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Tassie devil: The Sid Taberlay diary 2004
24 year-old Tasmanian Sid Taberlay is a man on a mission. The current Australian and Oceania mountain bike champion, Sid is, like so many athletes this year, striving for a berth at the Athens Olympics Games. But his never-say-die attitude, down-to-earth deameanour and a desert-dry sense of humour - not forgetting a bloody big motor! - puts Sid in the best position possible to realise a life-long dream.
L'Hexagonal VTT - D1, France, June 11-18, 2004
Following Aussie tradition
Stage 1a - June 11: Aéroport Charles de Gaulle TTT, 15km
After three years, it is great to be in a good team - Chris, Miguel Martinez (Olympic champion), Ludovic Dubau (2001 winner and former World Cup winner) and myself. We clean up by 1m 30s.
Stage 1b - June 11: Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, 35km
48km of flat fire trails. Chris got in a mid-race break of three and stayed away to win the stage, and I cleaned up the bunch finish. Following in a growing Australian tradition of cleaning up jerseys in major tours, Chris goes into the leader's jersey and I slip into the sprint classification jersey.
Stage 2 - June 12: Paris - La Cipale ITT, 2.5km
What an awesome course; full of steps, not just down, but trials style up and leaping across, joined by 20 metre straights. Race lap: was sprinting out of corners, braking into the next one, launching off steps, and hopping wheel height up. Chris and I were two of four riders who cleared the sections on the bike. I won ahead of Chris, both of us kept the yellow and green jerseys.
Stage 3 - June 13: Le Mesnil Amelot - Villepinte, 52 km
54km of flat fire trails with two climbs. Not a day to write about; the whole front bunch (50+ riders) missed a turn - while travelling at 60km/h. After sitting in the next town for half an hour, waiting for directions, some backmarkers where going slow enought to see the turn; they won the stage by five minutes. My day was full of signs. To think of Sunday's World Cup: after falling in a mud puddle, missing turns, getting a cassette full of grass and finally a puncture, with all top 10 riders up the road, I made the decision to save the legs for Sunday. Tour win had gone. Chris keeps the leaders jersey, I lose the sprint jersey, but stole the king of the mountains jersey off Olympic champion, Miguel Martinez.
Unfortunately we have to pull the pin on Wednesday. Sunday's World Cup in Austria is critical for Chris's Olympic selection. Hopefully, I can step up from my top 10s to a podium.
Until then, we have two more stages to do some damage to the other riders' legs...
