
Volkswagen and Red Bull brought together two of the most successful Norwegian sportsmen and published their stunts in a video for us to see what they are capable of. We give you Aksel Lund Svindal, downhill skier and an Olympic gold medalist in super-G, and Andreas Mikkelsen, a World Rally Championship driver.
Svindal and Mikkelsen accepted an unusual challenge. They set on a mission to race down the mountain on the world famous curvy Lyseveien in the southwest of Norway – the 29 km long road consisting of 27 hairpin curves and reaching way up to 932 m above sea level. Mikkelsen stuck to the road with his 318-hp Volkswagen Polo R WRC, while Svindal took to mountain freeskiing. The most exciting, adrenaline-pumping part of the race was definitely Svindal making a road gap jump with Mikkelsen's car speeding 8 meters underneath. Svindal said "It required planning, speed and precision to time the jump - especially with Andreas driving underneath at 100 km/h."
Further down the valley there wasn't enough snow for Svindal to continue the race on skis, so Mikkelsen offered him to be his co-driver for the remainder of the road. After the race, Mikkelsen said Svindal did a great job and was impressed by his co-driver skills. He told the press: "Aksel quickly understood how this works, and noticed the important details, like when the car lost grip for hundredths of a second."
Svindal then admitted the he envies Andreas a bit that he drives rally and when Mikkelsen was asked whether Svindal could be Mikkelsen's next co-driver, he said with a huge grin on his face that he would "love to have Aksel as my co-pilot ... but he would need to lose a little bit of bulk."