Take some of the best and toughest skaters in the world, a sizzling atmosphere, stunning surroundings, tonnes of steel, a huge cooling system and thousands of square metres of frozen water. The result? Red Bull Crashed Ice! Since the first-ever race back in 2001, Red Bull Crashed Ice has developed into one of the world's most breathtaking winter sports events. Riders hurtle down courses up to 600 metres in length in groups of four, shoulder to shoulder, as they fight it out for victory. The whole race is held on a steep downhill track dotted with chicanes, jumps and rollers. Pushing, sliding and sprinting are all on the agenda as the athletes race down the course, but the rules are very simple: first to the bottom wins.
In Red Bull Crashed Ice, skaters descend a steep ice canal filled with bumps, jumps, rollers and obstacles four-at-a-time, jostling for position as they reach speeds of up to 70kph. With only the top two riders going through to the next round, competition is fierce. The event is held in a classic knockout format, and the field of 64 riders starting the main event is whittled down to just four athletes competing in the final.
How do you prepare for such a unique race? First and foremost it is essential to know what you are doing on the ice. However that doesn't mean that all of the athletes competing in Red Bull Crashed Ice ply their trade in ice-hockey leagues – for example, the sport's most famous name, Jasper Felder, is a professional bandy player, a game popular in his native Sweden and similar to ice hockey with a round ball and many rules adopted from football.
The sport most similar to ice cross downhill is probably ski cross. In this discipline, skiers descend a snow course featuring jumps, rollers and banked corners four-at-a-time, with the fastest two athletes progressing to the next round. While physical contact is (as with ice cross downhill) not officially permitted, the high speeds and twisty courses make for spectacular action and plenty of crashes.
All amateur ice skaters, as well as professional ice-hockey players, can qualify for the races through a series of national qualifiers. Find out how to register at redbullcrashedice.com/registration
The Track
The unique and extensive set-up of Red Bull Crashed Ice events offers a thrilling stage for the fastest sport on skates. To put up such impressive play fields for the riders, the key to success is ice! Austrian mobile ice rink specialist AST built the first track in Stockholm in 2001. At that time, large diameter pipes were installed for coolant distribution across the track, which had to be laid over the pipes. This was the birth of the first jumps and obstacles to get over those pipes. The track was given enough elevation for the skaters to accelerate, jump, pass obstacles and accelerate again. This also gave some decent air travel after the jumps.
After the first race, a new system was invented: the AST “Skateway.” The system was designed like a flexible carpet of tubes that can be cooled below zero. This allowed the build of almost any kind of track shape and even to make ice on rounded surfaces. It was then possible to make speedy banked curves to give the track a new thrill.
BUILDING THE TRACK
The track building is quite a challenge itself and the work starts several months before the race. It’s almost a race before the race! Even though the track system has been designed to be lightweight, compact, and easy to transport, over 15 trucks are required to bring all the ice technology to the location (and it doesn’t include local wooden and metal infrastructure). A crew of hundreds spend two to three weeks (depending on the location) building the course. Over 1,000m of boards are being used to keep competitors on the track and fans from harm’s way. Hundreds of adjustable steel legs, over 2,000 square metres of wooden floor, and thousands of wood and metal screws provide foundational support.
MAKING THE ICE
The ice-making team from AST has invented a combination of different methods to make the ice stay in place. The team uses “crushed ice”, a slush of ice particles that is attached to the frozen surface of the skateway tubes. A box of crushed ice weighs some 770kg and up to 50 of them could be required. Then water is carefully added in different ways depending on the track profile, depending on if it is a position where the competitors jump, sprint or turn the requirements on the ice are different and must be considered. To ensure a good and strong ice at all weather conditions, AST uses a cooling system with large chiller machines to help produce the right temperature throughout the course. The key component needed to make the ice on the track is the AST Skateway, consisting of small tubes that are cooled down to -10°C by a circulating coolant. The tubular system that has a total of up to 140km of ice carpet cooling tubing and is designed to maintain the ice in temperatures up to +12°C. Even in warm weather, the race will go on!
READY FOR THE RACE
Until the first riders skate the track, the crew is working days and nights on ice maintenance. It is not a flat surface, so there is no Zamboni. Everything is done manually to make the ice as smooth as possible. The team is always working on the ice between each training session to make it shiny for race day. The weather is a crucial factor and the crew must constantly watch the track and adjust the cooling system to maintain best conditions to keep the ice perfectly cool until the race.
AFTER THE RACE
When the Red Bull Crashed Ice winners and the spectators are celebrating through the night, the AST team is already preparing the dismantling of the track. But first, the ice must melt – even at freezing temperatures. To start as fast as possible; the ice is defrosted by heating up the skateways. Then, the crew can start dismantling and the race to the next race starts again.
Rules
Red Bull Crashed Ice returns in 2015 with new rules for the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship.
The sport's top athletes will compete in Saint Paul (USA), Helsinki (FIN), Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Edmonton (CAN), battling it out shoulder-to-shoulder as they hurtle down an assault course made of ice. Hundreds of hopefuls will start, but only one can become world champion.
