Greg Minnaar Joins Norco - Full Interview

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After 16 years together, Greg Minnaar's name was synonymous with that of the Santa Cruz Syndicate, but in a move that surprised everyone this off-season, even Minnaar himself, the Syndicate let go the 42-year-old South African. That left the four-time world champion scrambling to find a ride for 2024 mid-October in a year where budgets were tight.

While the past several months have been anything but restful, you don't win 23 World Cups without being a hard worker and Minnaar has signed a three-year contract with Norco Bicycles and has been able to pull together a team at the eleventh hour that sounds more than promising. Minnaar will be racing alongside Gracey Hemstreet and Lucas Cruz this season, but his main focus will be setting up the processes and people to turn Norco Factory Racing into a future-proofed, race-winning team and continue to direct the team beyond his eventual retirement. You can read the official Norco Bicycles press release here.

I sat down with Minnaar yesterday to talk about who will be supporting them at races, riding Norco's prototype bike, and what his goals are for the coming years. The podcast is above if you'd like to listen to our conversation. Alternatively, a transcript is below.

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Sarah: Greg Minnaar, thank you so much for coming on to the Pinkbike Podcast and with some pretty exciting news to share this time around. But before we get into that, where in the world are you today and how's your day been so far?

Greg: Hey, Sarah, thanks a lot for having me. I'm in South Africa and there's a massive storm going on behind me. We get these tropical storms coming through and I think you might have just seen some flashes of lightning behind me, but yeah, it's been so weird. I haven't been able to ride. The forest is absolutely drenched. This forest that I grew up riding in, as soon as it's got any kind of moisture on it, it's absolutely treacherous to ride it. It's just clay. So you go nowhere and you just get clogged up and it's not ideal. So I'm waiting for, I believe in the next couple of weeks, it's going to dry out a bit. And so I'm excited to get riding again.

Sarah: Are you spending most of your winter in South Africa then?

Greg: I am. Right now it doesn't feel like the best choice because of the weather, but yeah, I always enjoy coming back home. You know, we've got the bike shop here and, and a few things going on so it's always good coming back.

Sarah: Are you spending your days strength training and indoor cycling then? What are you up to?

Greg: Well, you know, that's why I ride quite a bit on the road or on the gravel bike. If I can get out in the morning, the roads are wet, but it's not too bad. But in the afternoons when the storms come, there's no point in even going out. I actually snuck in a bit of a mountain bike ride on Saturday and that was the first ride in the last couple of weeks off road. We actually had one day of sun last week. So it's been an incredibly tough time of the year.

Sarah: Wow, so usually you've said that you don't spend that much time on the downhill bike in the off season, but I'm imagining this year is a little different with your big news that you're riding on a different bike after signing for Norco Bicycles. Let's get into that, when was that contract finalized and how impatient have you been to get the news out?

Greg: Yeah, I think this is probably the most exciting thing. I think people want to know more about this than the weather in South Africa, right? Well, January 1 is officially the start date. We've had to wait a little bit to release it. I mean, there's been a bit of teasing and a few things going out, but we're just really waiting to make sure that everything was ready to go.

Sarah: At what point during the season did you find out that you weren't going to have a ride with the Syndicate for 2024 and that you'd need to find a different team?

Greg: Yeah, so that all kind of happened, you know, a week after Mont-Sainte-Anne, which was already quite late in the season. I mean, I think that was the middle of October. That's when that all came about. I was a little stressed, you know, I didn't expect things to go that way. But yeah, I was super fortunate to end up where I am with the opportunities that I've got.

Sarah: What was that process like from the moment after Mont-Sainte-Anne? That was mid-October, Canadian Thanksgiving is typically around then. I watched you guys live so that was pretty cool. The colours were just incredible. I'm not sure you were focusing on that though.

