Red Bull Crashed Ice 2011 in Valkenburg (NED)

Ice-cold Finn turns heat on in Valkenburg
VALKENBURG (NED). Arttu Pihlainen (FIN) skated to the third victory in his Red Bull Crashed Ice career in Valkenburg (NED) on Saturday, winning the second race of the 2011 world championship in convincing fashion. The world's best ice cross downhill athletes put on a spectacular race in front of 25,000 spectators down a 385-meter long ice track. The third race in the world championship will take place on Feb. 26 in Moscow (RUS).
The 64 best racers from 23 nations battled it out for world championship points in four-man heats down the freezing cold, four-meter wide track that was filled with bumps, jumps and steep hairpin turns. Arttu Pihlainen (FIN), who had won one race in 2008 as well as one race in 2009, broke away from the pack in the talent-rich final to win top honors with Scott Croxall (20/CAN) in second and his brother Kyle Croxall (22/CAN), who had won the season opener in Munich, in third. Lukas Fiala (CZE) was fourth.
"I've been waiting two years for this win," said Pihlainen. "You need speed, agility and good balance to get in front. I also had the luck I needed today." Defending champion Martin Niefnecker (GER) had another race to forget in Valkenburg, crashing into a wall at high speed in the round of 16 and getting eliminated.
Six-time speed skating Olympic medalist Rintje Ritsma (NED) was treated to a hero's welcome by the big home crowd in his first ice cross downhill race: "Even though I got knocked out in a preliminary round, I've fallen in love with this sport and believe ice cross downhill has what it takes to be in the winter Olympics."
Pihlainen (1800 points) moves just 100 points ahead of Kyle Croxall (1700) in the world championship at the midway point of the four-race season. The race in Valkenburg was the 18th in the history of the sport, which debuted in Stockholm (SWE) in 2001. Following races in Munich (GER) and Valkenburg (NED) this year, Moscow (RUS) will host a race on Feb. 26 and Quebec City (CAN) on March 19.

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• bull
• crashed
• ice
• world
• championship
• 2011
• in
• valeknburg
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• netherlands
• kyle
• croxall
• arttu
• pihlainen
• scott

[katherinej12]

I can't believe I missed this. If I knew it was gonna be in the Netherlands I would have went .. Im a canadian living here for the year

[ChristianThabar]

no no, one of them lost his glove i watched it last night at 11p.m.

[LittleDrummer55]

someone throws a glove at the skater at 2:11