Photo: © Mikkeli Godfree

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.

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Athens, Monday, August 16

Olympic life

I've settled into Olympic village life. Since our race is the second last day (28th), I'm trying to keep to my normal everyday program, just four desserts per day :-) (just joking). It consists of an 8am wake up, followed by breakfast. On the bike at 9am for training, which has been going very well. Home for lunch around 12 or 1. After lunch, I've been relaxing - bit of TV or internet time. Followed by stretching or core body work, then dinner around 6:30.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting the Crown Prince/Princess of Denmark; they were keen to meet Tasmanian Olympians and Olympic medallists. Felt pretty special in a room full of royalty and Olympic heroes. Training has been going well. The first few days there was a real dry heat; in the shade is very pleasent, in direct sunlight there's a strong bite from the sun. On the bike with the breeze flowing by is comfortable. Today there is wind about, which works like a fan, cooling the temperature. Come race day, I should be pretty used to the temperature.

Training on the road has its ups and down. We tried going west as suggested by the national coach, to realise there's km's of suburban streets and traffic to find a decent road, so we've given that direction the flick. We have found quiet roads east, and directly behind the athlete's village is the mountain, a 1.25hr switchback climb. The road is very quiet, and has great views of Athens and about 10 degrees cooler at the top. Not being able to get onto the MTB course until next week due to security reasons, we will try our luck finding some MTB trails tomorrow.

Regards,
Sid