Greg: Oh man, it was a beautiful time of the year. I think we got a little bit lucky with the weather, but it was great. I've got a friend of mine that actually ended up working with Norco. I worked with her at Oakley for quite some time. Now she's gone into the marketing team at Norco. I was just bouncing a few things after I had learned the news and she just said, well, why don't you come over here then?

I was like, really? You know, I was actually not too sure. I must be honest. I did have my reservations, but as soon as she told me about the engineering team - not just any engineering team... I haven't seen anything like it in the bike industry. That got me a little excited going like, wow, these guys actually have done some homework. They know what they're doing, this could be super interesting. That really got the ball rolling and that got me excited to see what opportunities I could have with Norco.

Sarah: Let's talk a little bit about that engineering team. What was it that appealed to you, how many people are there and how is it different from what you've experienced for the last several years?

Greg: I don't know how they've kept it a secret for so long. I mean, you've got David Cox, who leads the whole team and he comes from McLaren, That's quite impressive itself. The fact that the mountain bike industry has managed to lure in guys from the motor industry is quite impressive, because normally it's the other way. Normally it's the motor industry poaching all the top engineers from the mountain bike industry. To have that in reverse was pretty special.

Then to meet the rest of the guys, they've got Colin Ryan, who's an incredibly smart engineer. He's worked so hard on suspension, he's got dynos and all this suspension data that he plays with and just absolutely loves. And has just got tons and tons of data on suspension and all kinds of bikes. Having an in-house suspension guy, I've never heard of that. To me, that was really special - that you've got a guy who knows about all kinds of suspension, who's in-house working on the bikes.

Then there's Adrian Ward, who spent seven years in Formula One. I'm just going like, wow, you know, this is something that, that I can work with. I really like pushing the boundaries. I found in the last five years, there's been like a super hard push to get trackside assistance into downhill. So trying to take as much of the risk out of the racers hands as possible. Giving them the absolute best chance to perform. And like no better way to incorporate what these guys have from other industries and bringing that into and combining it with my knowledge and then giving this to the future of Norco Racing. I mean, it's brilliant.

We've got two really strong riders, Gracey [Hemstreet] and Lucas [Cruz], and I want to try and build this platform of real high performance from all levels, from team structure and management to trackside performance and to a technical base as well. I also want to test it out myself because I feel like if it can work for others, it could be something that can be really cool for me. I need all the help I can right now to have a good season. So I think I'm a good guinea pig for this.




Sarah: Are some of those engineering staff going to come to each race round? Are you working with them in the off season? How are you going to get up to speed on the new bike and the new program?

Greg: I have tested the bike and the bike's incredible. It's something that you don't see often, and in fact, I'm not sure there is another bike that you can independently change features on like you can on this bike. From the position of the idler to how the kinematics work on the bike, to adjusting the shock rate, making the shock linear or more progressive, or adjusting the head angle. Every single movement of this bike is isolated. If I want a lower bottom bracket or I want a slacker head angle, nothing else on the bike will adjust.

Everything's independently adjustable, which, you know, for me, it's great. If someone says like, how are you going to get on with the bike? I'm not too bothered, you know, give me a few test sessions and I'll be able to adjust that bike to exactly what I want. I'm pretty confident it's going to work out very well.

Sarah: I guess you've been pretty lucky not to have to change too much in the off season in previous years. Some riders are changing every year or two, they've got new frames, new suspension, new tires, components to work with. You haven't had to do that in quite a while. So is this new process exciting? What's it been like to deal with like so many changes coming at you before the race season?

Greg: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of changes. When I first chatted to Sean, the CEO of Norco, he said to me, I want the best team in the world on the fastest bike. So we're not going to align ourselves with any other component brands. We want you to pick what the best components are and what's best for the bike to make the bike as fast as possible. I was like, well, that's quite a unique approach to racing, that sounds cool. I'm in.

So we're going through the process. Nothing's really solidified just yet. We ran quite late and obviously running quite late. There is going to be a lot of change, but it's going to be a bike that I feel is going to be super competitive and without any limitations of brand alignment.





