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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Fire water burn

Athens, Friday, August 20

After 3.5hrs on the bike your mind comes up with some crap. Have you ever wondered what I might be thinking? I certainly did today, waking up from auto pilot, to the shock of what I thought was a terrorist attack!

Did a split session today, two hours on the road followed by a mountain bike ride. Had to revisit the track we found earlier in the week.

Floating down the downhill, getting close to the bottom of the descent, my auto pilot shuts down. I wake up to a bright yellow plane flying in front of me. Thinking - what's this? I thought it was a no fly zone, man it's dropping spray! Expecting to come around the corner to see a fighter jet ready to open fire, on this terrorist plane which is spraying some form of chemical gas. It wasn't to be. Around the corner was a big ball of smoke, a bush fire. A quick sigh of relief, I'm not going to die. I woke up for real this time, bush fire in front of me, better get out of here quick. It wasn't a problem, with the firetrail only a few minutes away. There's 3 planes and 2 helicopters dropping water, Australian air traffic control would be on panic alert- there's not 30 seconds between these planes, just metres. They're flying next to and over and under each other, it was mayhem in the sky. Once on the firetrail, I could see why there was panic, the Mountain Bike course was on fire. Looks like all our shade cover for next weekends race has gone. On the positive side it should make good viewing if we get helicopter camera coverage.

Until next time,
Sid