Santa Cruz Bikes

Syndicate's Bryceland Takes His First Pro Win!

Mount St Anne, Canada

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Josh Bryceland (SRAM/RockShox) has just won his first race as a pro at the Innerleithen Winter Series in Scotland. He recaps his weekend for us here:

"Hello everyone, its that time of year again!! I did my first race of 2009 last weekend up in scotland so I thought I'd do a quick update of how it went!

I set off on friday lunch time with my friend Harry Heath for a weekends racin. Its about a four hour drive from my house and we arrived not too long before dark. I got a quick walk up the track and it looked sick!! Pretty rooty and technical with a nice tight steep section at the top!

We crammed the contents of my van into the front seat and set the air bed up for a somewhat cold nights sleep. The next day I managed 5 practice runs in the time we had. The thing with Innerleithen is the 2 mile road ride to the transport and then the hike to the top. It's quite a long turn around so you're pushed to get that many runs in before it goes dark at this time of year. I felt good on the track though and I was pretty happy with my lines.

We cooked up a storm that night on the camping stove then had another freezing kip in my tin can.

Sunday morning and I got two practice runs in on the now wet track. It rained pretty hard through the night and a lot of roots had become exposed and slick. I was enjoying the conditions and hanging it out in my two practice runs. When it came to race time I was pretty chilled and my goal was to just put in a smooth and solid run because that is what I am trying to work on this year; consistency. I didn't make any major mistakes and when I did this gap over a stump the crowd got pretty excited and cheered me on hard through the last section. I went over the line into the lead and being last rider down clinched the win. Tom Braithwaite was a close second and I was pleased to win my first ever pro event! Good start to 2009, for sure! I'd like to thank all of you guys for giving me your support this year and I look forward to doing you all proud!

Bring on the season!"
Josh Bryceland

More on the race here:
http://dirtmag.co.uk/event-reports/innerleithen-winter-series-round-2