Early season testing started for the Santa Cruz Syndicate with mechanics, engineers and riders arriving in the town of Imperia, Italy, for three days of extensive testing aboard the latest Santa Cruz full carbon V-10’s. The bikes were decked out with the Syndicate’s newest sponsor products from Fox and Shimano. The Syndicate’s choice to join forces with Shimano and Fox proved to be a great decision as the test session was incredibly successful.

“Testing was amazing, the most productive test session I have ever been to. Besides good riding and eating killer Italian food, our Syndicate family expanded with Fox and Shimano. I feel this was a great start to the year and I’m looking forward to more positive things to come in 2012,” said Greg Minnaar.

The testing took place on the long downhill racetrack in San Romolo with shuttle assistance from Roberto Vernassa from Argentina Bike. The five-man Fox crew was ready to gather information from suspension testing using their state of the art data acquisition equipment. Spirits were high as everyone got started off on the dark chilly mornings while the mechanics built a bonfire at the bottom of the track to stave off a bit of chill. Riders were warm and tingly inside with big grins after the first run.

“We were getting everyone up to speed on the new full carbon frame, Fox suspension, and Shimano components. With the frame being much lighter than the previous version we had to dial the suspension in because of less un-sprung weight. I’ve also been riding the new XTR brakes for some time now and can’t get over how impressive they are, particularly with modulation. Feedback from all the racers was what I was expecting, a new milestone in performance,” says Rob Roskopp.

Greg Minnaar exclaims, “I was blown away on the first ride down the rugged San Romolo track. The first thought was, this is a winning combo! Fitzy and his crew worked flat out to get us up to speed. Their passion, enthusiasm and suspension knowledge is going to be very positive to the Syndicate. It’s been awhile since I was last on Shimano, 2003…and that was a good year for me. I hope this is the good luck I’ll be needing to win another World Championship.”

Santa Cruz engineer Joe Graney says, “We look forward to a close relationship with the suspension experts at Fox. They arrived in Italy with a team of engineers and technicians – blowing everyone away with how they were able to accurately translate each rider’s input into measured improvements in speed and control. Shimano continues to push the envelope with technologies like Ice Tech brake rotors and the Shadow Plus derailleur, as well as the variety of options that can be configured for different conditions fitting perfectly with Santa Cruz Bicycles’ core values of customer choice, usable performance, durability and long term support.”

Our newest addition to the Syndicate, mechanic Jason Marsh says, “I’m super happy that we are using Fox Racing Shox and Shimano for the 2012 season. The new Fox 40 forks suit the carbon V-10 frame perfectly and the RC4 rear shock really compliments the VPP suspension design. The riders were all impressed on how good the bikes felt, even after the first run. I have worked with the Saint group-set for the last three seasons and I really like how they work. Saint cranks are super strong, brakes are simple to set up and the rear derailleur and shifter are super smooth and a nice set up. Finish and attention to detail can’t be matched. The support offered by the Fox team over the last few days has been superb and their race support is second to none. 2012 will be a great season.”

Steve Peat was surprisingly pleased, “We have had three awesome days testing and training in Italy. It was great to catch up with all my crew after a few down months throughout the winter and I was happy to get out on the Santa Cruz V-10 and trash it in the test situation. Fox is a company that I have watched over the years. They obviously have great product because the fast guys are using it and winning races now and again on it. And Shimano needs no introduction. It’s a no brainer that they have great products and I am looking forward to working with them at the races! We came up with some great set ups and I am now looking forward to the season. Now it’s our turn to give it a thrash on our V-10’s, 2012 should be fun!”

“The test session was a big learning curve for me. Having ridden Boxxer’s since I was about 14, I’m very used to the look and feel of the fork so it was a huge change. I really enjoyed the process of getting my new bike set up and it was interesting getting to know the characteristics of all the new products. The suspension seems almost limitless with it its adjustability and I think our bikes have entered a whole new realm of adaptability. Despite getting my ass kicked in the final race I had a really fun and productive three days,” said Josh Bryceland.

Tradition is that on the last day of testing we always have a race to see who is quickest. Once again, for the second time in a row, Peaty took the win. But unlike the first time when Greg wore the dress to dinner, it was Josh’s turn to wear a skirt. Since there were no women’s clothes handy, Josh had to improvise and craft a fashionable number out of a pair of pants. “His outfit was complete with his ‘special’ tiger underwear, “ chimes in Roskopp.

