WORLD CUP BANSKO. Two-time World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety, the 2006 Olympic champion in the combined, reports regularly in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.

BANSKO, Bulgaria — This Bulgarian ski town is really different. It's like a mix between Aspen and Tijuana.

You'll be walking down the street and there will be a five-star hotel next to a shantylike line of shops selling dinky stuff just like in Tijuana.

There will be 15 shops in a row, all selling low-end goggles and gloves in tiny booths. Then there will be a nice ski shop, or a place that sells leather jackets, fur coats or Rolex watches.

Then there's a bunch more shanty-esque shops, followed by a beautiful, huge hotel. Then there's a building right next to it that looks like it was abandoned when it was halfway finished.

The ski area itself is really cool. It's a really long gondola ride to get up to the main skiing area, but there's a lot of vertical. The race hill is pretty good, and there's really good skiing off to the sides in the backcountry.

The day before we got here, there was an avalanche longer than a kilometer. When you have a kilometer-long avalanche, that's pretty good terrain.

Bulgaria has only one racer on the tour, Georgi Georgiev, and he's near the bottom of the standings, but there was a good crowd for the races.

You wouldn't think a Bulgarian ski racing crowd would be all that knowledgeable, but I was recognized here more than at any other race. Sometimes, fans in Europe see the U.S. Ski Team jacket and say, "Bode Miller!" In Bansko, I'd be walking down the street, not wearing a team jacket, and people would recognize me left and right. Walking through crowds to get on the lift, I was barraged for autographs and photos. They knew who I was.

This is a big week for me in the quest for my third World Cup giant slalom title. We're racing GS and slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, and I have a slim, 26-point lead over Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal in the GS standings with GS two races left.

I'm feeling confident, after winning the GS gold medal at the world championships, and I've won three years in a row at Kranjska Gora. That's a nice advantage for me.

By Ted Ligety
Special to The Denver Post
March 01, 2011, 01:00:00 AM MST

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