March 18th, 2012 2:23pm
Greg Minnaar takes opening round victory in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup season in Pietermaritzburg.
Top three separated by less than one second.
With just five riders remaining, Mick Hannah set down a blistering time of 3:58.974, well over three seconds ahead of the then-hotseat occupant Jared Graves and a full second and a half faster than Greg Minnaars pace setting qualifying time.
As is usual for these races, the excitement was just about to begin with the top 5 riders still to come. Starting with Gee Atherton, who made a few small mistakes at the start of his run, but still posted a time close to Hannah, just 0.3 back.
The favorite, Aaron Gwin, then came down and shaved just three tenths of a second off Hannah to take the hotseat with one rider remaining.
But local hero and super motivated Greg Minnaar stole the show with a gutsey final run taking .65 of a second out of Gwin and the first big step of the season.
“I had to make up as much as I could down the bottom,” said Minnaar, having admitted that he’d made some early errors. “I had to put my head down and go.
“It was electric down here. When I jumped into the finish area, the crowd were just amazing.”
Current Downhill World Champion Danny Hart fell early in his run, and ended his hopes of an getting a solid start to the season.
Brook MacDonald who made the biggest gains last year in the mens field, took a hard crash hurting his ribs and shoulder in practice but rallied to race and still finished a respectable 19th in a deep field.
Both Mick Hannah and Aaron Gwin were gracious in their praise for Minnaar's win, knowing that Minnaar's thoughts were on his father who is in the hospital with illness. Hannah was happy with his finish knowing his pre-season preparation is not what he hoped it would be. Gwin gave Minnaar props knowing it is a long season and he will be a factor in every race again this year. It's good to see such good sportsmanship from these top riders.
NOTE:
Both Tracey and Mick Hannah are riding the South African made Morewood bikes, which only added to the sweetness of the weekend for local crowd.
After Gwin, US ridersNikko Mulally of the Trek World Racing Team and racing elite for the first season placed a respectable 14th place, and junior rider Ritchie Rude in his first word cup ever took 32. Nice job boys.
Results
1.Greg Minnaar (RSA) 3:57.980
2.Aaron Gwin (USA) +0.632
3.Mick Hannah (AUS) +0.994
4.Gee Atherton (GBR) +1.303
5.Steve Smith (CAN) +4.384
6.Jared Graves (AUS) +4.436
7.Andrew Neethling (RSA) +4.800
8.Troy Brosnan (AUS) +5.017
9.Julien Camellini (FRA) +5.604
10.Cédric Gracia (FRA) +5.674
Here are the UCI official mens results -
You can watch the repeat of the mens events on Redbull TV
Location: News >> Minnaar, Hannah takes the win at Pietermaritzburg
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