Sarah: I was looking at the teaser video, trying to piece together was going on there. It looked like the bike had Fox suspension. Is that going to be the case? Have you determined that yet for sure?

Greg: Yeah, we went through a few different variants of suspension, we had to try it all, and I ended up on Fox. And it's not because Jordie works there. I mean, he's a great actor because, you know, he's super helpful. He just acts really grumpy on TV. But, you know, we had to try it all. That's kind of the first step. We had to figure out what suspension we're going to be on to then understand what drivetrain and brakes and everything else. I had to give everything a fair chance. I leaned to Fox since that was the fork that I felt the most comfortable on for various reasons. I was super, super impressed with everything else, but just the handing on the Fox fork I felt really separated it from the rest. So we're going to stick to Fox and then all the rest of the stuff we're still working through and figuring out our partners.

Sarah: Is it going to be kind of that previous Syndicate style where you have different sponsors for Gracey and for Lucas? Or are you all going to be on the same sponsors kind of across the board this year?

Greg: Definitely through the bike we are. Gear and everything else, that's also being worked out right now. Unfortunately everything just ran so late. I guess that's just a part of the season, the season ended up going into October and so everything else got pushed a bit further. Then we've got Thanksgiving in the US and there's the holidays and the rest of the world and everything kind of stalls out. So it's been a tough period, but really exciting at the same time.

Sarah: Do you think it was better those last races knowing that they weren't your last with the Syndicate or would you have preferred to know in August that you needed to start looking for a team? Do you think that kind of changed the dynamic at all within your race season?

Greg: It would have been nice to know a bit earlier. I mean, sooner the better, right? But, how it went out is how it happened and you just got to deal with it, right? Just got to keep moving forward.

Sarah: Did you always think that you were going to retire with the brand and kind of have a legacy with Santa Cruz Bicycles?

Greg: Yeah, I always thought I would continue with Santa Cruz and that would be my brand. That obviously was what I thought. It's obviously not the reality. So, anyway, it's just one of those things. An opportunity like this would have been missed if I had so on the flip, I'm really, really lucky and excited to be able to partner with Norco. I mean, I've always wanted to get my hands dirty in the team. I feel like I've got a lot to bring to the table to really push the performance on in racing.

I think combined with what Norco has as an engineering team and the team that they've got, I think we can come up with something that can really challenge the likes of the Specialized Gravity Group or the Commencal Muc-Off team. I see those two teams as really like leading the way in team structure and support to the riders. I think we can absolutely, not try and match what they do, because I don't believe you can see what someone does and try and copy them. It never works out. You don't know the objectives and what the goals are and why they're doing what they're doing. If you try and copy them, you're never going to get it as right. I think we'll come up with our own way on how we can support the rider, how riders can understand each segment a lot better and find out where they're losing time, where they're making time.

That's exciting to me. It's really a really cool opportunity.

Sarah: On the Syndicate, you were on a team where there were four riders every weekend who could be winning. Are you looking forward to being kind of more of a leader on the team where you have stuff that you can maybe bring to Gracey and Lucas? Or do you like having some of your main competitors on your team? How do you think that'll be different and what was that like last year?

Greg: I've never actually thought about or looked at it that way. I think it's more of the position that I've been asked to fill from the team's perspective. On the Syndicate, I was just a racer. There wasn't much more I was able to add or try to add, but I've really been brought in to kind of build this team and create a World Cup winning team and to give this platform to other riders to use to excel. This isn't really about me racing. This is about me setting up this team. I think it's more of a future project. It's more of the future of Norco. We've got young, talented riders coming in through the ranks. That's exciting.

