As one of the best known teams on the World Cup downhill circuit, the Santa Cruz Syndicate has earned its reputation thanks to stellar performances over the years from the likes of Peaty, Ratboy and Greg Minnaar. For 2017, the team has had a shakeup, having welcomed two new riders in the form of Loris Vergier and Luca Shaw. And in true Syndicate form, they did so with a hilarious video that includes some incredible method acting from both Peaty and Minnaar. If you haven’t watched it yet, do it!
The Santa Cruz Syndicate was out in force over the weekend at Fort William, with Loris Vergier, Luca Shaw and Greg Minnaar pinning it all throughout practice and qualifying. In the end it was Minnaar that took the glory, with a stomping near-perfect run that saw him put over two seconds into Jack Moir.
Much of the hubbub around the Syndicate team at Fort Bill and Minnaar’s performance was on the new prototype V10 29er that the fellas have been racing. And with Minnaar wrapping up the first win for 29in wheels on the UCI Downhill World Cup circuit, it seems that the bikes are working pretty darn well.
Over the weekend, we had the chance to chat with Luca Shaw about the new bike to find out what kind of setup he’s running, and how Santa Cruz has squeezed those big wheels into the V10 chassis.
