gwin could have claimed the GOAT status if he didn't suffer injuries later in his career because he came into the sport older and still did so well against a super competitive [established] crowd, albeit with no champs titles.

Either way, both incredible careers and it's quite remarkable Greg is still going at 42!

 Cause that shit cost money!

 I think he'll still be racing, just on a different bike.

 www.instagram.com/reel/C0g3c2RqQ1Q/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA=

 why? everyone is being way too emotional about this. Its their company and they have made a change