Matti Lehikoinen wins Red Bull Empire DH Race

Matti Lehikoinen has been crowned the "New Emperor" by winning the Red Bull Empire Rider Downhill street race in Peru this past weekend. Earlier this year, the 22 year old Finn took his Honda RN01 to an historic win in Brazil taking his first ever World Cup victory; the strength of that result was enough for the organizers in Peru to invite Matti back to South America for this prestigious event. Held on the extremely narrow streets of the famously historic town of Cusco, Matti took his experience from racing a number of down town races in Lisbon over the past 5 years and used that to his full advantage on a steep course that claimed a number of victims in practice. Several crashes resulted in some broken bones and early retirements by local riders including Peruvian National Champ, Alejandro Paz. In the morning qualifier 24 riders lined up, all from South and Central America except for Matti, Italian star Alan Beggin and American gravity wunderkid Kyle Strait (Oakley, Specialized, Red Bull), and took to the course to set the pace for the finals. The fastest time was set by Colombian Mauricio Estrada (1m 36.36secs) with Matti coming in 2nd with a 1m 37.62secs, nearly 1 second ahead of Beggin. In the morning qualifier 24 riders lined up, all from South and Central America except for Matti, Italian star Alan Beggin and American gravity wunderkid Kyle Strait (Oakley, Specialized, Red Bull), and took to the course to set the pace for the finals. The fastest time was set by Colombian Mauricio Estrada (1m 36.36secs) with Matti coming in 2nd with a 1m 37.62secs, nearly 1 second ahead of Beggin. "The course was very steep and narrow. The craziest I have ever competed on. Huge drops and lots of steep stairways especially the first 100 steps with a 55% gradient. The high altitude was like poison to my lungs, very hard to get enough air. Since I was second in qualifying, I knew I had to do something special in the final and went for one really sketchy line that paid off. It rained during training, but luckily not during the final. Overall it was a superb experience with a lot of excited and wild fans around all the time. It's a pretty nice way to end up my best season so far!" said a clearly elated Lehikoinen just before the big Red Bull Party kicked off. Top 5 Results: 1. Matti Lehikoinen (FIN) 1m 32.27secs 2. Mauricio Estrada (COL) 1m 34.60secs 3. Antonio Leiva (CHI) 1m 34.88secs 4. Kyle Strait (USA) 1m 35.00secs 5. Alan Beggin (ITA) 1m 35.92secs www.23degrees-sports.com