The Colavita/Baci Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light divided this past weekend to contest the inaugural La Grande Visite de Gatineau in Canada and the Air Force Cycling Classic criteriums in Virginia.

Kelly Benjamin, Rushlee Buchanan, Heather Logan-Sprenger, Jessica Phillips, Carmen Small, and Modesta Vzesniauskaite headed north to represent the Colavita/Baci team at the two-day UCI 1.1 La Grande Visite de Gatineau. The race started with the 17.7-km Chrono Gatineau time trial. US National Time Trial Champion Jessica Phillips was the team’s top finisher on the flat, out-and-back course, narrowly missing out on the podium with a 4^th place finish.

The next day, the squad lined up for the 99.2km GP Cycliste de Gatineau road race. The route included part of the time trial course plus a loop through picturesque Gatineau Park, for a total of eight laps over the 12.4km course. HTC-Columbia took an aggressive stance, with Tibco, Webcor and Colavita/Baci also in the action. On the 6^th lap, a group of five riders, including Colavita/Baci’s Carmen Small, broke clear and quickly established a gap of 20 seconds. This looked to be the break of the day, but after a concerted chase from the Australian National Team, they were reeled back in. After that, many groups got 5-10 seconds clear but none were able to make anything stick so it was “gruppo compacto” heading into the final few kilometers. With a roundabout at just 300m to go, the finish was technical and positioning was vital. With help from the rest of the team, Kelly and Modesta were positioned well heading into the final roundabout. Unfortunately, Kelly was caught up when the two riders in front of her slid out but was lucky to avoid crashing herself. Meanwhile, Modesta put in an impressive sprint to land a podium place behind race winner Joelle Numainville of Webcor and Joanne Kiesanoswki of TIBCO.

Back in the US, Colavita/Baci’s crit squad, including Kate Bates, Cath Cheatley, Theresa Cliff-Ryan, Andrea Dvorak, and Shontell Gauthier lined up for the Air Force Cycling Classic criteriums. The 50-lap Clarendon Cup in Arlington, VA, with its technical, five-turn course, is considered one of the fastest criteriums in the US. The Colavita/Baci riders put themselves in perfect position to set up sprinter Theresa Cliff-Ryan. However, a high-speed, head-to-head crash with eventual race winner Brooke Miller (Tibco) less than 100 meters from the finish forced Theresa out of the race.

The next day, true to the fighting spirit of the race’s namesake, Team Colavita/Baci returned to contest the 60-minute Air Force Cycling Classic Crystal Cup criterium. About halfway through, Cath Cheatley initiated what became the winning breakaway and crossed the line in second behind Robin Farina (Vera Bradley Foundation). Theresa Cliff-Ryan, despite severe road rash from the previous day’s crash, finished a highly respectable 6^th.

Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Greg Minnaar (SRAM/RockShox) placed 2nd today in the Milka Wheels Of Speed downhill in Willingen, Germany. Aaron Gwin took the win on this short, fast course with a 1:50.06 to Greg’s 1:50.26 and Andrew Neethling was third at 1:50.99, and Josh Bryceland finished 17th with 1:55.72.

Willingen has been host to World Cup downhill racing and the Wheels of Speed event has been going on since. This race is held in conjunction with the Sympatex Bike Festival with thousands upon thousands of people in attendance. The Wheels of Speed is a great stop on the calendar and is known for having great prize money and riders are well taken care of and enjoyed the hospitality of the VIP lunches where everyone could relax and hang out. There were also rider presentations and signing sessions that incorporated the athletes into the festival.

Riders have a great time on the track here, which is short, full of jumps, drops and rocks and at the speeds they were going made it very dangerous. If you hit everything right you would be on pace, but miss a little something and you were off the back.

Saturday was the seeding run and it turned into a rainy day. The start was delayed as the timing wasn’t working for a bit and they had to use back up timing. Gee Atherton was the fastest by 2 seconds in seeding, Greg was 8^th and Josh 13^th. Race morning was dry and the day improved into a sunny afternoon. With the track easily accessible, thousands came out to watch the action packed race.

Greg had a great run going and held the hotseat for a while until Aaron Gwin unseated him. Gee was the last man down and hopeful for a win, but he suffered a rear puncture and had to roll into the finish. Aaron Gwin said, “ I’m really happy to win. Before the start today I thought I really need to win today, my dental estimate to fix my teeth is $7,800.00, so I was really, really happy to win today.” The prize money Aaron won will get him a lot closer to that new smile.

“I’m happy to come 2^nd today and be the Tooth Fairy for Aaron. The racing was tight and I rode a little conservative through the rocks. We hit some really high speeds on the track and with all the jumps and drops you have to be accurate because it’s a bit dangerous, but it’s a good track to race on,” said Greg.

“It was a valuable weekend. It’s not the type of track that suits me, so it was good to come here and practice something like this. I thought I would’ve done a bit better, but the wet seemed to give me a better advantage in qualifying, I have my bike feeling good going into Leogang,” says Josh.

This week the Syndicate goes to Leogang, Austria for the next round of World Cup action with Greg in the leader’s jersey. We are looking forward to racing at a new venue for the World Cup and will attempt to keep the leader’s jersey in our camp.

Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM/RockShox), starts off the UCI World Cup downhill season with a big win.  He put together a brilliant run to win the season opener in Maribor, Slovenia in the most dismal conditions on a course Greg would describe as “the hardest course I’ve ever ridden because of the mud and rain.”  Teammates Josh Bryceland and Steve Peat strung together less than optimal runs for disappointing 16^th and 45^th positions respectively.

The week rolled out nicely as all our flights arrived without further volcanic interference. Steve, Josh and Greg got up to speed on their new carbon V-10’s early in the week on a drying course for the first day of practice and enjoyed being back in Maribor. As expected, the rain arrived for the rest of the week.

This was a technical track under difficult conditions where many people don’t think of Greg as being suited to a track like this, but he bloody well is. He unequivocally proved that he shines on any track, any time. Greg has trained hard to come back after a serious leg injury he sustained in November and he is in a very good place now and he knows his training has been right. 

He felt a bit of pressure last week being down in practice run times last week during the carbon V-10 testing in Lousa. In fact, his lowest time had him wearing a dress out to dinner. He was clearly wearing the pants today as he put his strengths to work using his powerful mind and his pedaling prowess to deliver a great performance.

The Santa Cruz Bicycles engineers that designed and developed the carbon V-10 were here to see their years of hard work manifest into reality. They were excited to witness Greg’s win first hand and it was a win for them, as well as the entire Syndicate.

With the win still sinking in, Greg said, “When I pedaled out the gate my mechanic, ‘Doug E. Fresh’, yelled out “oneLife” and it made me laugh and put a big smile on my face. The win was really unexpected. I was hoping to leave Maribor with a top three to start the season in a solid position.  Considering the course conditions, my past results here and a 3^rd in qualifying I would have been stoked with a top three. I felt after the qualifier that I could race for the win and not just for a podium. We’ve been on the road for 2 weeks now and I’ve been adjusting to the carbon bike and working with all the guys from Santa Cruz has been great.  It’s nice to be getting on a plane home with a win under my belt ending the trip on a high.”

Josh was underwhelmed with his ranking after having great practice runs and a good qualifier. He had high hopes to keep things going as he had practiced, and he caught a slower rider in the qualifier where he placed 7^th. He went into the final ready to charge, but just couldn’t get it flowing properly and finished 16^th.

Steve was very disappointed with his race run. Riders were only allowed one practice run on race day due to the gondola being shutdown due to winds. On his practice run Steve hit a tree quite hard and thought he might have separated his shoulder slightly. He was still well prepared for the race, but pin balling off of trees slowed him down and he finished an uncharacteristic 45^th place.

Rob Roskopp says, “It was great to see Greg win on such a super technical, awful, muddy course against others that are suppose to be better, but obviously weren’t. It was great to be the first carbon bike with carbon wheels to win a World Cup downhill. It’s an amazing way to start out the year.”

This is Greg’s 12^th World Cup downhill career win, 7 of those on Santa Cruz. He goes into the next World Cup at Ft. William, Scotland where he has quite a bit of good history and he’ll be wearing the UCI leader’s jersey. Josh is still chasing the podium and Steve hasn’t been in this position in a long while and will be hungry for redemption.

Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) broke a streak of bad luck in Maribor, becoming the first World Cup Downhill leader in the 2010 series.

The opening round of the downhill saw a slight easing overnight of the rain that had turned the four cross into a mud bath, which wasn't necessarily a positive thing, since it made the course sticky and slower; especially for the top-seeded men.

Ben Cathro set the early fast time of 3:31.52, before being bumped by Joe Smith (3:30.35) then Aaron Gwin (Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team), who became the first to go under 3:30. Gwin's time held up until Fabien Pedemanaud (Scott 11) took the best time down to 3:25.84; good enough for fourth.

The course was becoming more rutted and beat up as the top seeds took to the course, and riders were having to pick their lines carefully. Gee Atherton (Commencal) was the next to take the lead, choosing different lines from previous riders in the top section of the course, attacking the roots and rocks but slowing in sticky mud at the bottom, to knock two seconds off the best time.

Minnaar rode next, but took the opposite approach - more cautious in the upper technical portion, but powering through the lower third to beat Atherton by a quarter of a second become the first World Cup leader of the season, after the final two riders Brendan Fairclough (Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz) and Sam Hill (Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz) slotted in third and fifth, respectively.

Hill, coming off knee surgery over the winter, had the fastest split for the upper half of the course, but a crash dropped him down to the final podium spot. Canada's Steve Smith (MS Evil Racing) had his best World Cup finish to date, qualifying fifth and finishing sixth, one spot off the podium.

"I have always liked Maribor, but I've always done bad on the track. So that has changed now," said Minnaar. "I knew it was going to be a tough race, but decided to take it a bit safe and easy at the top, and ride a bit smoother; but it is so hard out there.

"I had a few mistakes myself, but I guess a lot less than the other guys. I am overwhelmed; I came here wanting to do well and for me, on this course, in these conditions, I felt a top three would be good, but a win was out of the question. But I pulled it off."