Dallago shows newcomers can thrive in ice cross downhill

Austria's Marco Dallago proved that a bit of talent, a dash of fearlessness, an ability to learn quickly and a hunger to succeed are the right ingredients for success in the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship. The 23-year-old independent businessman came out of nowhere to finish an astonishing fifth place overall in the Red Bull Crashed Ice title hunt in 2013, his first full season, and even got onto the podium with a brilliant second place in just his fifth career race in Landgraaf, in the Netherlands. More importantly for the fast-growing sport, the fleet-footed former hockey player and downhill skier showed that guts and determination are probably more important than experience in ice cross downhill.

The Austria ace's success is also being held up as an example to other newcomers around the world that anything could be possible in the 2014 season. Dallago began the 2013 season as a walk-on and paid his own way to races around the world before earning invitations to races in the international field as he rose through the ranks.

It's definitely possible that there will be other newcomers this season who will have fantastic results. In retrospect, I'd say there were four things that helped me do so well so fast. I got a little experience in my first two races in 2011 and 2012 and learned from my mistakes. Then I trained hard last summer. The third thing is that I always try to stay relaxed and have fun. And finally I set some goals and met them.

Before the 2013 season there was the conventional wisdom that the most vital factor for success was experience on the downhill ice tracks, where athletes race at speeds of 60kph down obstacle-filled courses of up to 600 metres in length. A handful of veterans such as Arttu Pihlainen, of Finland, and Kyle Croxall, of Canada, had a virtual monopoly on experience and ended up first or on the podium in most races. But that all changed in 2013, with four winners in five different races in the biggest and most spectacular season of the 13-year history of the sport in which Switzerland's Derek Wedge was unexpectedly crowned the champion.

"Experience is still definitely important," said Dallago, whose career began with 36th in Munich in 2011 and includes 70th in Quebec (2012), 8th in Niagara Falls (2012), 10th in Saint Paul (2013), 2nd in Landgraaf (2013), 5th in Lausanne (2013) and 9th in Quebec (2013). "I had the feeling that I felt more and more confident with each race. Racing down a tight ice track with obstacles is not something you do every day. Because you can't train on ice tracks like that, it's only logical that the athletes with the most races under their belts have a lot of knowledge."

But Dallago, who trains almost every day in the off-season, working on strength and endurance with his younger brother, Luca, agrees that it takes something special to excel in ice cross downhill, a sport he first read about in a newspaper article when he was 13 years old.

"I think you definitely need to be a good skater, first of all, but it's really helpful when you've got experience in other sports like skiing, aggressive inline skating, mountainbike downhill, MotoX or whatever," said Dallago. "If you're physically fit, if you've got some courage, and if you can clear your mind, there's almost nothing that can get in your way."

Dallago says he can't wait for the 2014 season to start. "Ice cross downhill is just such an incredible sport," he said. "The tracks are getting more challenging each year. It's sometimes hard for me to imagine them getting more difficult than last season so I can't wait to see what we'll be up against in 2014."