Sharpen your blades, Red Bull Crashed Ice is back. A combination of downhill skiing, hockey and boardercross, Red Bull Crashed Ice will return to the historic district of Old Québec at the end of March 2010. Last year, over 90,000 screaming fans lined the cobblestone streets as they watched 80 participants soar down the icy course.
The one-of-a-kind 550-meter urban ice track (with a 56-meter vertical drop) will wind and dive its way through the city's historic heart. But there won't be any time for racers to stop and taste the maple taffy as they navigate the course's massive vertical drops, razor-sharp turns, jumps and steps, all at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour.
Hard to imagine? Click to view a short clip.
Here's how the competition goes down (literally!). Consecutive heats of four skaters race head-to-head until only four men and four women are left. The top four then fight it out for their share of the prize purse totaling $10,000 for both the men's and women's divisions.
Since Québec produces some of the world's best hockey players, its capital city is a fitting recurrent location for Red Bull Crashed Ice. Already, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have witnessed this action-packed new sport in hockey cities like Stockholm, Sweden (2000), Klagenfurt, Austria (2001), Duluth, Minnesota, USA (2003, 2004), Moscow, Russia (2004), Prague, Czech Republic (2005), Helsinki, Finland (2007), Davos, Switzerland (2008), and, of course, Québec City.