Doug Hatfield

Just a few short rest days after the gnarly weekend at Val Di Sole, the Syndicate found themselves staring down the shortest track on the World Cup circuit and the penultimate race of the 2019 season Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Early in the week, it seemed like the dark clouds from Val Di Sole had followed the World Cup caravan to Lenzerheide. A couple of days of heavy rain during track walk and practice left riders puzzling for traction in the steeps, clay turns, and off-camber roots, but by the time Friday's qualifiers rolled around, the sun was shining and the track was drying out.

Greg Minnaar 2nd 6th overall Loris Vergier 8th 5th overall Luca Shaw 12th 14th overall ===== IMAGE GRID 1 goes here ===== With the track conditions changing from muddy and sticky to slippery and loose, the Syndicate charged on and stacked the front end of the field leading into finals. Greg would finish 4th in his qualifying run, followed by Loris in 6th, and Luca in 12th.

On the morning of finals, the dark clouds and blinding fog were back. Rain fell during the practice sessions and threatened to continue but just in time for the big show the skies cleared. As the track continued to dry, the fast men kept testing the limits. Luca Shaw would be the first out of the start house for the Syndicate.

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Luca's been in the top-ten three times at Lenzerheide, and was on a mission to keep his streak alive. Quick through the narrow rocks at the top and blindingly fast across perhaps the sketchiest off-camber root section he marched down the track. He was down by just two seconds at splits two and three and then continued to hold the pace as he pulled time back toward the end of his run. Luca would finish 11th on the day and has been climbing the overall ranks with each race weekend.

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5th in the overall coming into Lenzerheide, Loris Vergier was the second of the Syndicate to hit the track for finals. He blasted out of the gate, was immediately up at the first split, and then down by a half-second at the second split. Leaning hard on the that's worked so well for him this season, he moved quickly down the track and used the technical, rooty section to get loose and find the few seconds he needed to fight back into contention. [[{"fid":"12551","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[en][0][value]":"Santa Cruz Bicycles","field_file_image_title_text[en][0][value]":false,"field_img_caption[und][0][value]":"Sven Martin"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"5":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[en][0][value]":"Santa Cruz Bicycles","field_file_image_title_text[en][0][value]":false,"field_img_caption[und][0][value]":"Sven Martin"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Santa Cruz Bicycles","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"5"}}]]

The Frenchman dipped in and out of the green from split to split and set down an undeniably fast run, but it wasn't quite enough. He slotted into 3rd and as the rest of the field advanced, he eventually fell to 8th. Only the G.O.A.T. still left at the top. ===== IMAGE GRID 2 goes here ===== Greg brought a special kind of fire to this track — nobody's won more races at Lenzerheide than he has, his last World Cup win was at Lenzerheide in 2017, and nobody else has won here twice. As mist swirled around the start, Greg launched into his run, through the first few turns and into the sweeping berms and jumps. Although the first few splits were down against the leads, The G.O.A.T. was able to pull back time at the bottom of the track as he reeled in almost a full second before running out of track and crossing the line just under a second behind race winner, Amaury Pierron. Greg would finish with a hard-fought second on the day and keep the Syndicate podium streak very much alive.

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Next up, the Syndicate picks up and heads across the pond to North America for World Champs in Mont Sainte Anne, and then the final World Cup stop in Snowshoe, West Virginia. Need to burn some time until then? There's always the Loris Soundboard ...

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