Some people might find this interesting, others may find it boring.
Here are four press release from WC round #3 at Andorra, I think it’s interesting to see them as a whole, you know, how the different teams interpret their different results. From the ecstatic Syndicate to the less than ecstatic Kenda Morewood team.

May 17, 2009
La Massana, Andorra

Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Steve Peat (SRAM/RockShox) wins the Nissan UCI World Cup downhill today in Andorra with Greg Minnaar 3rd and Josh Bryceland having a solid run for a 9th place finish putting the Syndicate in the team overall lead. It was a storybook ending to the week with Peat’s back to back wins earning him the prestige of winning the most UCI Downhill’s in history at 17 wins. Minnaar said he rode a bit too conservative, but it was an excellent run to get him back on the podium. Bryceland’s performance was his best all year and he shows that he is ramping up into the senior category nicely.

I just received this message from Greg and Josh’s coach, Stephane Girrard: “Please forward to Steve Nico’s text message I received driving home : “I’ve been watching live Steve taking and beating my record of wins away, congrats to the big guy!”

The week between La Bresse and Andorra was filled with a bit of fun. Steve went home to see his family. Josh, Greg and I went to Barcelona while Doug, Rick and Martyn drove the van to Andorra. It was a fun 24 hours in Barclelona. We rented some roach tourist bikes and Greg took us on a tour of Gaudi’s spectacular architecture throughout the city. With Greg and Josh mucking about on the bikes I was in stitches. They both nearly died by not looking while crossing busy roads with scooters flying past. Josh struggled to remember that the brakes were backwards and nearly hit a lady. The capper was when Greg made a turn while Josh was launching off a sculpture and had to slide his bike, which under normal circumstances would’ve been fine, but a fistful of front brake had him bleeding on the ground while Greg and I couldn’t stop laughing.

We rolled into Andorra to some foul weather and we walked the snow lined, muddy track on Thursday. Lucky for everyone the weather improved and sunny skies shined on the snow capped mountains, while the course dried out and got rougher each practice day.

The qualifier went well for the guys. Steve was 3rd fastest behind Sam Hill and Gee Atherton, with Greg in 4th. Josh pulled up in his qualifier with 20th spot. Each of them rode fast and steady, not taking any risks, while racing fast enough for those important qualification points.

Doug, Rick and Martyn enjoyed the venue and when each work day concluded they could drive past Cedric Gracia’s Podium Bar and Café and join in all the festivities Cedric had planned. Stopping in for just one beer they thought it tasted just fine and thought they should try another to see if it tasted just as good. It did! It wasn’t long before they arrived back to the apartment with 15 pair of fancy underpants that they had purchased at the Podium. The special ones were the teddy bears with chain saws, I knicked those off of Dougie right away.

Race day practice went well while the guys tried to find some more time on the course. The mechanics and the SRAM/RockShox crew had the Santa Cruz V-10’s absolutely dialed. Preparation all the way around was rock solid. The air in the pit was electric and before Josh’s start he told me he was nervous, and it seemed that he had just the right activation level for a good performance and it was true. He set off an hour before Steve and Greg who were taking a rest after lunch back at the apartment. The mechanics were on the hill as Steve and Greg prepared, running the course in their minds, their concentration on the task at head was thick in the air. Just before they left the pit they were talking and I could feel an energy that crept into me filling me with excitement and nerves.

I’ve never felt so anxious at the finish line watching, but today I was shaking watching things unfold. Josh was 20th down the hill and came across the line 2nd. His time held up for a 9th place finish at the end. Greg was fourth to last down the hill and he unseated Mick Hannah from the hot seat, but Old School was next up and he put 1.41 seconds into Greg’s time. We watched Sam Hill’s splits, he was over a second faster at the first split, but ended up having a nasty crash, and it became clear before he crossed the line that Steve had just made history. My knees and hands were shaking for minutes after, then we found out that we gained enough points to take the team overall.

It was a surreal race. Steve raced not expecting to win; yet he did. It was just amazing to be a part of Steve, Greg and Josh’s success and to be a part of history. It is really just too hard to describe it. Doug was in tears, as was I. Doug has once again earned his nickname of “Hatrick” with three Syndicate wins in a row. I don’t have any idea how we can top this day, but we’ll continue to stick to our program because it seems to be working.

This weekend we will be at the Lisbon Downtown race where Steve will attempt to make history yet again, and Greg will be chomping at the bit to win Lisbon.

