Boots, Americans And The Tour De Ski

FasterSkier · September 30, 2007

It is with great sadness that Atomic has said goodbye to Nordic Race Director, Peter Jurich. Life on the World Cup can be tough and after almost 20 years of service Peter decided he needed to spend more time with his family. Replacing the often times flamboyant and occasionally controversial Jurich is the equally colorful Roman Toferer. Atomic has enjoyed the services of Roman as the head service technician on the World Cup for the last seven years and now he will serve as the overall director. We caught up with Roman during a recent testing session on the Dachstein Glacier.

Rick Halling: Congratulations on your new position. I remember when you were a wild little brat who used to crank his Euro Trash rock music in the Atomic service trailer at World Cups. Now you be the man. Are you nervous?

Roman Toferer: Don’t forget, you told me you liked that music. But yes, I am nervous. Peter put together a pretty amazing team last year and it will be tough to match those results. Tobias Angerer was overall Worldcup Champion for men and Andrea Henkel was overall Worldcup Champion for ladies. What is cool is that both of them were on Atomic skis, boots and bindings. I do not know if any company has ever had a sweep like that before. So yes, I am a little nervous to be taking over such a strong winning team.

Roman Toferer: Everybody like to talk big and say great things about their team. But if there is something that makes Atomic different than other teams is that we are strong in what you Americans call â€œclutch situations.â€ When the pressure is on super tough we are always the best team, that includes our athletes and our technicians. There was so much pressure for the first Tour de Ski and we won that. There is always so much crazy pressure at the Vasaloppet and we win it almost every year. Team Atomic took 19 medals at the World Championships and that includes a Silver medal by your American boy Billy DeMong. Team Atomic eats pressure like a fat man eats Strudel.

Rick Halling: What are some other priorities?

Roman Toferer: You know, the World Champions for XC and Biathlon were both on our boots. Too many people think Atomic is just a ski company. Success with our boots is a very high priority. We have new designs and we want to show we have the best boot on the circuit.