Spent the week on Tasmania’s rugged west coast participating in a four-day stage race- Wildside. As usual there was a great turn out of Australia’s top riders, and the event easily made its cap of entries. It started on a dry Cradle Mountain and fast racing. I narrowly managed to take out both stages on the first day, and was feeling comfortable with the pace at the front. Day two was a different story; I sliced my tire within the first kilometer. I thought I was all-good from learning a little trick in the past- throw a GU gel wrapper on the inside of the tire to hold the tube in. Which

worked fine until the tube blew out 3 minutes later, (at that point I knew the race for GC was

over) I couldn’t work why the tube blew out, after fixing it a second time I realized the Gu wrapper was sliding around on the inside between the tire and tube with all the sealant. I now have a new trick- put the edge of the wrapper between the tire bead and rim to hold it into place. I made it to the finish in 138th :-) The rest of the race I found myself feeling more comfortable as the stage and rode away from the front group for 6 stage wins.

Was great to see Mike Tomalaris and team on hand to cover the event, please check:

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/ for videos.

Once again, Thanks to Nic Deka and his team plus the volunteers for making one of Australia’s

greatest MTB events.

Full results: http://www.wildsidemtb.com/

Sid Taberlay