Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM/RockShox), podiums in 4th place at the UCI World Cup Downhill in Fort William. Scotland. Teammate Nathan Rennie comes 8th, and wife, Adele Peat comes in 29th after a crash.

Local’s say when you are in Scotland the answer to the question, “What will the weather be today?” is always “Rain”. So right they were! “Brollies” and “Wellies” were the call for the week with rain every day on the Nevis Range, just outside of the town of Fort William, in the northwest highlands of Scotland.

The weather report for the weekend was fair, but Saturday had the most rain of all. The cross-country racers were drenched and muddy, and endured cloudbursts throughout their race. The mountain cross faired just as badly with the on and off rain. Even still, the spectators arrived in droves to witness the race with crowd estimates of 10,000 + people. Rennie qualified 20th and advanced through two rounds before he was out. Prokop takes the win followed by Lopes, Kovarik and Deldycke.

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Here we are again home turf – almost – home crowd and loads of pressure. Fort William is turning out to be a corner stone of the world cup; a win here is allways a good sign that your on peak form. The course is wet -very- and incredibly technical at the top. Holes big enough to swallow you and your bike and rocks that will turn you and your bike into a tangled mess.

Steve is looking good, he’s looking likely to have qualifyed 4th !

Final starts in 20 minutes and we’ll hopefully have the results for that up either here on www.descent-world.co.uk this evening.

l8ers…fw

Pictures to follow…

This is the best reason…. come and ride the Wharncliffe Weekender at one of the UK’s best Mountain Biking venues РWharncliffe Forest Sheffield.

The weekend is a Charity Mountain Bike Race – in aid of Weston Park Hospital Cancer Appeal, Sheffield on 8th & 9th July 2006.

Races for all abilities, prizes, camping, live entertainment, BBQ Fancy Dress n stuff, good proper ‘old school’ mountain biking fun!!

Venue: Hallfield Head Farm, Woodhead Road, Wortley, SHEFFIELD, S35 7DS

I am really excited to be involved with the Wharncliffe Weekender charity event, its been a long time since i have been able to turn up to a non serious event and have some good old fun.

I am going to race the fancy dress class and can’t wait to see what everyone else turns up in.

We are aiming for this to be as fun as possible and i am personally setting out the track so everyone will be able to ride it.

So get those sponsor forms downloaded and lets make some money for the people that realy need it, Oh and lets get creative on the fancy dress and be ready for a laugh!

See you all in July.

Cheers…Steve

Anyone who is interested in entering this event, entry forms will be available soon on www.wharncliffeweekender.com

There are new images in the Gallery from the Lisbon Downtown, where Steve took his 5th Title in a row !!!

Peru is one of those places that has always fascinated me, so naturally I snapped at the chance to go and race my bike there. The only problem was that My Wife has always wanted to go there too, it was going to be hard to swing this one without her getting jealous so I didn’t even try I just had to promise to go back there and take her with me. That’s the first time she has ever wanted to take my place on a plane.

Anyway the trip went well…read more ¬ª

May 12, 2006

Okay, Steve Peat reigns as king of the Red Bull Lisbon Downtown race held in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday May 13th, 2006. Peat, and re-Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate, SRAM, RockShox), wins again, as it is the fifth year in a row for total dominance by this man. Hands down, no one can argue that Peaty reigns supreme, as the second place finisher; Cedric Gracia finishes .762 seconds back of the “King”. Sam Hill rounds out the podium with a third place finish at 1.589 back.

Peaty smoked the qualifier, as well, as competitors raced through the cobblestone streets, sidewalks and alleyways of Lisbon, setting a mark of 1.276 ahead of second place qualifier Gee Atherton. Nathan Rennie, Santa Cruz Syndicate rider, hits the wall, finishing 27th in the qualifier, just missing the final, as 25 riders advance.

So much more to say, but when you travel in the king’s court it is time to celebrate, and as his maid in waiting, beer wench, or team manager, for those of you not in the medival world of the Lisbon Downtown, gotta go, and I’ll send more details later!!!

Vigo, Spain

Santa Cruz Syndicate teammates Nathan Rennie and Steve Peat (Santa Cruz, SRAM, RockShox), and Marc Beaumont of Team MBUK Santa Cruz, rode their Santa Cruz V-10’s fast enough to reach the podium at the UCI World Cup Downhill held May 7th.

Mick Hannah wins the event, his first world cup victory, and Gee Atherton rounds out the top five.

The UCI World Cup season opener returned to the bustling seaside city of Vigo, Spain. Reaching the venue is surprising in that one can hardly imagine that the narrow twisting road would lead you to the hillside of gum and pine trees with views of the sea, side by side with homes and gardens, and pastures of grazing horses. And one is truly astounded when 12,000 plus spectators show up to watch the events!

The Syndicate finished the weekend with great results, but all was not smooth sailing.

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May 6th, 2006
Vigo, Spain

Steve Peat and Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz, SRAM,Rockshox) finished 2nd and 5th respectively in thedownhill qualifying race at the UCI World Cup Downhillseason opener in Vigo, Spain. Mick Hannah wins thequalifier with Fabien Barel 3rd, and Cedric Gracia4th. The downhill qualifier was held today and thefinal will be held tomorrow. The schedule change willaccommodate a live television broadcast of thedownhill event on Sunday.

Peaty had this to say about the qualifying race:“Last year the course was pretty new, so it was alittle bit easier than it is this year. A lot ofpeople have been riding it so it’s got beat up a lot.There’s a lot of nasty holes and rocks coming out allthe way down the track, so it’s a little bit harder tocarry speed. There’s a lot more things to ping offand slow your momentum.

The qualifier went pretty good. I rode a couple ofsections not too good, so I was pretty surprised tofinish where I was when I came down in second place.I carried speed pretty good. I can do that on thiskind of a track. My V-10 was hooking up really good,and I got a good combination of Kenda tires on there(Nevegal 2.5 front, Nevegal 2.35 rear). Everything isgoing sweet on the Syndicate team.”
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