Defending champion Greg Minnaar rode Maxxis tires to downhill victory at the UCI MTB World Championships, held August 28 – September 1 in Pietermaritzburg, CM, South Africa.

Fans had special reason to root for Minnaar, a native of South Africa. The Santa Cruz Syndicate rider finished his run in a personal best time of 3 minutes and 58.058 seconds. “I got through the first technical section pretty good,” Minnaar told cyclingnews.com. “Mid-way down, I was empty on the tabletops. Coming down to the bottom, my legs were on fire and were burning. I could hardly breathe, but I knew I didn’t have much track left. I dug deep in that last section.”

Minnaar was joined on the Elite Men’s podium by Team Yeti’s Jared Graves, who took third place racing on his enduro bike. “I decided to race my enduro bike here today about five months ago. I knew I would be busy racing enduro all year and not have much time to ride my downhill bike this year,” he told cyclingnews.com.

In another downhill triumph for Maxxis, Richie Rude, Jr. won the Junior Men’s Downhill race in 4 minutes and 6.64 seconds. In Elite Women’s Downhill, Jill Kintner and Caroline Buchanan did well, taking fourth and fifth places. A Maxxis rider also made the Men’s Elite Cross Country podium as Jose Antonio Ramos took third place.

Maxxis congratulates Greg Minnaar and Richie Rude, Jr. on their victories and thanks all of its riders for their fine performances.