Joe Lawwill, Shimano’s MTB marketing manager says, “Shimano is very proud and excited to be working with Santa Cruz Bicycles and the iconic Syndicate race team. We are looking forward to a successful and exciting 2012 season.”

Fox’s Mark Fitzsimmons says, “We are very excited to work with a team at this level. The professionalism of the team has shown in their years of great results and we look forward to bringing our suspension expertise to the program. We here at FOX thrive on the pure honesty racing brings to our development process and look forward to learning from Steve, Greg and Josh to continue to improve our products and aid them in their mission for podiums. Our goal is to provide our athletes with a suspension performance advantage and look forward to continuing this into the 2012 season.”

Syndicate head mechanic Dougie “Fresh” Hatfield says, “The Fox and Shimano Saint equipped bikes ran silky smooth during our test camp in San Romolo. The riders really liked the responsiveness and quality of the product. We are ready to go racing!!”

This has been an incredible journey, and the partnership has helped our racers achieve an impressive set of goals and dreams—2 UCI World Cup Downhill overall titles, 10 UCI World Cups wins by Greg Minnaar, 3 World Cup wins and a historic World Championship title by Steve Peat, and a Junior World Championship title by Josh Bryceland. These results were made possible using SRAM, Rockshox, Truvativ and Avid products, along with the world-class technical support of the SRAM team.

Working closely with John Dawson and Jon Cancellier on prototype Black Box projects and receiving their on-site support was a pleasure, and our heartfelt thanks go out to them for their years of dedication to the Syndicate. Thank you also to Dave Zimberoff for making the partnership possible.

Steve Peat says, “Leaving SRAM is a tough one for me. I have been with RockShox for 16 years so you could say the brand is engraved in me. But like most things in life nothing lasts forever and it has been a great time over the last 16 years. I want to thank each and every person at RockShox and SRAM who have helped me achieve my goals in my career. I have made lots of friends and had some fun times. Thanks guys!”

Greg Minnaar says, “Since joining the Syndicate in 2008 your support has been incredible. Thanks to all the crew that work hard behind the scenes making sure our Black Box equipment was keeping us ahead of the rest.” Josh Bryceland says, “I’ve ridden SRAM since I started mountain biking and I’ve come far using their products. Times change and so do sponsors, thanks for 4 years on the Syndicate without a mechanical in a race run.”

Rob Roskopp says, “Our partnership with SRAM over the years saw many milestones achieved, Steve Peat’s 2009 World Championship in Canberra, Greg Minnaar’s win at Maribor in 2010 aboard the first carbon bike to take a World Cup win, and countless podiums over the last 8 years. I would like to thank the whole crew at SRAM for the great memories and support.”

Here’s word from Jess:
My journey with the Trek Gravity Girls has been awesome; I have had the most amazing time and been given opportunities with the team such as Girls Camps in Saalbach, photo shoots at Tenerife, Trek Bike Attack and other adventures along the way that I will never forget. The girls (Katja, Steffi and Solveig) on the team are all so passionate about riding that it made me feel inspired and encouraged to get out and have more fun.

As we all specialise in various disciplines of mountain biking; 4X, BMX, Freeride, and DH Racing – we all learned something from each other and in the two years with the team, it has been great to be part of such an incredible group of people who I will always remain in contact with. I am really sad to be leaving Trek Gravity Girls but I am very excited about the new opportunities that this season is going to bring me…

Final year at Uni and a new team to boot? Good luck Jess! See you on the circuit..

Check out an interview with Jess back in issue 10.. how things move on!

Tavi Woodlands looking great on a crisp winter morning.

We’ve only just signed ripper Jay Williamson and he goes and gets a second place without his new NukeProof bike yet! Congrats Jay! First went to Ash Mullane and third Harry Steer.

Results can be found on RootsandRain.co.uk

It started great, with filming going well for my film Eventide. This idea came about late September 2010, and by the start of 2011 I had already filmed 2 sections. This meant 2011 started off busy, seeing me travel across England and Wales, meeting new people and seeing new sights along the way.

Every weekend until the Eventide premiere on March 26th I had been filming and editing, focusing all my efforts on the outcome, promoting and double checking the premiere arrangements (kindly sorted by FiveTwo Race Team’s John Lee). To my relief, the film went down really well, about 60-70 people filled out the venue, a local bike company co-owner attending and thankfully everyone left with a smile on their face. It was great to see the five months of work all put together in one edit, great company and obviously a massive sense of achievement.

