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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European Cup - Vlaamse Ardennen Trofee - E1, Kluisbergen, Belgium, May 9, 2004

Four big jerseys flying

The course was a lot of muddy, slippery single track. What we thought would be a smaller line up of big names from last weekend's European Cup was not to be. The start line was looking like a World Cup with four big jerseys flying - world champion Filip Meirhaeghe, Dutch champion and World #1, Bart Brentjens, Belgium champion and World #3, Roel Paulissen, and myself doing my part with the Australian champion's jersey.

Start: was straight up a 1.5km sealed road climb. Sitting fourth going into the single track, I was thinking I had things covered, only the guy in second decided to let Roel get a gap. I spent half a lap chasing to catch back up, only to take the wrong side of the track on the climb. The side that was ridable in practice had become the boggy side, I lost Roel's wheel and spent the rest of the race chasing with Bart chasing me. Roel won and I got one back on the World #1, finishing second. Regards, Sid.

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