For the third time in his international career, Greg Minnaar (Team G-Cross Honda) of Pietermaritzburg in South Africa has won the Velo News Downhill Racer of the Year Award.
The Velo News Awards are highly regarded within the cycling community and each year the magazine recognises various categories within most disciplines of cycling. The first time Greg won the award was in 2001 after capturing the World Cup Downhill title at 21 years of age (he also won the more prestigious award as International MTB Rider of the Year for 2001), and he won the Downhiller Award again in 2003 after his World Title win.
In announcing their annual awards, Velo News stated that in the male downhill racer category "There was no clear cut No.1 guy in 2004. Steve Peat took the World Cup crown, while Fabien Barel scored the rainbow stripes. But neither of those two showed the consistency of South African Greg Minnaar, who won the NORBA season title plus three races, and snagged a World Cup victory and a World's silver medal".
Speaking today after hearing the news from the US, Greg was very happy to have received the recognition.
"Consistency is what I really strive for in my racing career and to have that recognised over and above a World Title, well it's very significant to me. I had a great season this year and I'm already getting excited about our schedule with Honda for 2005. This award is a nice way to round off the season."