Greg Minnaar takes First Place at the season opening World Cup in his custom made SPD Minnaar shoes. He put together a brilliant run to win the season opener in Maribor, Slovenia on May 16, 2010 in the most dismal conditions on a course Greg would describe as “the hardest course I’ve ever ridden because of the mud and rain.”

This was a technical track under difficult conditions where many people don’t think of Greg as being suited to a track like this, but he bloody well is.  He unequivocally proved that he shines on any track, any time. Greg has trained hard to come back after a serious leg injury he sustained in November and he is in a very good place now and he knows his training has been right.

He felt a bit of pressure last week being down in practice run times last week during the carbon V-10 testing in Lousa.  In fact, his lowest time had him wearing a dress out to dinner.  He was clearly wearing the pants today as he put his strengths to work using his powerful mind and his pedaling prowess to deliver a great performance.

This is Greg’s 12th World Cup downhill career win, 7 of those on Santa Cruz.  He goes into the next World Cup at Ft. William, Scotland where he has quite a bit of good history and he’ll be wearing the UCI leader’s jersey.   Josh is still chasing the podium and Steve hasn’t been in this position in a long while and will be hungry for redemption.

TOP FIVE MEN’S DOWNHILL:

1ST: GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 3:23.42

2ND: GEE ATHERTON 3:23.67

3RD: BRENDAN FAIRCLOUGH 3:25.24

4TH: FABIEN PEDEMANAUD 3:25.84

5TH: SAM HILL 3:28.10

See more photos of the event here