HOW MINNAAR WON AT FORT WILLIAM

South Africa’s Greg Minnaar overcame a relatively poor start to his 2016 World Cup season when he claimed a dramatic win at Fort William in Scotland on Sunday. His victory was his sixth in total at Fort William and his 19^th World Cup career win. But just how did he bounce back so spectacularly to increase his greatest-of-all-time record? – By Sean Badenhorst

It was an emotional day for downhill racing as the close-knit community paid respect to Canadian Steve Smith, who was killed in a motorcycle accident recently. It was also the final World Cup race at Fort William for Minnaar’s British Santa Cruz Syndicate teammate, Steve Peat, racing his final year before retiring. An estimated 25000 fans lined the course in what is likely a record and millions were glued to the live coverage online and, in South Africa, on TV (lucky us – bless you SuperSport!).

After finishing 15^th and 17^th respectively at the first two rounds of the 2016 World Cup Series and a lowly 113^th in qualifying on Saturday, Minnaar seemed to fade from most pre-race Fort William predictions. But the 34-year-old South African was quietly confident.

A look at his qualifying run split times revealed he was on form and ready to challenge for at least a podium place, if not the win. His split times were:

1^st segment: 1:01:745 (5^th fastest)

2^nd segment: 3:08:886 (1^st fastest)

3^rd segment: 3:39:323 (4^th fastest)

4^th segment: 4:30:475 (65^th fastest)

Tissot Timing and Results

When we quizzed Minnaar on Saturday night over his slow final time, he confirmed that he’d had a mechanical issue in the last segment, but felt good for the final.

Dirt Mountain Bike shared their article on Sunday about whom the bookies were favouring for Fort William success. Ladbrokes placed American Aaron Gwin as their favourite at 11/4. Also tipped highly were Britons Gee Atherton (fastest qualifier) at 3/1 and Danny Hart (9/2). Minnaar was at 11/2 and Dirt MTB tipped him as the safe bet. How right they were…

Normally, a rider that finishes outside the top 80 in qualifying misses out on starting in the final. But the top-20 riders on the UCI rankings are given protected status, which allows them to start the final regardless of their qualifying position. Minnaar’s 18^th place on the rankings allowed him to start on Sunday.

With five previous wins, Minnaar had won more times at Fort William than anyone else. Possibly more telling of his prowess on the demanding course was that in 2007, during his World Champs run at Fort William, Minnaar crashed heavily half way down, but got up and finished fourth, one second off gold. It was later discovered he’d broken his scapula and dislocated his shoulder in the crash…

Minnaar’s early years as a pro were spent racing the UK and Fort William has virtually become his home track. He’s won there in the wet and he’s won there in the dry. But never has the Fort William course been as dry and blown out as it was this past weekend, with a number of riders puncturing in practice and qualifying as the course became less predictable.

When a course becomes less predictable, experienced riders normally shine. Only Peat is more experienced than Minnaar in the current crop of racers and the South African, starting unusually early due to his slow qualifying time, tackled the course the only way he knows how – smoothly.

Minnaar seldom looks like he’s really flying, but that’s because he’s so in control. Like a brilliant opening batsman in test cricket, Minnaar’s timing, coordination and pace judgment are just exceptional and he seemed to float through the rough, rooty forest piece, which made up most of the infamous Segment 2 that disrupted many a rider’s rhythm.

He was, unsurprisingly, quite well up on those that had started before him and he continued to increase his advantage on then hot-seat holder, Remi Thirion of France, as he moved through each segment, eventually crushing Thirion’s time by almost eight seconds. He clocked a time of 4:35:601, which was, tellingly, seven seconds faster than the fastest qualifying time of 4:42:826 set by Atherton on Saturday.

Would his time stand up to the big names that were still to start? It was certainly an impressive looking run and, he did seem to have a drama-free descent, based on what we’d seen on the TV footage (on such a long course you don’t see the whole run on the TV footage).

Stand up it did. Incredibly. There were moments of sheer angst for Minnaar (and his fans) as Australian Troy Brosnan, rising young Brit Adam Brayton and Hart all showed signs of threatening to dislodge Minnaar from the hotseat. But each faded somewhat towards the end of their runs.

As expected, Gwin charged down the mountain with his usual aggressive power style but he too fell short of Minnaar’s time, eventually claiming the runner-up spot with a time of 4:38.958. With the pressure at a peak, both the last two starters, Eddie Masters (GBR) and Atherton crashed hard, in the process abbreviating Minnaar’s wait to celebrate a remarkable victory, which comes 12 years after his first win on the iconic course in the Scottish Highlands.

“Shew. What a day! I put so much effort into testing and training for this race. The first two race results of the year were definitely below par for me. That was certainly one of the motivating factors for me at Fort William,” said Minnaar on Monday morning.

“My strategy was to really attack the top and put a solid split in, carry that momentum down and have a safe, smooth woods section. I just pushed hard from the top and tried to keep that same pace all the way through,” said Minnaar.

“I don’t know how accurate those split times were. I don’t think I gained that much on the other guys at the bottom. That used to be quite pedally down there, but now there are a lot of jumps, which make it difficult to really get a pedaling rhythm. My fitness is very good, but I did work more on my overall strength in the offseason and maybe that helped me handle such a demanding course better than the others.”

Fellow South Africans Andrew Neethling and Johan Potgieter also reached the final. Potgieter finished 75^th and Neethling was listed as a DNF. We are unsure if it was a crash or mechanical related DNF.

Minnaar’s win catapulted him from 19^th to 5^th on the World Cup rankings after three rounds. He’s won the Series three times before, but is unlikely to be a challenger this year following his results in the first two rounds. What is certain though is that he’s not done with extending his World Cup win all-time record. And that’s sure to make this weekend’s Round 4 at Leogang, Austria compelling for South Africans and Minnaar fans.

For more on Minnaar, visit www.gregminnaar.com

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