I haven't, not that I've strayed away from it, but I haven't really been in the position or maybe put myself in the position of supporting riders and helping riders through World Cup racing to a certain degree. I put a lot of development into South Africa. For the last 15 years, we've been running gravity events here and that's been an area of focus that I've put into. But now this is kind of an area where I haven't really dabbled, where I haven't put all my experience into and that's cool. I mean, it would be a shame after 20 odd years of World Cup racing to not be able to put all that knowledge into action and here's a blank canvas to build his team, to pick staff and individuals that I think can really support the riders and help the riders excel.

I really have a good feeling about it. I really feel that Lucas and Gracey are really going to excel on this platform and then at the same time, this to me is, is a dream setup. To be able to experience that and make sure that it works a hundred percent, how I feel it should be working and implement it, I think that's going to be really good.

Sarah: Have you kind of got a team manager lined up, mechanic, physio, how are you piecing that together?

Greg: We're piecing it together. I'm bringing in Tom Duncan, who helped me out for the last half of 23. Tom's an incredibly experienced guy. He works well with the engineers. He speaks their language. That's super important. Tom's going to mechanic for me, but his main goal is more on a performance side for the team and will continue through that. I think they gave him a position of like Technical Trackside or something along those lines. Tom's going to lead the way, then Gracey and Lucas will have their mechanics.

We've got Alan Milway coming in as Team Manager. And Alan Milway I feel is a very positive and strong individual that's had a great track record. I think him being a team manager, he's going to make the right call for the riders. He's a great trainer, I've been training with him for the last three or four years. I really think he can pull things together and also support Gracey in a way that I don't think she's ever experienced. I mean, Alan's been right there through Rachel Atherton's career. And Rachel being super successful, I think Alan knows exactly how to help and give Gracey that platform she needs to perform. He's going to be super beneficial on the team.

We've also going to have one of the fastest engineers racing on our team. We've got one of the Norco engineers, Kirk [McDowall], joining the team. He's going to be at all the races, but actually racing as well. He's always wanted to have an opportunity to race. He raced in Mont-Sainte-Anne, and he's going to be with us. He does a lot of testing for the team, and so he's very knowledgeable on the bike.

That's as far as we've got. We're in the process of filling all the other gaps, but again, we ran a little bit late on that.

Oh yeah, and an important part of the puzzle was operation. So we brought Kathy Sessler back. I haven't met anyone who's so organized, you know, from booking accommodation, making sure cars are ready... That level of organization is super key when you bring in athletes from all over the world, as well as staff and making sure that runs smoothly. Because it's just a waste of time when you land at the airport, no one knows what we're doing and everyone's trying to dig through emails. It's stressful that. Everything just needs to be running smoothly.

So Kathy's going to be in the pit running the back end of operations and Alan's team manager. I think it's a solid structure as well with Tom Duncan. It's a real solid structure to racing.

Sarah: Wow, I mean that sounds like you've pulled together pretty important parts of the puzzle for such a short amount of time that you had. You've been pretty busy.

Greg: It has been, I mean, to be honest, I haven't had many days off. I mean, we had Christmas and Boxing Day and probably New Year's Eve and the first were probably the only days off. We've been pretty flat out. You know, if it wasn't for Gwen van Lingen really making things happen... She's got an incredible saying, I won't say it exactly how she says it, but she goes strategy is nothing without implementation. And it's so true. She's a super driving force behind Norco. I've worked with her for many years, but she just absolutely gets stuff done. And that's really key.

I mean, she's helped pull this team together and set up all the marketing strategies. There's a lot to it. I mean, when you think about a race team, it's not just racing, you know - we've got videographers, filmers, marketing strategies and everything else just going on around it and all packaged into one. It's been a great experience so far, but super busy. I'm a newlywed, well, relatively newly wed. I mean, my wife thinks we're crazy.

Sarah: You're not out on your honeymoon right now, you're working hard.

Greg: That's probably one thing I missed out on. We had planned to go on honeymoon just after the season, but when the news broke to me, it was pretty stressful when things went down. So that's one thing we had to kind of cancel. I don't think she's fully forgiven me yet, but I think it's better to get team sorted and everything else. Trying to go on honeymoon when you're not quite sure whether you're going to be racing or who you're representing won't be much of honeymoon.