ANDORRA DOWNHILL RESULTS:

1st STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 2:22.05
2ND Gee Atherton 2:22.07
3rd GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 2:23.46
4th Mick Hannah 2:23.71
5th Justin Leov 2:23.93
6th Nick Beer 2:24.0
7th Brendan Fairclough 2:24.06
8th Bryn Atkinson 2:25.26
9th JOSH BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 2:25.39
10th Steve Smith 2:25.40
10th David Vasquez 2:25.40

Thanks to the SYNDICATE Sponsors:
Santa Cruz Bicycles
SRAM
RockShox
Truvativ
Avid
DT Swiss
WTB
Crankbrothers
Lizard Skins
Clif Bar
Troy Lee Designs
Chris King
Five Ten
Galbraith Chiropractic
Galbraith Chiropractic

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Trek World Racing Scores First World Cup Podium In Elite Men

17.5.2009
24 year old Justin Leov scored a World Cup podium here today in Andorra, despite suffering from a miserable head cold. This is Justin’s 2nd only World Cup podium in his racing career, the first coming back in 2004, and is a huge relief to the talented Trek World Racing rider who set as a main goal for the year, a long awaited return the rostrum. Team mate Tracy Moseley finished 3rd, narrowly missing 2nd place by 2 hundredths of a second and was bitterly disappointed by her run, as too was Andrew Neethling who said he had a solid run, but the race speed was faster than he thought it’d be, and finished back in 26th.

The story of the day for Trek World Racing though is that Justin’s 5th place is the first elite men’s World Cup podium for the new team, and an exciting sign of the team’s overall progression. The career result is a major stepping stone for Leov who believes he belongs on the podium more regularly. Only Sam Hill rode the first intermediate quicker than Justin, who by the end of the altitude race, was suffering with breathing problems thanks to a head cold that had been getting worse all week.

Justin said: “Man that’s a relief! I can’t believe it, I have been getting so many 6th’s, 7th’s and 8th’s and I just needed to have a solid run and it would all come together. Last night I woke up several times because I was having trouble breathing thanks to this cold I’ve got, but some eucalyptus oil really helped out. Half way down the run I started to get tunnel vision though, and I think if the race would have been 15 seconds longer, I probably would have crashed I was getting that dizzy. But I have to say, the bike was so amazingly quick on this course, it just accelerated so well out of corners and felt so stable in the high speed sections. In the first sector I was hauling it and the rear end stepped out on me but it came back into line so quickly, I never felt out of control. I’m glad the day’s over, and stoked on the result, so happy for the team.”

Unfortunately Tracy’s 3rd placing means the leader’s jersey goes to today’s winner, Sabrina Jonnier, by the slender margin of 2 points. Heading into Fort William for round 4, a track Tracy won on last year, the Brit is hopeful of turning the tables.

Tracy said: “That was a pretty tough result to digest. I made a mistake in the top section, but other than that I thought I had a great run. To see the time that Sabrina posted, well it just kind of deflated me. Losing to Emmeline by 2 hundredths, well that’s racing and sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn’t, small margins are cruel but part of the sport. It’s the bigger margin I need to work on, and I’ll be heading home tomorrow to do just that.”

Andrew said: “I had a solid and clean run, but obviously it wasn’t enough. I needed to take a few more risks as I misjudged the speed the top 10 guys were doing. I also made a big mistake in the last woods which I know cost me some time. Overall not a great day for me but fortunately my ranking doesn’t change. I’m stoked for Jusso though, he killed it!”

Next week sees round 4 of the XC World for Trek World Racing, in Madrid, Spain, with a full line up 3 men, as well as the Lisbon Downtown in Portugal which will be contested by Justin and Andrew.

Check in during the coming week for the video release on the team web site:

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/trek_life/cycling_teams/twr/

Women’s Results:

1. Sabrina Jonnier (FRA) – 2m 41.58secs
2. Emmeline Ragot (FRA) – 2m 45.45secs
3. Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) – 2m 45.47secs
4. Celine Gros (FRA) – 2m 47.77secs
5. Nicole Myriam (FRA) – 2m 48.41secs

Women’s Standings

1. Sabrina Jonnier (FRA) – 642 pts
2. Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) – 640 pts
3. Emmeline Ragot (FRA) – 525 pts
4. Nicole Myriam (FRA) – 372 pts
5. Fionn Griffiths (GBR) – 300 pts

Men’s Results:

1. Steve Peat (GBR) – 2m 22.05secs
2. Gee Atherton (GBR) – 2m 22.07secs
3. Greg Minnaar (RSA) – 2m 23.46secs
4. Mick Hannah (AUS) – 2m 23.71secs
5. Justin Leov (Trek World Racing) – 2m 23.93secs
26. Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing) – 2m 27.52secs

