Do you fancy watching four athletes race down an ice track through the center of a city at speeds reaching 50 miles per hour?
If so, the Red Bull Ice Cross World Championship might be just the spectacle for you.
The sport sees four skaters hurtle down tracks in a race to finish first, in a format similar to ski- and snowboard cross.
Tracks can be natural, in ski resorts, or man-made, at city center locations – and can be up to 700 meters long.
The fastest two skaters advance to the next round until there is a four-rider final in each category. Skaters must navigate hairpin turns, bumps and waves, and also their competitors if they want to finish first.
The racing series – which has been rebranded from the Red Bull Crashed Ice Series, is in its 20th edition and is expanding to new locations to allow more fans to watch.
New races in Kazakhstan and Japan have been added to the calendar, as well as a race held at the first permanent track in Moscow.
Over the past two decades of the series, over 1,000 athletes from 51 countries and 5 continents have competed.
READ: US Figure Skating has banned longtime coach Richard Callaghan after sexual abuse allegations
New beginnings
The 2020 season began in Judenburg, Austria, on December 28, 2019, and it proved to an event for the home fans to enjoy.
With reigning champion Cameron Naasz and the Canadian Croxall brothers absent, the Austrian Dallago brothers were the clear favorites on home soil.
And the eldest brother Marco managed to win to the delight of the home crowd, finishing ahead of brother Luca and Michael Urban.
“I feel amazing. This win was really unexpected because I was really tired from working,” the 2014 World Champion said.
“The first race is always a question mark, and apparently the training did turn out really good, so I can’t be any happier.”
The win in Judenburg is the eighth of Dallago’s career and earns him the first 500 points of the new season.
In the women’s race, Swiss skater Anaïs Morand claimed the first win of the season thanks in part to her electric start to the final.
The former figure skater finished head of reigning champion Amanda Trunzo and local favorite Veronika Windisch.
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The junior’s event was nearly another all-brothers affair, but Arthur and Théo Richalet-Chaudeur finished behind Egor Tutarikov, who won his first ice cross race.
The championship heads to the French Alps for it’s next stop in Pra-Loup on January 11.
