Minnaar has been crowned World Champion in Val Di Sole but he's also been helicoptered off the hill

Downhill legend Greg Minnaar has won a World Championship at Val Di Sole but he’s also been choppered off the track with a broken back and had to run down the hill with a folded frame.

This weekend will be the 41-year-old’s 12th race on the revered Italian track.
And the Santa Cruz Syndicate rider says that it makes the tracks at the first two rounds in Switzerland and Austria look tame.

“You know, Lenzerheide and Leogang are fast, they are steep, they've got some tech sections but when you come to Val di Sole it makes those two tracks look like a highway,” he said.

“And that's just the beast that this track is. It's incredibly tough. It's holes that just grow through the weekend.

"They start off knee deep and end up waist deep. It's incredible. What amazes me the most is how these bikes actually skid over the top of most of these holes but you only see that when you're on trackside.”

In 2021, the South African won his fourth World Championship title on the Black Snake track edging out France’s Benoit Coulanges with a stunning ride that confounded those who had written off his chances.

And in 2017, after breaking his bike in half during his final practice run in a title-deciding season finale with the USA’s Aaron Gwin, Minnaar had been forced to sprint off the hill to get another bike to make it in time for qualifying.

In a testament to teamwork, another bike was built and Minnaar had the strength of mind to qualify in second behind Gwin just an hour after the crash which made the points race for the overall even closer.

In the end an exploded rear wheel in the final for Minnaar and a near-perfect run from Gwin would see the American crowned as the 2017 series champion.

Minnaar recalls that practice crash very clearly.

“I've compressed through a section, caught the front end really hard and it’s flipped me over to the side and one of the course marking poles caught my bike sideways and the bike just wrapped around it,” he said.

“But you know, in the heat of the time we've got our last training session going into qualifying and so I'm just trying to get this bike from mid-mountain down to the bottom to rebuild a new bike to get back up for qualifying.

“I've had some great results here, I’ve gone off in a helicopter so this venue has been like a mixed bag for me.”