The first official Worldcup race of the year takes place November 22 in Gaellivare, Sweden. The first Supertour event in the US will be the West Yellowstone races of November 28 and 29. But if there is a true opening day for the Nordic season, it is the first Monday in October. It is on that day every year that over a thousand Nordic athletes, coaches and trainers descend on Ramsau, Austria to begin their training on the Dachstein Glacier. We caught up with Roman Toferer, director of Atomic’s Nordic race program for a report from Ramsau:
The Season Begins!!
FasterSkier · October 25, 2008
RH: What’s the buzz? Every year there seems to be something everybody is talking about. What’s the gossip this year?
RT: Big news everybody talk about is Tord Asle Gjerdalen, Norway’s number one racer. He switch to Atomic. Now Tord is part of the Thin Red Line.
RH: That is pretty exciting. The cool thing about Tord is the way he wears mirrored Aviator sunglasses in races instead of new high tech shades like everybody else. He looks a little bit like the guard from the movie COOL HAND LUKE. Is it also true that he eats Moose jerky in between heats at sprint races? He seems like more of an American Redneck than a Norwegian athlete.
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RH: What do the coaches do for testing? How do they pick skis for the athletes?
RT: The skis in our race room are same skis that you see at stores. They have the same white piece of tape with flex numbers on them, just like the Atomics in stores in USA. The coaches and athletes know which numbers work and what they need. They just pick skis by the tape. Sometimes they put skis base to base and see how they feel.