Although this day was probably the best of 2011, I let myself down by not releasing the film in full after. Instead I tried to cut it into sections, which was never the way it was intended, therefore loosing interest and wasting the opportunity!

Filming and the premiere meant I missed the first round of the British Downhill Series at Nant G in Wales. This would sadly be the case for most races through 2011. Although I did get to attend two, the round at Moelfre and the National Champs race held at Llangollen. These races where amazing though, some of my shots from Moelfre made Factory Jackson, Dirt and WideOpen online spreads and the shots from Llangollen Champs making a huge piece on Dirts website, chuffed.

2011 also opened me up to new shooting, as I was doing some stuff with FiveTwo Race Team who specialised mainly in 4X. This took me to shoot a style I had never shot before, I was used to trails and natural terrain, rather than the man-made tracks that to me looked like motorways compared to any DH or XC run. I very much enjoyed my time with FiveTwo, I made lots of new friends and had lots of new experiences. They have recently started up a new team representing Terminal 1 skatepark, you should definitely check it out!

This was not the only new opportunity I had, in August 2010 I started work at a news agency based in Birmingham and have since been out on a variety of jobs, photographing people in all sorts of different ways, collections and events. The best part is that I can go to photo events that I wouldn’t get to any other way, meaning I got ace entry to the Red Bull X-Fighters round in London in late 2010 and the Red Bull Pro Nationals round at Hawkstone park and the Weston Super Mare beach race in 2011. For this I found I needed a different set of skills, as the difference between the scale of the tracks and obstacles compared to mountain biking where so much larger and the riders where going so much bigger and faster than usual, but I think my work turned out pretty well none the less.

This took me through to about April, and although shooting races was my main priority, a better opportunity came about. I was approached by Dan from Stanton Bikes, who had come to see my film after being taken up with the hype. He was very impressed and we sorted out a few sit down meetings in his local where I also took shredder Mitch Ingley. From there the first edit with the Slackline came about and from there the relationship blossomed, and the edits haven’t stopped coming since! They have been all over the Dirt, Wideopen and Factory Jackson websites, the frame got in Dirt 100 and I got a double page spread in Dirt! Ace.

So to 2012! Where hopefully I will keep a better check on my diary, take on many new projects and hopefully step up my game altogether! Happy new year!

Thomas Gaffney Photography
www.flickr.com/thomasgaffney
www.vimeo.com/thomasgaffney

Wee edit on headcams of one of the sweetest trails Matt Wragg rode out in NZ this winter.

Episode 2 of Scottish Scene features the carnage of the 2011 Scottish Championships held at Killin. We then take a trip across to Innerleithen to check out the skills of Joe Connell riding his local trails. Joe has had a great season this year riding for Sunn/Montgenevre (taking the junior BDS overall, SDA overall and becoming junior Scottish Champion to name a few of his achievements…) and it was awesome to spend some time filming him for Scottish Scene.

Christo Gallagher is a 18 year old rider from Edinburgh, Scotland. After several shoulder dislocations, he finally had surgery completed four months ago. We caught up with him for a couple of days shooting for a short promo. A perfect day at the trails in Braefoot was matched with two equally as horrible days at Innerleithen. First it was fog, heavy cloud and the lack of sunshine, then it was the typical Scottish winter with heavy rain, cold temperatures and surprisingly strong winds.

World Champ Danny Hart

On saturday the track was almost dry with a few wet patches in the forest but the sun was shining! Some riders got in a lot of runs like Liam Little who got 13 practice runs. However overnight there was some rain and some during Sunday thankfully this was only in practice runs and the weather got better for race runs making the track wet but with dry patches to catch them out.

Quite a few riders had some bad crashes in the forest section as the rocks were very slippy! But finding the right tyre PSI was hard as the start of the track was 4x and many riders wanted to go fast on there and finding a happy medium was difficult for some.

Come race runs a big crowd had came to watch and the atmosphere was great! Overall the weekend was awesome and a great last race for Northern Downhill who have gave us a great 2011 season.

Liam Little

A huge thank you to Carl Davison and his team for giving everyone a great year of racing and everyone is looking forward to what is coming in 2012!

By Adam Pagett

Scott Mears