Living The Dream win first team competition of 2014

The 2014 Ice Cross Downhill World Championship got off to a rousing start in Finland on Friday with Canada taking top honours in the team competition ahead of Saturday's individual racing on a difficult natural ice track carved into the side of a mountain.

Canada's Living The Dream won the first Ice Cross Downhill Team Competition race of the season on a frosty Finnish track on Friday night at the Serena Ski Resort outside Helsinki, defeating Couch Garden Crew in a crash-filled final.

Earlier on Friday, Luca Dallago, of Austria, took pole position for Saturday's 64-man Red Bull Crashed Ice individual finals, posting the fastest time down the treacherous high-speed ice track ahead of his brother, Marco, in second place and American Reed Whiting, in third.

Click here for the full breakdown of results from the team competition

The first of four Team Competition finals this year was held in intermittent snowfall and biting cold gusts of wind and the Canadian team, Living The Dream – made up of Kyle Croxall, Scott Croxall and Adam Horst – was able to take over the lead after a messy four-man pile-up in the second corner of the final of three-man teams down the 290-metre-long ice track with its 45-metre vertical drop and series of bone-jarring turns, bumps and jumps. Scott Croxall crashed into Dallago of Couch Garden Crew from behind on the second corner and in a flash four racers were down on the ice. The Living The Dream team-mates recovered faster than the downed Couch Garden Crew racers and held on for the victory.

"It was the first time all day that I was back in third out of the gate so it was challenging but as a team we did really well so it's a good way to start the season," said Kyle Croxall, who likes to get into the lead by the first corner.

Luca Dallago posted the fastest qualifying time at the track in Espoo, one of the first permanent race tracks in the world, with a time of 25.26 seconds, just ahead of his brother Marco (pictured, below), in 25.28. American Reed Whiting, who like the Dallago brothers was a walk-on last year, took third in 25.32.

Many of the pre-season favourites struggled on the short, fast track with seven tough turns, a frightening Wall Ride, a kicker and difficult double S-bend. Last year's top-three failed to finish in the top 10 on Friday. Defending champion Derek Wedge, of Switzerland, was 11th, Kyle Croxall 16th and American Cameron Naasz was back in 22nd place.

Click here for Elimination Round results and the heats for Saturday's finals

Watch it LIVE!

Catch all the action from Red Bull Crashed Ice in Finland live on February 1:

Webcast: We will stream the entire competition live right here on redbullcrashedice.com and on redbull.tv. Please note that the live webcast is geo-blocked in the US. The event will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday, February 2, at 8.30am (ET) / 5.30am (PT).
TV: The main event will be broadcast live on several TV stations. Please check your local listings.
Live Results: To get results and standings in real-time, hit redbullcrashedice.com/results.