Ice Speedway World Team Champs - The ever-so 'eventful' journey

So…Wednesday 23rd February, and having been on the internet all lunch at work, furiously searching for a suitable Hotel for my stay, come 6pm, I finally pressed ‘print’ on my set of online travel documents for the rail trip to Berlin – The Event? My first live Ice Speedway experience – the World Team Championships - at the‘Horst-Dohm' Eisstadion in the Wilmersdoorf district.

I should be honest about my choice of passage from the start – the principle reason for my decision to travel this epic distance by rail was because I had inadvertently booked my flights for the correct days…but the wrong month, March! 
With the famous Ryanair ‘customer service’ vultures circling around my glaring error like the freshly dead carcass of an Impala, and kindly offering to switch my dates for a mere 300% fare increase and the obligatory unjustifiable administration fee, I politely declined, deciding instead that this offered me an impromptu opportunity to fulfil a long-burning desire to travel across Western Europe by train.

The first leg of my journey was infinitely more eventful than I could have ever imagined (or feared!).
4am – Friday 24th February, and having both packed my travel case, and uber-efficiently laid out all the travel documents needed for each leg of the trip on my bedside table the previous night, I collected, locked-up and made a dash for the 4.29am train from Southend Central Station – greeting me, were an inordinate amount of very young, very intoxicated and very boisterous teenagers returning from a half-term night on the tiles… this is where the problems began. 
20 minutes into the journey, we were brought to an almighty grinding halt just outside Pitsea Station…a points failure being cited as the apparent source of our allegedly minor delay; imagine my despair and anger when confronted with the sight of a herd of Police Officers accompanied by ‘sniffer’ dogs as we limped into the Station – with an air of absolute inevitability, we were made to wait around 30 minutes whilst Essex Police’ finest dragged a school of Chavs (there’s an oxymoron for you!) off of said train for causing what was described as a ‘major disturbance’ (incidentally, if anybody knows what the collective noun for ‘Chavs’ might be, please enlighten me…).
Once this annoying sideshow to my journey had concluded, a quick check of my watch provided comfort that I still had ample time to make my Eurostar connection – that is until a quick check of my trouser pocket led me to the blood-draining discovery that I had left my wallet at home, containing my cards and converted currency! 
Depressingly, with ‘non-flexible’ printed in bold on my Eurostar ticket, I feared this mistake may be a costly one at £110 to swap to the next train; however, wallet recovered, and London-bound train boarded for a second time in an hour, I made it to St Pancras International in good time for the 8.37am departure, and the very kind lady from Eurostar, understanding as she was, swapped the tickets gratis – both my bank account and I breathed a collective sigh of relief!

Less than 2 hours later, I was in Brussels - my onward journey from this point involving a short hop across Belgium, into Holland (via first, Roosendaal, and later Deventer), and a long stint from the Dutch border through Germany (via Wolfsburg and Hannover), terminating at the rather splendid Berlin Hauptbahnoff (Main Station) a touch before midnight.
Given its location, wherever you are staying, it is unlikely that your Hotel will be located within easy walking distance of Berlin Hbf; once you arrive at this grandiose reflection of modern Berlin, the sheer scale of the place can be daunting when attempting to locate your onward connection – to overcome this problem, at Deventer, I befriended Mateus, a German Linguistics student with perfect English-speaking capabilities, who taught me everything I needed to know about navigating the Berlin S & U-Bahn systems.  In the absence of a Mateus on your journey, you may find it wise to print off a copy of the Berlin metro network map prior to your arrival.

I eventually arrived at Berlin Hbf a touch before midnight, said my goodbyes to Mateus, and proceeded to surf the U-Bahn to my hotel in the East of the Capital…a mere 20 minutes away.   I had chosen to stay at the Abacus Tierpark; a four-star hotel, located in a relatively sleepy, residential part of East Berlin – understandably full of dreary Communist architecture, but pleasant enough, home to a number of useful provisions stores, and very well connected to the City’s various ‘centres’. 
Admittedly this was hardly the ‘Holiday’ season, but I would strongly advise shopping around for accommodation deals prior to your visit, as I managed to pick up my well-appointed double room for just £35 per night, including a superb, plentiful, quintessentially German breakfast buffet, and free use of the Hotel’s gymnasium and relaxation area (including various types of sauna, steam room and showers). 
For the record, I found this deal via Travel Supermarket.

