[Closed] Minnaar (positive things to say content)

Met him last year when he was doing his speaker tour - came across as really sound if not a gregarious character.

Robby Naish has been great whenever I've met him from his late teens up to about ten years ago when I last saw him.
Top bloke.

Sometimes it’s mentioned (here and in many other places) that champions have to be a bit ruthless

IMO that has always been bullshit, but has been exaggerated as a "winning requirement" over the past 30 years or so as to become a self fulfilling prophecy. There are plenty of decent champions, but their decency is never attributed as a key to their success. But get a ruthless arsehole like Armstrong and his bullying etc is what apparently drives his success.

Then you get poor leadership in youth programmes looking for the wrong attributes in young athletes because of the examples of success that gets highlighted and the circle is complete.

And dare I say sport reflects society as a whole in this useless ruthless ****tards like bojo and Trump trample on the more caring and needed politicians in their quest for personnel power and greed.

Brosnan for sure. Always comes across as a really nice sound dude, and always one of the first to congratulate those who seem to frequently just creep in ahead of him.

Good call on Robby Naish - a few of my windsurfing friends have met him and have said the same - and he is clearly a contender in terms of his career and influence in the sport.

IMO that has always been bullshit, but has been exaggerated as a “winning requirement” over the past 30 years or so as to become a self fulfilling prophecy. There are plenty of decent champions, but their decency is never attributed as a key to their success. But get a ruthless arsehole like Armstrong and his bullying etc is what apparently drives his success.

Then you get poor leadership in youth programmes looking for the wrong attributes in young athletes because of the examples of success that gets highlighted and the circle is complete.

And dare I say sport reflects society as a whole in this useless ruthless **** like bojo and Trump trample on the more caring and needed politicians in their quest for personnel power and greed.

I fear you may be right.

I don't think I've ever heard a negative word said about him which I think puts him beyond pretty much any of the other pro riders.

Nothing on track, or with his team, or at "public" venues or on social media; in a career thats now spanning 3 decades.

What's Minaar's dad like though? We all know that is how to judge a true champion.

What’s Minaar’s dad like though? We all know that is how to judge a true champion.

Well he ran a business in apartheid South Africa, that's probably a good avenue for character assassination for someone.

I also met him on his speaking tour last year and he was exactly as he comes across on TV: likeable and personable, the kind of person who everyone likes. What won it for me though was the talk was held in the theatre that me sister and brother-in-law work at. They will both happily tell me if someone is hard to work with or demanding but Greg was neither. He was super-friendly to all the staff, helped to work around issues and made sure he was available for all the people there to chat to him during the interval and afterwards. It was the second show they've put on with MTB guest speakers (Hans Rey being the first) and they were both massively impressed with both of them for being easy to deal with. The only time he was even remotely serious and firm with them was when they were setting up the bikes on the stage, he just didn't want them damaged.

Even better was I didn't join the queue for a signed flier after the show as I had to get back home for an early start at work the next day. My brother-in-law mentioned it to him as they were packing the set and bikes away and Greg just got one, signed it for me and posed for a picture that was forwarded on to me while I was driving home. Absolutely no need to do it but he did. It's sat on a shelf next to me awaiting framing.

The first tweedlove EWS showed him in a really good light tbh- he wasn't racing it but came along, did all the team stuff, made fun of himself as he'd decided not to do it because "Peaty told me it'd be all trail centre stuff" and he was visibly annoyed at missing out. Still totally the superstar, all logos and mirror shades and charisma and enoturage, but used it in a way that added to the event rather than being at all "me me me" or distracting from the race. He managed to make me feel like the awesome racer and him the fan, which is a hell of a trick from one of the greatest of all time...

Put it another way, I'm not sure he has any other modes than "rockstar" but some rockstars are arseholes too, while others can be bros while still also being rockstars.

I think, the winningest ever rider in DH

He is, which in itself is huge, it looked like he'd lose the crown to Gwin who only has 1 less, and got them in a much shorter time, and he still might, but Gwin has been a bit off the boil for the last few years.

I think the more exceptional stat though is the number of podiums, I can't find the exact figure now but it was as the time something crazy like 50% of all his World Cups he's been on the Podium, that might has slipped in the last few years, but he got his first Podium in 2000 when Luca was 3 and Loris was 4 and his last last year.

He does seem a nice guy, well unless you're the Fox guy and he's stressing about what constitutes a "click" ha ha. His competitiveness is internalised, he's out there racing himself, looking for those green lights. Peaty was different, he was always looking for someone to beat, it doesn't make him less of a nice guy, but that's who he was. If you watch his Films or went to his show, it was racing Nico Vouilloz, or Sam Hill or whoever.

That's not to say Greg is 'soft' I listened to a Podcast with him recently, one of his biggest disappointments in DH was losing the 2009 Worlds by half a second, the race was famously won by Steve Peat. Peaty is probably his best mate in the Sport, all the emotion, all the history and disappointment, you'd think he might ease up a touch, just one pedal stroke less, maybe just a tiny squeeze more brake to help his mate out? Nope, he fought it as hard as he could and despite all it meant for Peaty 10 years later he's still disappointed to lose by half a second.

84 podiums I'm sure they said in the commentary this week. Incredible.

I've also 'met' him as a fan couple of times, once back in the Honda days and yes, he was great, had a chat, a laugh, some photos etc, and later at his talk/theatre tour thing.

Its amazing to think that this is a photo from when he was a few seasons into his career!

It sounds a lot like people are confusing being ruthless for being a dick. They're not the same. Lance was a ruthless racer, he was also a dick. Cav is a ruthless racer, also comes across as a pretty honest, decent bloke.

