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On this wonderful Friday:

• 🏆 Race Recap: MSA Results

• 🚲 Goodbye GOAT: Greg Minnaar’s Historic Career

• 🐂 Rampage: Women Compete For The First Time

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TOP PICKS

📸 Image: Adolf Silva Hits A Superman During Practice At Red Bull Rampage

⚙️ Rimpact Announces New Chainring-Based Chain Damper

Rimpact, known for their tire inserts, has been developing a chainring-based chain damping device for over a year. Designed to create a smooth, silent ride, it allows independent clockwise and anti-clockwise chainring rotation relative to the cranks. The Chain Damper reduces drivetrain feedback by isolating chain energy spikes during descents. While similar to the popular OChain device, Rimpact's version offers a unique approach. Check it out here.

RACING

🦷 Troy Brosnan Wins By The Skin Of His Teeth

0.062s is about the time it takes to blink.

It’s also the margin by which 31-year-old Australian vet, Troy Brosnan, won first place at the final World Cup race of the season amid slippery track conditions at Monte-Sainte-Anne.

This season has been extra tight:

• Troy Brosnan’s run had the closest winning elite men's margin of the season

• Other close races this season included Ronan Dunne beating Löic Bruni by 0.064s in Poland and Loris Vergier winning the World Championship by 0.148s

While he lost by a chin hair, Lachlan Steven-Mcnab’s second place finish proves that he’s a serious threat for 2025, especially after he won the U.S. Open of MTB the weekend before.

How did the Women and Juniors fare?

• Women’s Elite: Marine Cabirou glided over slippery rocks to take home her second victory of 2024. Her explosive charge through the bumpy fourth split gave her the race lead and a winning margin of over 1.4s.

• Junior Men’s: The Alran brothers (Max & Till) dominated the podium, with Max taking first place as well as the quickest race result among all divisions, finishing 5.2s faster than his brother.

• Junior Women’s: Kiwi junior World Champion Erice Van Leuven dominated the course and secured the overall World Cup title, winning by a margin of 4.9s.

ATHLETES

🐐 Goodbye to the GOAT

Imagine you’re so dominant in your sport, you’re nicknamed the GOAT before you retire.

Last weekend, Greg Minnaar rode his final world cup race at MSA, capping off a legendary 27-year career that makes the South African the greatest male mountain biker in history.

His racing accomplishments include:

• 22 World Cup wins

• 3 Overall World Cup wins

• 4 World Championships

But those aren’t even the craziest numbers.

It’s Greg’s sheer consistency over the years that really puts him in a league of his own. Greg has participated in 167 races and podiumed 86 of them. That means at any given race, Greg was more likely than not to finish in the top three.

He first podiumed at age 21 in the year 2000 and did it most recently this past summer at Les Gets at age 42. When you factor in how much bike technology has changed over the years, Greg’s consistency holds even more weight.

So what happens now? Greg is being appointed team director of Norco Race Division. In his retirement announcement, Greg noted that while he is done racing world cups, he will still participate in select events.

We wish the GOAT the best in this new chapter and thank him for inspiring a generation of riders. Keep an eye out for an upcoming video on Greg on our Instagram.

RAMPAGE

🏜 Robin Goomes Makes History in Utah

23 years after Rampage began, seven of the world’s top female mountain bikers took their lines yesterday in the event’s first ever women’s competition.

Have you ever heard the advice, “save the best for last”? Kiwi Robin Goomes would tell you that’s a bunch of BS.

She started Rampage off with a bang as the first rider down the course and hit two backflips to secure a score of 85.00. As well as stunting on the judges with her flips, Goomes aced her 41-foot-drop and glided down her top technical chute.

After Goomes set the tone, rider after rider tried to break her score, though none could pull off the feat in their first run. The only rider to attempt a second run was Chelsea Kimball, who fell in run 1 and felt she could top her low sixties score with another go. Unfortunately, she fell again in her final run in the same spot.

The final results are as follows:

1st. Robin Goomes: 85
2nd. Georgia Astle: 79.66
3rd. Casey Brown: 77.33
4th. Vaea Verbeeck: 72.66
5th. Vero Sandler: 71
6th. Vinny Armstrong: 65
7th. Chelsea Kimbal: 62.37

Watch the broadcast recording here.

The men will compete on Saturday with the broadcast beginning at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET available on ESPN+, Red Bull Bike YouTube channel, and Red Bull TV.

🎥 Banger Of The Week:

Matt Jones goes to town on a cheap hardtail at Dyfi Bike Park. Will it (or he) survive?

👂 Ear Candy:

Polish superstar Szymon Godziek will be hoping to land the biggest back flip of his career on Saturday. He joined Red Bull’s “Just Ride” podcast to talk about it.

📰 Headlines and Hitters

• Ouch: Cami Nogueria has huge wipeout during practice at Rampage

• Smooth: Brett Rheeder & Lucy Van Eesteren Rip It In BC

• Story: This Is The Most Famous Family In Mountain Biking

That’s all for today team. If you have any feedback for our newsletter please write us back!