Sarah: Is it a multi-year deal that you've signed with Norco?

Greg: Yeah. We kicked it off with three and I think that's cool. I don't have any pressure of when to stop because I actually, you know, as much as I feel like I'm kind of nearing my retirement of racing, last year just didn't really go to plan. I had some issues along the way which were unexpected and we were trying to work through them, but there was so much pressure. I'd love to have had a decent race at world champs. Like at Fort William going to world championships, what a race. I mean, I love racing there. It's been good to me over the years. I was ready for it. And I stood in that start gate with a minute to go and I didn't have my bike and I was looking down that start chute, waiting for my bike to be ready.

It was probably about 30 seconds to go when my bike got passed to me and I was like, you know, let's just try and make the most of it. But you know, your head's not in the game. You're trying to focus. But when you're trying to focus, you should be focusing. I just ended up, unfortunately, blowing a tire off the rim further down. You know, it would have been a lovely way for me to finish my career.

But there were bigger things going on. You know, we had a change in the whole, you know, Discovery taking over, the whole schedule changing. We had a new bike launch. So there was a lot going on and the pressure going there was immense and it just didn't work out. I just felt like I didn't have a lot of fun in the season. It was tense, it was stressful. I wasn't getting the testing in that I needed.

It wasn't where I wanted to finish racing. I'm enjoying racing. I love racing. I felt, I knew I had the pace. Things just didn't really go to plan. It's not that I was set to retire once I would have won have a race or, that's probably not going to happen. Well, who knows if it does happen. I feel like it could happen, but that's not when I want to retire.

I want to retire after a great season. When I say a great season, I just want to have fun. And, I can tell you last year wasn't a lot of fun. There was just a ton of stress. So there's no pressure for me to retire. But I'm definitely going to race this year and I'm not quite sure how many more I'll go after that.

But this is kind of a multi-led partnership. The focus is more on the future and it's more for building this team for the future and me just being the crash test dummy, making sure that this team is run and works like a racer needs it to work.




Sarah: What are some of the things that you're hoping to bring over, either that the Syndicate did well or you mentioned like Commencal Muc-Off and Specialized Gravity, what are the kind of things you're hoping to kick off the season with as support for Norco Factory Racing Team?

Greg: I think we're going to start off with the level of support from engineering and from Norco itself. Adrian Ward brings a load of experience from high level motorsport. That's going to filter through. How we prepare as a team, how the mechanics prepare the bikes. One thing that we came up with is we shouldn't be setting up, if something happens to a brake line or one of the brakes, there's no real time to re-cable a brake through. We're going to have everything dialled so that we're shipped out multiple brakes so the team can just put the brakes back on the bike.

This whole bike is also built for racing. I know a lot of people like internal cable routing, but it doesn't work for racing. When we need to change a brake, we should have another brake line already set up so the brake line just gets put onto the bike, not threaded through and re-bled, it just creates a lot of stress on the mechanic and right now in World Cup racing, there's no time for that. That's one of the things we're going to eliminate the process of how we get stuff set up and filter through into the race support - making sure little things like brakes are all set up and just being really organized and really prepared for racing. That's one of the first things we're looking at.

We're also looking at video overlay and how we can use video overlay. I've worked a lot with using GoPros actually. I think we've come up with a way where we can use that in GPS tracking to have a more accurate insight on where riders are, what they're doing through each section. You know, we get a timed section to say we're two seconds slower than a rider or quicker, but there are 20 corners in that sector, so which one of those 20 were we slower on? Was it the first one or was it the last one? When you see a video overlay, you can see exactly where you lose the time and exactly where you make the time.

