Aussies place well but Minnaar is on top at home

Greg Minnaar has smashed it on home soil in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa to take the win with a time of 3:57.980 at the first round of the 2012 UCI downhill World Cup season.

His first split time was up on Gwin and during the second section, looked smooth throughout in front of the home crowd, to make up 0.632 on the previous time and take the win ahead of Aaron Gwin. (3:58.612) Congrats to Sick Mick (3:58.974) in third, now riding with new team Hutchinson United Ride Team. A very pleasing site after the dangerous crash he had in the Pietermaritzburg World Cup race in 2011. This made it a double podium for the Hannah family, with younger sister Tracey on top of the womens podium earlier in the day. Britain’s Gee Atherton made fourth (3:59.283) and Canadian Steve Smith narrowly snuck into 5th ahead of Jared Graves by as little as .052.

Big congrats to Graves, who has been focusing on downhill racing again, after the 4x event was dropped from the UCI circuit last year. His strong result today, in 6th, proves he hasn’t lost touch at all and we all look forward to seeing him up on the podium again, during the season.  The other Aussies placing well, Troy Brosnan riding for Team Monster Energy Specialized, in 8th, an impressive placing,  considering the course is suited to the bigger riders. He’s been training hard during the off season and his result today looks like it’s paid off. Sam Hill, coming back from injury last season and having a very competitive Aussie National Series at home, toughing it out with teammate Brosnan, just missed out on the top ten in 11th (+5.836 back). Bryn Atkinson, also on the comeback trail after the horrendous injury he suffered last year, breaking his arm and leg, sidelining him for the entire 2011 season, finished up a very respectable 20th. Also a big congrats to Bryn’s partner in crime, Jill Kintner who is racing on the DH circuit this year and finished in a strong 4th. A very positive start to the season for them and their new team Norco International.

PLACING/UCI POINTS/OVERALL STANDING – AFTER DH ROUND 1 – Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

For all the highlights from Pietermaritzburg, go to Redbull.tv

Clay Porter has been making some of the best downhill MTB films to date. This short edit delving into the minds of the Team Monster Energy Specialized riders, Sam Hill (3x World Champion) and team mate Troy Brosnan (2x and current Junior World Champion), is no exception. Enjoy!!!

Today was officially day 2 of the 2012 Australian National MTB Championships held at Eagle Park MTB Park in the Adelaide Hills, just a 20 minute drive from the CBD. Although it has started to really heat up, and more of the same is expected for the rest of the week, there were still a lot of competitors arriving through out the day. The first official event at this year’s Championships kicked off this afternoon with the Cross Country Team Relay. Throughout the race there were some tough battles. But after the 4 laps were done it was Team Torq Nutrition, consisting of Billy Sewell, Katherine O’Shea, Jack Haig and Mark Fenner, who took the win by just over 2 and a half minutes from Canberra Off Road Cyclists in 2nd and Perth MTB Club Team. Unfortunately the local team, Adelaide MTB Club, had to settle for 4th after James Hanus had a rear mech catastrophe resulting in him having to run part of the way in the final lap.

The DH course was open and it was really getting a battering from the bus loads of eager downhill riders during the practise session. Some DH riders to keep an eye out for were Jared Graves, Ben Cory, Sam Hill and Troy Brosnan. We caught up with Troy (pictured with his Specialized Demo) to see what he thought about the conditions.

View the vid below to see some highlights from the day.