..................................................................... Five minutes with ...
Greg Minnaar
South Africa ’ s three-time downhill MTB world champion is far from done with competition , despite finding himself one of the elder-statesmen on the circuit . So how does he stay motivated and what are his plans for the future ? .....................................................................
Words : Simon Makker / Images : O ’ Neal , phunkt . com
Well done on yet another solid year , Greg . How are you feeling now , heading into the off-season break ?
Looking back , it was an okay season , but I would ’ ve liked some more podiums . The first two rounds at Lourdes and Cairns were off , but I managed to turn it around and ended up being fairly consistent . I don ’ t feel like it was an exceptional year , as a whole though .
Yeah your season got off to a rough start with a 16th at Lourdes then a 15th at Cairns , but you really turned things around in a hurry . What was behind those initial results and your sudden improvement ?
We were working on the suspension quite a lot this year and it was really tough , as we didn ’ t get to spend enough quality time on it before the season started . It ’ s tough to test on a World Cup track in the off-season as it ’ s completely different to the track you ’ ll find on race day . So when working on a new shock it was really hard to make sure it was working well ; it felt great in testing , but once we got to the bigger tracks , it didn ’ t feel good at all .
It ’ s just one of those things and ideally , we would ’ ve gone to somewhere like Val di Sole during the pre-season to get the bike set up . It took us some time to get it set up to a place I was happy with it , and even then you still have to find the perfect settings for each track as they gradually get steeper and steeper heading into the World Championships at Val di Sole . It ’ s a real balancing act though – we don ’ t really have enough time to set something up during the race weekend , as we ’ re consciously minimising our riding time to try and save ourselves for the finals .
Your win at Fort William this year has got to be the highlight of the season for you , though . What was it about that round that clicked for you ?
I think it was all the work that went into it . When we got back from Australia I went out with the Fox guys and we really tested a lot and I carried on training as normal , but I think that ’ s when you get the most satisfaction : when you put so much effort in and it pays off .
If you count qualifying races , the Fort William final was my fifth race of the season and I still had no results , so there was a lot of pressure going into that final . I knew I just had to make it stick and put the best I run I could together .
Looking back on the entire season , how would you describe it in three words ?
Only three words ?! ( Laughs ). Aaah … exciting but bland . 2016 had the worst results I ’ ve ever had in a World Cup , a great win at Fort William , and a lot of average finishes in between .
You mentioned Peaty a little earlier . With him retiring now , that must mean you ’ re now the oldest guy on the World Cup tour .
That ’ s quite daunting really but I don ’ t act that way ! But it ’ s a different era now , you know ? When I grew up racing , we used to have massive parties after the races . Now there aren ’ t that many guys who go out u
FreestyleXtreme . com | 23