That's really important for a rider. If you know you're slow in a sector, you need to know where in that sector you're slow, because that sector is big - you need to be able to break that down. It's really hard for us to have track side overlay throughout the whole section. For sure, we can see which section is quicker and you'll see a lot of teams have guys filming on the side of the track, showing that there's a new line or there's another line, but it's not really accurate data. It's not saying that line is faster for you. It's just going, well, we think it might work. Try it.

To me, that's not good enough. I want accurate information from the side of the track to tell me whether I'm in the right line or whether I'm in the wrong line. That's going to make it simpler for the riders to just focus on racing. That to me is important. We're going to try and eliminate as much as we can off the racer so that they can focus on the line that they know they need to be on.

Sarah: It seems like the French team at world championships always does a really good job of that.

Greg: Exactly. I mean, the French have been leading in it. I think that's why you see Specialized Gravity, they've got a great setup. Loic and Finn and Jordan, they know exactly where they need to be. It makes such a big difference in racing. I mean, you look at the results and it's clear. The Commencal Muc-Off team were pushing pretty hard on that too. I don't know exactly how their operation runs. I mean, I've seen a ton of guys on the side of the track, but I feel like we can come up with a solution and I feel we can come up with something that if not levels it, maybe is a little better. That's the aim. I mean, that's where we're pushing for this team. Everything's pushed and driven, the whole culture of it is racing and performance and that's important. If you've got that culture of performance, it will ooze out into the race.

Sarah: Just going back, you said you got your bike 30 seconds before the start at world championships. What happened there that it was so late?

Greg: So you know, Fort William rains, funny enough, and I was warming up and we normally run like an extended visor, clear visor just to stop the rain coming into the goggles to help with visuals. I decided, once the rain had come, that it was best for me to go to that visor, which we didn't have at the top of the hill.

Then I use an extended mudguard to also stop all the rain splash up. Fort William's not super muddy and so the track's actually pretty good in the wet. But it's all the rain and the droplets going onto the goggles that's going to slow you down. Because as soon as you've got to pull a tear off off, you're going to lose like half a second to a second. If you can eliminate that down to like one tear off or one roll off, you're doing good, you know? So we do everything to try and do that.

We had a mechanic come up from the bottom of the hill with the mudguard and Peaty came up with a visor, but then there was no mudguard. Then the mudguard came up and then we had moved to the start hut, but we had no tools. So they were trying to find tools and borrow tools from other mechanics. And so I just put my goggles on and try to just look down the track and focus on the track. But not exactly my ideal way to start a world championship.

Sarah: This year the race season is going to kick off in Fort William. What are you hoping for? What are your kind of goals going into that? It's going to be the first one, but it's one of your favourite courses? So I imagine you have high hopes, right?

Greg: I feel like if I'm going to race world cups, I need to be competitive and I need to feel competitive and I feel like I will be competitive.

Testing on the bike, I felt great. I felt really good on the Norco bike. It's completely different to what I'm used to. I actually stand quite tall on the bike. One of the problems I have is I've got really lanky long legs, so when I stand on a bike, I'm really leaned over like. I pivot from my hips and really face down. So when the track's going down, it's really steep because I'm really leaning forward. But on this bike, I'm actually standing quite tall. I'm able to look ahead and I'm able to relax and attack. That's something I'd been trying to, no matter how high I tried and run my bars, I just couldn't get that sensation. And now with a standard handlebar height, I'm suddenly feeling like I can actually lower the bars because it feels real high.

I'm feeling really good on the bike. I feel like it fits well. And so going into Fort William, I now fit on a bike. I feel like I've got this incredible team behind me trying to build the fastest bike and support it. I want to win it again. I mean how cool would that be to win Fort William, win the opener, and then really set the tone for the rest of the season.

Sarah: Sounds like a good goal. You do kind of have to believe you can win.

Greg: Well, if you're going to be in a World Cup, you've got to want to go to the W. You've got to have the tactics. Yeah, we're going to go for the W there. But whatever race you enter, whoever's entered the race, you've got to go for the win, right?

