World champion and race host Marco Dallago, of Austria, won the second stop of the Riders Cup competition in the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship in Wagrain-Kleinarl on Saturday night.
The second Riders Cup stop of the 2015 Red Bull Crashed Ice – Ice Cross Downhill World Championship season turned into the ultimate success story for defending world champion Dallago in his native Austria. Not only did Dallago and his team create a perfect 300-metre-long downhill ice track but he also managed to attract 140 of the world's top competitors from 14 nations, a field that included four former world champions, to Austria's Alpine winter sports resort of Wagrain-Kleinarl.
Topping it all off for Dallago were the thousands of spectators who lined the track to cheer the local hero and race host to the victory.
Dallago came out on top in a cliff-hanger final against two of this year's hottest racers, Dean Moriarity, of Canada, and Miikka Jouhkimainen, from Finland. In a highly physically challenging final, Scott Croxall, of Canada, ended up in fourth place. Before that there was an unusual quirk in that there were three pairs of brothers duking it out in the semi-finals, with Kyle and Scott Croxall, Dean and Dylan Moriarity, as well as Marco and Luca Dallago squaring off against each other.
The women's race was won by Alice Zenz, also from Austria.
Results: 1. Marco Dallago (AUT), 2. Dean Moriarity (CAN), 3. Miikka Jouhkimainen (FIN), 4. Scott Croxall (CAN)
