05 November 2010 - 16:37 FasterSkier.com - 24 teams in 24 days: The Bulgarians! By Kieran Jones, October 27th, 2010
CROSS-COUNTRY SKI. Hold onto your hats - the FIS World Cup starts in few days! Sure, you know Petter Northug can play poker and ski fast, but what about others!?
The World Cup season is rapidly approaching – before you know it, Petter Northug Jr. will be finishing mass start races at a blistering pace, Justyna Kowalczyk will be re-starting her dope-no dope argument with Marit Bjoergen about asthma (oh, wait…that already happened), and any news of Kris Freeman, Kikkan Randall, or Andy Newell will have the FasterSkier discussion boards afire. But herein lies your dilemma – other than the previously listed facts, you don’t actually know anything about the FIS World Cup. You think a hammer is something to hit nails with, not the nickname of a Finnish sprinter. You think you really like Dario Cologna, but you want to know whether he’s passionate enough about his skiing to win. You really want to bank on the Russians to do well this year, but you aren’t sure which Russian skiers were hit with doping bans in the off-season. You have no idea how to pronounce Sami Jauhojaervi’s last name, and you really want to impress that cute guy/girl in your masters training group/school ski team/college team/underwater basket weaving class with your knowledge of World Cup skiers. Well, now you have found a way to achieve these goals.
FasterSkier is proud to present 24 Teams in 24 Days, a series in which each team that scored points on the Nations Cup last season will be profiled, giving you a glimpse into what made them tick last year, and what you might see this season.
Men Ivan Burgov Stanimir Belomajev Veselin Tzinzov
Women Antonia Grigorova-Burgova Teodora Maltcheva
What you may have missed last season
Veselin Tzinzov was the only Bulgarian to score points, and his 10 came from one stop. Not to take anything away from his achievement (the majority of the FasterSkier staff admit that they would struggle to score points on the World Cup), but he scored all of those points at the World Cup in Rybinsk, Russia, at a race that could hardly be called competitive. In the 30 k Pursuit, where he finished 21st (or dead last by three minutes, depending on how you look at it) all you had to do to pick up World Cup points was finish the race.
In non-skiing news, Ivan Burgov and Antonia Girgorova-Burgova got married! What, you haven’t been keeping up with your Bulgarian National Team gossip?!?
Ivan Burgov and Antonia Grigorova in their wedding digs
We’re assuming this means they both spent countless hours training this summer, and are going to be ready to throw down in Gallivaere, Sweden, at the first World Cup event this season.
Want to give the Bulgarians some love? Leave Antonia Grigorova-Burgova a message here! Make sure you have the ‘Bulgarian’ language feature enabled on your browser…
What You Should Know For This Season
The Bulgarians apparently LOVE rollerski racing without helmets with some pretty wild starts. As far as we know, no Bulgarian National Team members were injured during the filming of this video.
At the rollerski Siven Cup – which is the largest rollerski race in Bulgaria – there were over 100 competitors, including the entire Bulgarian National Team. Veselin Tzinzov won, ahead of some non-slouch competition (mostly Russians), so he must be in great shape.
Who You Should Watch
Antonia Grigorova-Burgova has a solid track record of racing World Cups and Alpen Cups, and in 2009 she had a Top 20 at World Juniors in Praz de Lys.
Antonia Grigorova-Burgova at the Rollerski Siven Cup this fall
At 24, she is still learning and improving, and while she won’t be edging out Justyna Kowalczyk or Marit Bjoergen in the race for the Crystal Globe, she might see some success.
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