Kyle Croxall was once one of the most unbeatable and intimidating athletes in ice cross downhill until the Canadian suddenly got hit by a seven-race losing streak from the middle of the 2013 world championship season that cost him the title that year and then left him watching the 2014 championship battle from the back of the pack.
But Croxall is back on top in 2015 with a stirring Red Bull Crashed Ice comeback. In a sport that is constantly evolving and drawing athletes from hockey as well downhill skiing and snowboarding, Croxall is determined to prove that racers with a hockey background can still prevail against the downhill specialists who appeared to have the upper hand in recent years.
"I basically just worked my butt off in the off-season," Croxall said, ahead of the second major Red Bull Crashed Ice race of 2015 in Helsinki, Finland, after his comeback win in front of 140,000 spectators in the season opener in Saint Paul, Minnesota, two weeks ago. "I had a rough year in 2014. I think I just had a lot of bad luck last year with some falls at the wrong time in some races. So I worked hard. I've got my head back in the game again."
Croxall, 26, won the 2012 world championship and was cruising through the 2013 season in first place with back-to-back wins in Niagara Falls and Saint Paul, but he suddenly hit a rough spot at the third race in Landgraaf, Netherlands, where he finished a dismal 73rd. He was uncharacteristically weak, taking 20th, at the next race in Lausanne and salvaged a fourth in Quebec, but still lost the title to Switzerland's Derek Wedge, who took third in the final race of the season. Croxall's slump worsened in 2014, where he only made it as far as the semi-finals once and finished the year in ninth place overall - 2,888 points behind 2014 world champion Marco Dallago. The former ice cross downhill world champion looked like yesterday's man and over the hill at the age of 25. But he refused to give up even though it seemed the lighter, faster downhill Alpine aces with their skiing backgrounds, such as Wedge and Dallago, that seemed to have the advantage over larger, heavier former hockey players like Croxall.
"I changed my training in the off-season and I've done more with my legs and less with my upper body," said Croxall, who worked with his own personal fitness trainer for the first time. "I did a lot more hockey-style training than in the past and I've been playing at a high level of competitive hockey. I've just been preparing a lot better now and my stamina is better than ever."
Croxall said there had been a trend in recent years towards more downhill-style tracks that he says favoured former skiers and downhill specialists. He said that he has tried to adjust to that development and added that this year's new Riders Cup competition, with more skiing style tracks, has given him the chance to work on those downhill skills.
"All of a sudden there were more skier style tracks so I've had to get used to kinds of tracks," said Croxall. "The competition has gotten a lot stiffer over the years. Now the level in the Round of 32 is as tough as it was in the semi-final a few years ago. Before you could give about 80 percent until the final. Now you have to give 100 percent in every race."
Croxall shares the all-time record of race wins with Finland's Arttu Pihlainen and Sweden's Jasper Felder (seven race wins each) and could move into the lead with a victory on Saturday in Finland. But Croxall, who is looking forward to his home race in Edmonton at the end of the season where he hopes to clinch his second world championship, said neither Pihlainen nor Felder are on his mind.
"I'm just trying to win as much as possible," he said. "I love this sport and have no plans to quit. I'm having lots of fun."
For more on this weekend's race, and the fourth stop in the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship, visit redbullcrashedice.com/helsinki.
Join the Discussion