With athletes descending 400-metre-long downhill courses four-at-a-time at speeds of up to 70kph, crashes are the only thing that's certain. Competitors are, however, strictly forbidden from intentionally causing a fellow competitor to either fall, slow down or leave the course, for example by holding his shirt, pushing or striking him. Any athlete found guilty by the Competition Committee of hindering another athlete intentionally will be disqualified automatically.
At each World Championship event, the field is made up of the best riders from the ice cross downhill international elite and the fastest athletes from national qualifying races held around the world. Each event is preceded by national qualifiers held across the host country and is open to everybody looking to take part in the main race and test themselves against the best ice cross racers in the world.
Event Schedule
Ice Cross Downhill World Championship events will typically be held over a three-day period. The first day comprises Athletes' Briefing, training and a National Shootout, while the second day is made up of an Athletes' Briefing, training, the International Shootout and Elimination Round (heat format) and the Team Competition. In the National and International Shootouts, two runs per athlete are timed and the fastest time counts. The top 32 athletes from the National Shootout and the athletes ranked 33rd to 64th in the International Shootout advance to the Elimination Round. The top 32 athletes from the International Shootout advance directly to the finals. The finals on day three will comprise an Athletes' Briefing, training and the final competition itself (heat format).
Ranking
Athletes ranked first to fourth for each particular event are allocated positions according to their place in the final heat. Athletes ranked fifth to eighth are ranked according to their place in the small final. All remaining athletes are ranked according to the round in which they were eliminated.
Points
Points are awarded at each Ice Cross Downhill World Championship event; from 1,000 points, for 1st place, down to 0.5 points, for 100th place. The points obtained at all four races are then added together after the final event to determine the winner of the Red Bull Crashed Ice 2015 Ice Cross Downhill World Championship. Every race counts.
The format is simple, the racing fierce. Anyone who has aspirations of becoming the Ice Cross Downhill World Champion will have to prove himself against some of the best skaters in the world in front of tens of thousands of spectators.
Past Winners
In Stockholm, Sweden, in 2001 a new sport was born, 'a sport of the century' as a renowned English newspaper described the breathtaking new competition. Athletes from around the world flocked to the Swedish capital for the inaugural race – wearing hockey skates in a man on man battle down a 300-metre-long ice track filled with steps, jumps and razor-sharp hairpin turns. The sport was called ice cross downhill and the race called Red Bull Crashed Ice.
The first race in Stockholm was a pilot project both from a sporting and technical perspective. Because the construction work involved was so intensive there was no chance to test the event out in advance and see what the athletes would be up against. The first Red Bull Crashed Ice track was set up through Stockholm's fish market! After a brief boycott at the start and spectacular crashes in the test runs, the competitors gradually adapted to their unusual field of play. Since then, there have been a total of 32 races in 11 different countries. Hundreds of thousands of spectators have watched the races on the ever-more advanced tracks – on ski slopes in the mountains and through urban valleys in city centres.
Winners of Red Bull Crashed Ice
2014 Quebec City, CAN - Marco Dallago (AUT)
2014 Moscow, RUS - Cameron Naasz (USA)
2014 Saint Paul, USA - Marco Dallago (AUT)
2014 Helsinki, FIN - Marco Dallago (AUT)
2013 Quebec City, CAN - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2013 Lausanne, SUI - Cameron Naasz (USA)
2013 Landgraaf, NED - Derek Wedge (SUI)
2013 Saint Paul, USA - Kyle Croxall (CAN)
2012 Niagara Falls, CAN - Kyle Croxall (CAN)
2012 Quebec City, CAN - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2012 Are, SWE - Adam Horst (CAN)
2012 Valkenburg, NED - Kyle Croxall (CAN)
2012 Saint Paul, USA - Kyle Croxall (CAN)
2011 Quebec City, CAN - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2011 Moscow, RUS - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2011 Valkenburg, NED - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2011 Munich, GER - Kyle Croxall (CAN)
2010 Quebec City, CAN - Kyle Croxall (CAN)
2010 Munich, GER - Martin Niefnecker (GER)
2009 Lausanne, SUI - Jasper Felder (SWE)
2009 Prague, CZE - Miikka Jouhkamainen (FIN)
2009 Quebec City, CAN - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2008 Quebec City, CAN - Arttu Pihlainen (FIN)
2008 Davos, SUI - Miikka Jouhkamainen (FIN)
2007 Quebec City, CAN - Kevin Olson (CAN)
2007 Helsinki, FIN - Kevin Olson (CAN)
2006 Quebec City, CAN - Gabriel Andre (CAN)
2005 Prague, CZE - Jasper Felder (SWE)
2004 Moscow, RUS - Jasper Felder (SWE)
2004 Duluth, Minnesota, USA - Jasper Felder (SWE)
2003 Duluth, Minnesota, USA - Jasper Felder (SWE)
2001 Klagenfurt, AUT - Jasper Felder (SWE)
2001 Stockholm, SWE - Jasper Felder (SWE)