That much being said in disciplines like downhill where you're as much against yourself/the clock as it is against your opponents I think ruthlessness plays less of a part. You've still got to be willing to take the advantages when they present themselves but you can't push your opponents to pick between lines and risk everything for the win like you can in mass participation, you can't "sweep the leg", (I suppose you could deliberately trash the race line to some extent but you'd likely lose more time than those flowing you).

That a lot of people at the top of anything competitive are also not lovely people though should come as no surprise, (a) a lot of people everywhere aren't lovely, (b) being willing and able to exploit a situation which isn't fair when someone's career depends on it (such as injury, weather or mechanical failure), needs you to be happy with that, (c) as often as not in everything from chess to F1 it's not just about being better but also about forcing a mistake by your opponent, when that mistake could have life threatening consequences as it could on a bike or in a motor vehicle, forcing someone to take that choice and make that takes a fair degree of being able to put your empathy aside. For both b and c the more sociopathic you are the happier you'll be with that, you don't have to be incapable of empathy but it does make it easier if you don't have to switch it off and on so more folks further along that scale will stick the course than those who aren't.

Peaty is probably his best mate in the Sport, all the emotion, all the history and disappointment, you’d think he might ease up a touch, just one pedal stroke less, maybe just a tiny squeeze more brake to help his mate out? Nope, he fought it as hard as he could and despite all it meant for Peaty

Yep, that's the being ruthless bit. Doesn't detract from being a decent person though.

When the topic is about Minnaar, I don't there's a need for the "positive things to say content"

Generally the DH guys & girls seem quite sound, everyone has their moments but they seem less up their own a@$5s than the averge pro sportsperson.

He was really good when we met him. He signed my kids t-shirts at Fort Bill when he hurt his wrist and took the time to talk to them.

He also gave them fruit a year later when they snuck in to the Syndicate to keep dry tent when it was pissing it down.

I would say we have only had positive experiences from all DH racers we have met over the years apart from one but he may have got bit of that from his Dad.
The ones that stood out have been Minnaar ,Bruni and Tracy Moseley. All multiple champions all very nice. Maybe its because its a timed event rather than an on track battle you don’t have the same attitudes to people who are trying to beat you?

I remember when he last won at Fort William two or three years ago, looking at the year of birth of all the other riders in the results - he was the oldest by a long way, I think you had to go back to about 50th to find somebody even over 30.

Pretty good going to be still in the top few riders at 39 years of age!

I would say Tracey Mosley is similar - a genuinely nice person, who has time for many, particularly young riders, yet can out-ride most of us...

one but he may have got bit of that from his Dad

DH rider you say..

Maybe its because its a timed event rather than an on track battle you don’t have the same attitudes to people who are trying to beat you?

During lockdown there was a series where Bruni interviewed various people (via zoom). the one it I remember about Danny's interview was that he said downhill was so great with everyone being nice to eachother, compared to motorcross where everyone hates everyone else.

That said, some of the older current racers (including Greg obviously) used to do 4X too.

(I do wonder if the nature of [things like] DH events also plays to decent people a lot, before you make it big it's a lot of sleeping in tents, messing about with your mates, standing round shooting the breeze and so on for a weekend vs something like a road race where people turn up, race, sod off home, without any need to be pleasant or civil to another human being. In the former case being an dick tends to ruin the whole thing for you pretty quickly so I imagine you'd be more likely to move onto other things, in the latter it doesn't matter if you're Harvey weinstein or mother Teresa )

Pretty good going to be still in the top few riders at 39 years of age!

I looked the other day. "Masters" for international DH starts at 35. Tells you a lot about the expected lifespan of Elite, and how much Greg has bucked the trend there.

Have nothing but good stuff to say about Greg, I was pretty seriously ill a few years back so my mate got a message to Peaty and him and Greg sent me a selfie with them holding a hand written get well note. We saw him in Morzine this year and I've never seen my girl friend pedal as quick, she asked him for a picture, he was on his way to get some lunch but he stopped and chatted complemented her on her kit. We passed the bar he was in leter and she waved and he waved back. Seems like a genuine decent bloke to he and still fast as ever.

matt_outandabout
Full Member

I would say Tracey Mosley is similar – a genuinely nice person, who has time for many, particularly young riders, yet can out-ride most of us…

Yep- never really met her but I've marshalled races where she had basically adopted every female rider and was coaching/morale boosting/generally being awesome to all of them. It was like having an extra riding marshall- she literally arrived at the start of my stage once and briefed me on who would be likely to crash, who was still on their way, who might benefit from an extra gap...

And then she also won, IIRC.

Yep, that’s the being ruthless bit. Doesn’t detract from being a decent person though.

Senna being the classic example. Absolutely ruthless on the track but a charitable, decent person away from the races.

Generally the DH guys & girls seem quite sound, everyone has their moments but they seem less up their own a@$5s than the averge pro sportsperson.

I cross paths with a lot of the pro's who ride at Rotate/Tidworth/Windhill (Ben Deakin, Sam Reynolds, Brendon Fairclough etc) plus the GMBN boys and if you didn't know who they were you would think it's just some more riders out for some fun that day. Very rare to find a pro who has an ego, they tend to be shot down pretty fast!

Put it another way, I’m not sure he has any other modes than “rockstar” but some rockstars are arseholes too, while others can be bros while still also being rockstars.

Dave Grohl.
Greg Minnaar.

Two superstars who also happen to be the nicest guys around. I'd pay lots for a day in their shoes.

Ben Cathro and Tracy Mosley always come across has nice,decent people and Tracy has won more than most

I always wonder whether someone who knows them might show this type of thread to them? Hope so. It'd be quite nice reading something where every single comment was about what a nice guy/girl you were considered to be. Too much negativity around at the moment so a bit of positivity goes a long way.