American Matt Johnson celebrated his first-ever Ice Cross Downhill win with a riveting Riders Cup victory in eastern Canada, while Canada's Scott Croxall continued his incredible comeback with third place and a third straight podium in Bathurst -- enough to move ahead of American Cameron Naasz, who could only manage 17th place, into the overall world championship lead. In front of 6,500 fans in the college town, Dean Moriarity took second place down the 330-meter-long track with American Maxwell Dunne just behind Croxall in fourth place.
"It's my first win so I'm obviously on Cloud 9," said Johnson, whose previous best result was third place at the last Riders Cup race in Rautalampi, Finland. "I want to keep this going for the rest of the season. I need some good finishes and I want to close the season by winning the Red Bull Crashed Ice race in Saint Paul."
Matt Johnson kicks clear of his rivals on the way to victory in Bathurst. Photo: Tim Krochak/Red Bull Content Pool.
Naasz, who had dominated the championship earlier in the season with back-to-back wins at Red Bull Crashed Ice races in Quebec City and Munich, finished a disappointing 17th in Bathurst even though he had qualified with the fastest time (31.66 seconds), ahead of Croxall in second (31.98) and Johnson third (32.53).
Naasz was unexpectedly eliminated in the round of 32 at the fourth of six Riders Cup races this season but is looking to get back on top in the final two over the next two weekends in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Mont du Lac, Wisconsin as well as the Red Bull Crashed Ice season finale at home in Saint Paul, Minnesota on February 26-27.
It's smiles all round as Croxall and Johnson celebrate after the race. Photo: Tim Krochak/Red Bull Content Pool.
By picking up 150 championship points for third place in Bathurst, Croxall now has 2,885 points while Naasz received just 55 points for a total of 2,840 points, setting the stage for a ferocious battle to the finish through the final three races of the biggest season in the sport's history, with 10 stops in six countries.
It was a great night for Canada, with 13 of the top 16 finishers being Canadian. The top European was Derek Wedge of Switzerland, who could do no better than 18th place.There were 133 athletes registered for the race, including 14 women. Jacqueline Legere continued her superb run of form by winning the woman's race, with American Alexis Jackson taking second and Canada's Jeanne Chouinard in third.
Alexis Jackson and Jacqueline Legere fought to the finish again, with Legere coming out on top this time. Photo: Tim Krochak/Red Bull Content Pool.
The race was hosted by Collège Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB), a college in Bathurst, and more than 30 programs at the campus worked to help organize the race through their classroom work, and the track featured a container jump, a bobsleigh turn, step down, table top, banked turn, step up, and an uphill finish. There were 300 volunteers from the Bathurst community who also helped turn the stop in far eastern Canada into one of the most popular Riders Cup races ever held. CCNB students molded the banks, turns and steep descents by hand. The evening was capped with a giant fireworks show. Local hero Marc André Roy, a 19-year-old from the nearby town of Petit-Rocher, made it to the quarter-finals and ended up an impressive 16th place.
The Riders Cup was created as a new feeder event to open the sport to even more competitors in more locations. The six Riders Cup races this season, where winners earn 250 championship points, are part of the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship alongside the four Red Bull Crashed Ice races, where winners earn 1,000 championship points. Whoever wins the most points from three of the four Red Bull Crashed Ice competitions and from three of the six Riders Cup races will be crowned Ice Cross Downhill World Champion.
Results:
MEN: 1. Matt Johnson (USA), 2. Dean Moriarity (CAN), 3. Scott Croxall (CAN), 4. Maxwell Dunne (USA), 5. Andrew Swanson (USA), 6. Gabriel Renaud (CAN), 7. Jeremy Bergeron (CAN), 8. Guillaume Bouvet-Morrissiette (CAN), 9. Alex Mercier (CAN), 10. Bruno Richard (CAN)
WOMEN: 1. Jacqueline Legere (CAN), 2. Alexis Jackson (USA), 3. Jeanne Chouinard (CAN), 4. Tanya Paradis (CAN), 5. Marie-Hélène Plourde (CAN), 6. Nicole Court (CAN), 7. Monica Boudreau (CAN), 8. Caitlin Bray (USA), 9. Julie Robicaud (CAN), 10. Judith Boudeau (CAN)