Greg Minnaar has fractured his arm during practice up at Fort William World Cup. He joins Jack Moir on the injured list.

>>> Behind the scenes of Greg Minnaar’s disastrous Val di Sole World Cup

Caption: gregminnaar “She’s a beauty! The V10 is an ongoing project and this latest prototype is another step up in terms of refinement and performance. Unfortunately she was a little too quick for me in testing, and I went down fracturing my right arm. We’ll be back to solve the puzzle soon bru’s!”

Greg Minnaar was the winner of last year’s World Cup at Fort William and is unarguably the master of that particular race track. Minnaar has won at Fort William no less than seven times.

Minnaar badly needs his current streak of bad luck to end. At the last round of the World Cup in Losinj he suffered a puncture. And the less said about last year’s unlucky (but brilliant) season the better.

(Psst..! Minnaar and the rest of the Santa Cruz Syndicate were/are riding prototype Santa Cruz V10 29ers at Fort William. More on this news when we get it)

Caption: jackmoir_ “Fort Bill was a special one for me last year. Devastated i’m going to miss it this year, due to a broken collarbone, AGAIN. Disappointed, but ready for the challenge. Feeling so fit, and good on the bike at the moment, and 8 weeks off isn’t going to change that. Thankyou @intensefactoryracing for having my back through the ups and downs.”

Jack Moir is also out of the race after breaking his collarbone a couple of weeks ago. Jack Moir was 2nd place in last year’s Fort William World Cup.

With Moir and Minnaar both out, the door is open for a whole new podium at this year’s race. Aaron Gwin was 3rd at Fort William last year and it would a bold move to bet on anyone else winning up in Scotland this year.

Having said that, it’s about time that home advantage played its part again in World Cup Downhill and we wouldn’t be hugely surprised to see a British racer on the top step in the men’s race (as well as Rachel Atherton winning in the women’s race, obvs.)

Matt Walker? Danny Hart? Greg Williamson even..?

We can’t wait until Sunday to watch how thing play out.