Sarah: You said earlier, if you do have that incredible season this year, you might think about retiring, but you've signed a three-year contract. What would your role be in the next two years if you do feel like this is an incredible year, you're happy, you have the results you want, and you feel like it's a good time to retire on top? What would you do next year?

Greg: What next? Well, I think continuing to direct this team. It's been a lot of work. I must say, dealing with so many different aspects of the team, it's been a new experience. But I want to continue to push the boundaries here. You know, support the athletes as much as we can, bring up the new generation of racers, and then have a World Cup winning team. That to me is the next phase. I think we're going to be looking hard for riders to join Norco and I think that's going to be really cool. I think this year is gonna be really, really cool to showcase what we have and to show the level of commitment from this incredible team to push into racing. I mean, it's gonna be a full on race environment.

That's the reason we've got guys like Alan Milway leading the way with team management because, I would say, you know, deep down I love racing, I'm very competitive, but also I have possibly a little bit too much fun sometimes. So I think it's important this culture of racing, because if you're really prepared to race and then you're trying to have the best performance possible, you can have a fun in and around, but everything's still peaking towards racing and I think that's super important for a team. It's going to be fun, you know, setting it up, but then leading the way and trying to also continue developing. I'll continue helping to make this bike as fast as possible. And like I said, just to support these riders and also looking for new talent and bringing new talent in.

Sarah: It sounds like it's almost like a blessing in disguise. I mean, there probably couldn't be both you and Steve Peat retiring as Santa Cruz Syndicate leaders or team managers. So you've kind of created this space for yourself. It sounds like that you have now a retirement plan that you can continue going to all the World Cup races if you want to.

Greg: Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's similar to Steve in a way. Steve was running more the performance side. I think this is more directing the team and helping direct the direction of how we go and bringing that culture of into the team, which, you know, it's quite a bit different. But I think what would be similar is, Steve and I are great friends and to keep seeing him at World Cup racing, I think that would be a great, a lot of fun.

Sarah: Well, I said I wouldn't go over 30 minutes, so we're already over time, so I'm sorry about that, but it's been so great talking to you. I've got a couple little rapid fire questions just to finish it off. Strength training or indoor cycling?

Greg: Strength training.

Sarah: Winning World Cup overall or winning the world championships?

Greg: World Cup.

Sarah: Your favourite race course?

Greg: There's a couple. It's so hard because there's Fort William, not necessarily because of the track, but more the atmosphere in the crowd. Then there's like Mont-Sainte-Anne where the track is really good. Then you've got Andorra. That's a hard one. I would say Pietermaritzburg. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. There we go.

Sarah: There you go. That'll come back if you ask for it enough. Your best year with the Syndicate?

Greg: 2008.

Sarah: The best teammate you've ever had.

Greg: How can I just put one teammate down? I've had great teammates. I mean, Peaty's been my longest teammate. I would say I'd have to go alongside Peaty, but man, I've had some great teammates. If you go back to Global racing, there was Matti Lehikoinen and Naoki Idegawa and Missy Giove and Mick Hannah and Brendan Fairclough on Honda. Cyrille Kurtz and Ratboy, Jackson, Laurie, Nina, Loris, Luca. I mean, I've had great teammates. I've been super fortunate.

Sarah: The who's who of World Cup racing is pretty much all been your teammates at one point or another. And then finally, beer or wine.

Greg: Both.

Sarah: I thought you might say champagne and just throw in the third one there. Thank you so much for your time today. It's been great chatting with you. Good luck with your training. Hope the storms pass through and you can get some more time on that downhill bike and get to that extra puzzling this off season. Can't wait to watch you come May.

Greg: Thank you. There's no more puzzling now. It's all straight shooting. Thanks a lot, Sarah. It's been great chatting, I really appreciate it.

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Interviews Racing and Events Podcasts DH Racing Racing Rumours The Pinkbike Podcast Norco Gracey Hemstreet Greg Minnaar Kirk Mcdowall Lucas Cruz