The natural ice track in Helsinki will not only be the steepest and shortest track of the four major races in the 2015 Ice Cross Downhill World Championship. The race on Saturday in Finland will also be the only major stop on a natural ice track, a 330-metre-long track for sprinters built on a slope with a 45-metre vertical drop in the middle of a frosty Finnish ski resort just north of Helsinki. The riders will have to adjust to the small – but important – differences of racing on the natural ice after the season opener was held on an artificial ice track built in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
In general, natural ice tracks tend to be bumpier and invariably more challenging with a greater variation of the ice conditions from the start high up on the mountains to finish lines down in the valleys than the more perfect and consistent ice conditions throughout created by cooling systems that are buried beneath the artificial ice tracks. The extra bumps, gouges, divots and obstacles could also create some early-round upsets with some of the heavy favourites getting knocked out of the race, which marks the midway point of the eight-race 2015 season.
"Natural ice is very good to skate on when it's very cold outside," said Red Bull Crashed Ice sporting director Christian Papillon (pictured, below, talking to ex-rider and former champion Arttu Pihlainen). "But it also means you're more dependent on the whims of mother nature. The natural ice reacts more to the external temperatures whereas we have more control over the ice with the artificial ice tracks. So there can be some surprises and upsets."
Ideally, all Red Bull Crashed Ice race tracks have at least 10 centimetres or more of ice layers built up in the weeks before the racing weekend. Artificial tracks are kept frozen with the cooling system and it takes about four to five days of constant spraying of water to achieve a thickness of 10-15 centimetres. With natural ice tracks, it can be more difficult to get the desired thickness because it can take longer than that if the temperatures rise above freezing – as has been the case in recent weeks in Helsinki.
"With natural ice as soon as the temperatures go above zero the top layers start getting softer," said Papillon, who said the crew in Helsinki has been working round-the-clock for several weeks to get the ice as thick as possible. He said there are some parts of the Helsinki track that are less than 10 centimetres thick – especially on a steep section in the middle of the run even though the start and finish areas have far more than 10 centimetres. "The ice is super good all in all now. But there are parts of it where you can see through the ice to the rocks and ground underneath it. So we're doing all we can to preserve the ice for the race."
As the sport continues to grow, the athletes are also turning more to natural ice tracks – which are far less expensive and complicated to build than the 300- to 500-metre-long artificial ice tracks. The four Riders Cup races this season – a new competition introduced by riders for riders to help make the sport more accessible to more athletes around the world – are all being held on natural ice tracks while three of the four major stops (Saint Paul, Belfast and Edmonton) are on artificial ice. Riders can win one-fourth as many world championship points in the four Riders Cup races with a victory worth 250 points, compared to 1,000 points for winning one of the four major stops.
"Natural ice conditions can be perfect as well," said Switzerland's Derek Wedge, the 2013 Ice Cross Downhill World Champion. "But this track in Helsinki is very bumpy because the ice isn't as thick as it usually is. We'll have to make adjustments to that and try to figure out the best way to handle that."
But Sweden's Jasper Felder, who has seven career victories in Red Bull Crashed Ice, said he likes the natural ice tracks. "I think the natural ice is faster and artificial ice tracks are slower. I prefer to skate on natural ice tracks like this because it just sort of explodes under your skate. It's bumpier for sure. But if you find a track with really good natural ice, I think that's definitely the best."
For the latest on the event, including start times, visit redbullcrashedice.com/helsinki.
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