Despite having witnessed many videos beforehand, this event being my first live Ice Speedway experience, and therefore being unaware of the likely demand and ticket protocol, I ensured that I made my way to the Horst-Dohm Eisstadion on the Saturday morning (once I had gorged myself on German buffet-breakfast to the point of internal injury) to purchase my tickets for both days of the competition. 
The Stadium is located in the South-West of Berlin, and can be reached with relative ease from any part of the City, using the S-Bahn metro system.  The nearest station is ‘Hohenzollerendam’ and is on the S41 and S42 lines (broadly speaking, the clockwise and anti-clockwise variants of London’s Circle line). 
The ‘Eisstadion’ is sufficiently signposted from the station exit, but failing this, you will notice the floodlight pylons towering above the facility from across the road – it is a 5 minute walk away.

When you arrive, a number of different viewing options are on offer.
In price order, these are...

• ‘Haupttribune’ (Main Grandstand)
• Kurve 2  (4th bend)
• Kurve 1 (1st & 2nd bends)
• ‘Gegengerade’ (Back Straight), and...
  
• ‘Oberring’ (no more than an elevated expanse of grass, with a distant view of the 3rd & 4th bends)
  

Being on a budget, I plumped for some mid-range tickets, opting to purchase for ‘Kurve 1’ on the Saturday, and ‘Gegengerade’ on the Sunday.
All areas of the Stadium are standing, but I would certainly recommend ‘Kurve 1’, which was close to the action and well suited for amateur photo opportunities - on the basis that you find a prime space on the terrace in good time – naturally, I didn’t, but managed to slither my way into ever improving viewing positions as other spectators made an interval bee-line for the concessions and toilets.

The tightly packed and impressively multi-national crowd warmed the freezing Berlin sky with their enthusiastic Gluhwein-fuelled chanting and flag waving, and with introductions and National Anthem dispensed with, we were ready for racing…I arrived in Germany with preconceptions that the Russians would have very little true competition (based upon historical results, and the status of their top riders in the individual World Championship).
To a certain extent, this was true, but I must say, I was thoroughly impressed by a number of heat/team leaders within some of the other competing Nations. In particular, the colourful Austrian, Franz (Franky) Zorn; Antonin Klatovsky of the Czech Republic; Swedish veteran, Stefan Svensson and Mats Jarf of Finland.  Home rider, Stefan Pletschacher also gave the Berlin crowd a number of memorable moments, and picked up some credible results across both days – he also did it with a smile on his face and was clearly intent on entertaining his home fans, with a burst of throttle and a back-wheel balancing act greeting every scored point!
On the flipside, whether down to his effortless riding style, or his actual easing up to preserve himself for an ongoing World Individual title chase, I found the performance of the Master, Nikolay Krasnikov…well…not disappointing as such, but perhaps a little anti-climactic. 
His overall points tally was bettered by four riders, including Russian teammate, Danil Ivanov.  In fairness though, he did display the odd moment of genius, and one could see that on his day, he could probably blow away the entire field should he feel motivated to engage top gear.

Day 1 finished with Russia and Austria separated by a solitary point, and it was becoming fairly obvious that despite the best efforts of the other competing Nations, the World Team Champions would likely be one of the aforementioned. 
Of the remaining pack, the Czech Republic and Sweden were leading the chase for the bronze medal, but, in reality, all of the teams were still in with a shout (no matter how tenuous) at the close of play.
No longer being able to feel most of my fingers or toes, I made a hasty retreat for the S-Bahn, and returned to the Hotel.  A night of defrosting in the Restaurant with a hearty dish of pork fillets and a large glass of potent German Lager was just the ticket, as I reflected on my first few hours of live Ice Racing.
I was very much looking forward to Day 2…not so much, however, the tedious intervals filled with timely track preparation and repairs.  With that thought, I retired to my room, ventured into the very reasonably priced mini-bar, and settled down to a night of Bundesliga highlights and reaction on the TV.
Day 2 welcomed me with a crisp, cold but sunny morning.  Once I had again gorged myself on the German buffet breakfast offering, I set off on my mission to take in as many attractions and sights as possible before ‘tapes-up’ at 2pm.
My plan was partially successful, as I managed to see, amongst other famous landmarks, the Brandenburg Gate and the superb Olympiastadion.