Men’s Standings

1. Steve Peat (GBR) – 645pts
2. Greg Minnaar (RSA) – 518 pts
3. Mick Hannah (AUS) – 512 pts
4. Gee Atherton (GBR) – 482 pts
5. Sam Hill (AUS) – 427 pts
6. Justin Leov (Trek World Racing ) – 316 pts
7. Brendan Fairclough (GBR) – 295 pts
8. Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing) – 254 pts

Team Standings

1. Santa Cruz Syndicate – 239 pts
2. Trek World Racing – 225 pts
3. GT Bicycles – 142 pts
4. Maxxis Rocky Mountain – 138 pts
5. Monster Specialized – 119 pts

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Well round 3 of the Nissan UCI World Cup is over – we took some great positives away from the weekend.

We had a mixed weekend of good and bad.

The track was exactly the same as last year apart from the last corner coming into the finish. Vallnord is an amazing place for riding, with huge mountains and tons of downhill runs – the track they use for the race however is average at best. Pretty cool at the top with some fast open corners into a series of tight man made berms, then a fast section that flys off a natural fade which was pretty scary to watch and then into the tight rutted out woods for the remainder of the track, quite a bit like a UK track… but not what we should be seeing at a world cup event.

Chris was still recovering from the flu from last week but managed a pretty solid run finishing in 12th only 3.5 seconds down. He was really fast on the first half of the track in a podium position but just lost out a bit on the bottom half with a lot of coughing up at the finish! It is pretty hard getting the flu during the race season when the races are back to back with all the traveling in between. But thats racing!

Ruaridh and Matt both made it through to the final this week which was a big relief after La Bresse. Ruaridh had solid run although he had a big mistake in the middle – he was 6.22 seconds down on the winning time putting him in 36th for the day. Matt was 7.46 seconds down finishing 49th. These easier short tracks are just so close in times… roll on the big longer fast tracks!

Julien was riding great all week and in qualifying he had the 2nd fastest split time. He then crossed the line in 13th but he had clipped a rock with his pedal and smashed into a tree hard with his hand. How he finished 13th after this was pretty amazing but unfortunately with a ‘quick’ 3 hour trip to the hospital we found out he had broken the 5th metacarpal bone in his left hand and pushed his knuckle back. Pretty painful! Julien will have surgery on wednesday morning to put a small screw in his hand and should hopefully be back for round 5 in Maribour where he finished 2nd last year. Get well soon Ju.

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TEAM KENDA MOREWOOD POWERED BY BOS AT UCI MOUNTAIN BIKE WORLD CUP IN VALLNORD, ANDORRA


With the steep, snow covered peaks of Andorra acting as a stunning backdrop, KENDA MOREWOOD team riders Mitch Delfs and Nathan Rennie tackled the slick roots and and tight trees under sunny skies and cool temperatures.

After quite successful opening round with very flat course in Pitermaritzburg, South Africa (Nathan Rennie in 12th place and Mitch Delfs in 45th) and also satisfied performance during the second round in La Bresse, France (Mitch Delfs 12th) the third round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra would see Mitch Delfs place 27th (+5.56) while, injured in La Bresse week earlier, Nathan Rennie had a disappointing weekend, ending up 62nd (+10.29).

After a cold and sometime snowy first practice session on Friday, the sun came out and the course dried within hours. By Sunday morning, the once slick, muddy woods had turned into freeways with deep, unforgiving ruts in the turns.

Snowbanks were still located all along the sides of the course causing it to become the only World Cup DH race in recent memory where some paramedics showed up to their stations on snowmobiles and not quads.

Mitch Delfs: “My run was safe and sound, but a bit slow. I thought I would have gone quicker, but I was on cruise mode. I was a little bit too safe, I was in control all the way down and I think you have to get a bit wild to place well at a World Cup final. It was close, I’m not far back, but I’m still in 27th place”

An obviously disappointed Nathan Rennie declined comment.

The team now heads to Morzine for a week off, and then on to Fort William, Scotland for the 4th round of the World Cup series.

For more information please email [email protected]

TEAM KENDA MOREWOOD powered by BOS

co-sponsored by:

ACROSS
CONTROLTECH
FORMULA
MAVIC
MRP
ODI
RACE FACE
SDG
SRAM
TROY LEE DESIGNS

Press releases from the Syndicate, Trek World racing, CRC intense and Kenda Morewood downhill teams after Andorra