LAUSANNE (Switzerland) – Derek Wedge upset all the favorites to win the last Red Bull Crashed Ice 2013 stop in Landgraaf, Holland and the free-spirited Swiss freestyle ski instructor has been the most consistent Ice Cross Downhill racer this season by reaching at least the semi-finals in every race. With his stirring 1,000-point victory in the Dutch indoor sprint spectacle, Wedge soared into second place overall with 1760 points to move just 240.6 points behind Canada’s Kyle Croxall.
Red Bull Crashed Ice heads outdoors
The world’s top Ice Cross Downhill athletes will be glad to get back outdoors in Lausanne on March 1/2 for the challenging 440-meter long track with its 50-meter vertical drop, a welcome return to the more customary tracks after the short, fast 340-meter long indoor track in SnowWorld in Landgraaf with its 70-meter descent. Both Kyle Croxall, who finished a dismal 73rd but has 2000.6 points thanks to his wins in the first two races of the season, and American Cameron Naasz, who is in third overall with 1445 points, will be looking to get their championship ambitions back on the right track in Lausanne.
“I’m totally happy that we’ll be racing in my home country,” said Wedge, 30, who has shot into prominence this season, only his second on the circuit with a sixth place in Niagara Falls, Canada and a seventh in Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA) before his stirring victory in Holland. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure on us with all our friends, the big crowd, and all the media there. I’m sure it’s going to be a great race.”
It will be the first time since 2009 that Red Bull Crashed Ice made a stop in Lausanne, the fourth largest city in Switzerland. Switzerland’s first race was in Davos in 2008. The Team Competition will also return on March 1 in Lausanne with Canada’s “LTD” team led by Scott Croxall clinging to a 50-point lead in the championship battle over Switzerland’s Swatch Pro Team led by Kilian Braun — 1500 to 1450 points. The final stop of the 2012/13 season is in Quebec City, Canada on March 15/16.
In Ice Cross Downhill four athletes at a time race down an obstacle-filled ice track on skates with the first two advancing to the next round in the knock-out format that whittles down a field of 120 competitors to a final winner.