Anyway, on to matters Ice Speedway once more…as previously mentioned, I had purchased tickets for both days on the Saturday, and, wanting to experience the views from different parts of the Stadium, would today be perched on the ‘Gegengerade’ or Back Straight.  I had been pre-warned by fellow I.S.U.K blogger, and all-round Ice Speedway authority, Ian Charles, that this may not be the wisest choice, and upon arrival, it became clear that he had a point! 
A steep descent from the concessions, down toward the Arena , revealed a tiny row of steps, shaded by dense fern trees, and with a view obscured by PA pylons and temporary event cabling;  but still, in that typically British tradition, and surrounded by exasperated Germans squashed in amongst the forest of trees, I soldiered on, managing to push my way into a more favourable viewing position near the middle of the terrace.
If anything, this felt even more bitterly cold than Saturday, however, on the positive side, track preparation seemed to take noticeably less time, and the action therefore seemed to flow more favourably.

On the track, Russia did find that next gear I was talking about previously, and somewhat blew away the competition, with a points haul eight better than their closest challengers Austria. From an individual standpoint, it was largely the same riders who had impressed me on Saturday that came up with the goods again on the second day, with Stefan Svensson and Franz Zorn leading the scoring charts, and Mats Jarf putting in a decent performance amongst the strong field.  One feels that if Zorn in particular could find some consistency across every round of the Individual World Championship, he could actually be a serious challenger for the likes of Ivanov and Krasnikov – that said, such is the length of the Russian conveyor-belt of Ice Speedway talent, if you include the top-level riders leading the way in the race to be World Champion, they could have probably sent another 3 competitive teams to Berlin!
Regardless of the riches available to them, Russia did, rather effortlessly, complete the job they had started on Day 1, and duly defended their crown, with a total points haul of 58 (Danil Ivanov top-scoring with 23).
Their win was achieved not by three outstanding performances, but more so consistent points scoring in every heat across both days.
Thanks mainly to the efforts of Franz Zorn, Austria pulled away from the Czech Republic to comfortably secure the silver medal, with a total score of 49 points (Zorn finishing as the Tournament top-scorer with an impressive 31).
Czech Republic lost the services of Jan Klatovsky very early in the proceedings on Day 2, and had to share the remaining rides between the other Klatovsky brother (Antonin), and Andrej Divis;  the twosome riding very respectably to fend off the challenge from the chasing pack, to secure the bronze medal. 
Of the remaining four teams, Sweden couldn’t quite do enough to keep up with the Czechs, trailing 5 points behind to leave them picking up fourth place overall – an over-reliance on the impressive Stefan Svensson ultimately costing them a place on the podium (Per-Anders Lindstrom and the late Peter Koij only managing to muster 4 points between them).
Netherlands and Finland ended the Competition tied for fifth place on 25 points, meaning, despite the valiant efforts of the charismatic Stefan Pletscacher, Germany picked up the wooden spoon, finishing as they did, just one point behind on 24.

So…reflecting on the wealth of action I had witnessed during my stay in Berlin, what are my final thoughts? 
Well, firstly, I would strongly recommend that should you get the opportunity, Speedway fan or otherwise, you should definitely visit a live Ice Racing event.  The punishing conditions, the savagery of the spiked tyres, the glistening frozen surface and the NFL-style body-armour worn by the riders all suggested that I was about to witness a Sporting event which combined bravery, lunacy and outrageous speed in equal measure – I wasn’t disappointed. 
I used to think Rally drivers possessed the ultimate combination of skill sets where Motorsport is concerned, but the speed and precision with which the master-craftsmen of the Ice Speedway circuit control their machines is a match for the likes of Loeb, Hirvonen, Solberg et al.
For quick reference, the Ice Speedway season starts in December and typically ends around April, with the bulk of the top European competition being held through February and March. 

The most universally popular event, particularly for British fans, is the annual pilgrimage to Holland for the Round of the World Individual Championship held in the marvellous Assen Ice Stadium, but I would strongly suggest that one also consider this superb event in Berlin – the culture, history and sheer scale of this fascinating City all serve to ensure that you definitely won’t find yourself at a loss as to how to fill the gaps between the racing, and, if you have a little more than the weekend spare, you may even consider replicating the same journey enjoyed/endured by myself, Phileas Harding!  Who knows…in a few years we may even get to see a British Team competing in the World Team Finals?!