After 16 years, South African mountain bike racing legend, Greg Minnaar, will no longer be racing for the Santa Cruz Syndicate. The American-based team made the announcement on its Instagram account on Monday, 4 December. Many misread the post as Minnaar retiring from racing, but the Pietermaritzburg puzzler still has plans to race in 2024. Here’s a photo summary of his final season with The Syndicate.
Words: Sean Badenhorst | Photography: Sven Martin
It was rather unexpected. Greg Minnaar and The Syndicate have become synonymous. Most gravity racing fans have only ever known Minnaar to be racing on Santa Cruz bikes. But the announcement was confirmation of some recent speculation on mountain bike media forums.
Although he’s now 42, Minnaar still has the desire to continue racing and some solid performances in 2023, including a second place at the weather-affected Andorra World Cup, show he’s still one of the world’s fastest racers.
Having won four UCI World Championships titles, three UCI World Cup Series crowns and a total of 23 UCI World Cup races, Minnaar is the greatest male downhill racer of all time. He has defied the odds in such a high-risk sport to remain competitive for more than two decades.
Although he never used them as reasons – or excuses – he did have some tyre and wheel issues in 2023, which undoubtedly affected his consistency in possibly his worst year of race results – by his standards.
- World Cup #1 Lenzerheide 29th
- World Cup #2 Leogang 27th
- World Cup #3 Val di Sole 28th
- World Champs Fort William DNF
- World Cup #4 Andorra 2nd
- World Cup #5 Loudenvielle 12th
- World Cup #6 Les Gets 7th
- World Cup #7 Snowshoe 17th
- World Cup #8 Mont St Anne 32nd
- Final 2023 World Cup position 15th
- World Championships DNF
- Current UCI World ranking 23rd
Although there’s been plenty of speculation, it hasn’t been confirmed which team Minnaar will race for in 2024. The most mentioned team is Norco, but the Canadian brand hasn’t invested heavily in gravity racing in recent years and is considered a minnow outfit compared to The Syndicate. Teams and riders are only permitted to make move announcements after 31 December each year.
For perspective, Minnaar leaving The Syndicate is akin to Beckham leaving Man United. It’s the end of a chapter – in this case, a few chapters – but not the end of the story…
South African photographer, Sven Martin shoots for The Syndicate. Here’s a selection of Sven’s images of each round of the 2023 UCI World Cup and the 2023 World Champs for some final appreciation of the end of an era.
LENZERHEIDE
LEOGANG
VAL DI SOLE
FORT WILLIAM
ANDORRA
LOUDENVIELLE
LES GETS
SNOWSHOE
MONT ST ANNE
