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‘Take it easy’ is the one phrase that Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) finds impossible to put into practice.
It just does not exist in the vocabulary of the multiple World Cup Champion, who is at the moment the third best downhill racer in the world.
On Sunday (7 February) he will compete in the first of the MTN National Downhill events which will take place just outside of the village of Skeerpoort and quite close to the Hartebeespoort Dam. He is also planning to compete in the 3-day Sani2Sea Mountain Bike event, and so it just goes on and on.
Not even the fact that he was in danger of losing a leg at the end of last year slows Minnaar down.
As part of his preparation for the Roof of Africa Enduro, Minnaar competed in the Hare Scramble Motor-bike Enduro event at the end of last year. He was doing quite well initially and after three laps he was in 4th position.
But then disaster struck. When Minnaar was going around a right-hand corner, he hit a concealed rock that threw him over the handlebars and straight onto his right shoulder, breaking his collarbone.
While Minnaar was recovering in hospital, doctors noticed that his left thigh was swollen to about 10cm thicker than his right thigh. They rushed him into surgery and removed three massive blood clots, one of which was apparently the size of the doctor’s fist! In medical terms this is called ‘compartment syndrome’.
According to Minnaar he could have lost his leg if he had not been in a hospital.
Then and there, many people would have decided to take things easy for a while, but not Minnaar.
The moment he was able to walk properly, he was in a canoe and preparing for the three-day Dusi Canoe marathon in January.
Minnaar and his K2-partner, Sven Bruss, managed to finish 65th out of the 813 teams that completed the race. This is an amazing result considering that Minnaar only started to paddle in December and only seriously started to run in January.
Asked why a world-class mountain biker would compete in a canoe marathon, Minnaar replied that he was fulfilling a promise he had made to his grandmother.
According to Minnaar his grandmother’s brother, Bobby Templeton, had won the Dusi four times in the 1950’s, paddling with Ernie Pearce.
“When I was a child my grandmother always told me very exciting stories about uncle Bobby’s Dusi adventures. She also gave me the stopwatch my uncle used while training for the Dusi.
“I promised my grandmother that one day I would also do the Dusi, but I kept postponing it every year. Recently my grandmother died and I then felt that I had no more excuses not to do the Dusi.”
One of the big Dusi highlights for Minnaar was when he and Bruss shot the Island rapid which is one of the biggest rapids of the river.
“It was quite an experience to get through the rapid. Another great experience for me was just to finish day one of the Dusi. It was one of the hardest days of my life because I had not run with a canoe on my shoulders before. What was also very special was the start of the Dusi. Everybody in Pietermaritzburg knew who Sven and I were and they cheered us on all the way until we were outside the city.”
As far as Sunday’s racing is concerned, Minnaar said his main purpose is to do just enough to qualify for the World Championship.
“I have never raced the course before. I hear it is quite rocky and technical, which will ensure exciting racing.”
According to Minnaar he will not be quite at his best on Sunday, because his main focus is to peak for the World Cup season. Last year he won three of the World Cup events and was also 2nd at the World Championship.
Issued by Advendurance
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