A crowd of 40,000 fans were treated to an adrenalin-fuelled night of thrills and spills on March 14 at Red Bull Crashed Ice in Lausanne. And who better to take victory than Sweden's Jasper Felder a seven-time Crashed Ice winner who the inaugural event in Stockholm all the way back in 2001.
On March 14, sixty-four skaters descended the 400 metre artificial ice course in the Swiss city of Lausanne, battling shoulder-to-shoulder for every last inch of track. They had qualified for the final Red Bull Crashed Ice event of the season on the shores of Lake Geneva, with each heat seeing groups of four battle it out on their way down a course full of chicanes, jumps and camel humps in front of the city's historic Palais de Rumine.
In order to claim victory, Felder had to battle through the field and then negotiate the spectacular closing section on the Place de la Riponne. "The finish jump must have been at least nine meters long," explained the incredulous winner. "One mistake and you ran straight into the crash barriers at 60 km/h."
The line between success and failure was thin, and plenty of competitors saw their dreams of victory end upside down in the crash barriers. "Steep, fast, jumps – and all that on an incredibly tight course. Winning is just unbelievable," said the delighted 39-year-old Swede afterwards.
Felder's win is his seventh since taking victory at the inaugural Red Bull Crashed Ice event in 2001. In the intervening years the event has taken its unique brand of action to crowds across the globe, taking in Moscow, Prague and the USA along the way. After last year’s season finale in Davos, won by Finnish skater Miikka Jouhkimainen in front of 10,000 fans, this year’s series made stops in Québec (in front of an unbelievable 90,000 fans) and Prague before ending with another win for the remarkable Felder on the shores of Lake Geneva.
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