I've got some exciting plans for October. We kick off with the Mt Gambier 100 mile handicap on Oct 8, then start the Honda Women's Tour (aka the Herald Sun Tour for lay-deez) four days later. The VIS ladies are pretty gee-d up for this one. This year, the Honda Tour will be 5 stages over 5 days, including a hilltop finish at Arthur's Seat (no chairlift allowed). THEN, the night Honda Tour finishes, I will be on a plane bound for Malaysia to do my first mountain bike stage race in Langkawi. The Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge 2011 is a 5-day, 5 stage UCI mtb stage race. Andy and I are heading over for our first holiday together in AGES. And probably there will be tears, and broken things, but aren't all good family holidays like that?
All in all, it will be 10 days of racing in 12 days, which will be just like the Giro Donne last year but with a nice rest in the middle on a plane. I can't remember if the Giro last year had a 7 hour mtb stage in it but I remember being pretty tired so maybe it did. Hmm...
Clearly I need to recruit some serious firepower to survive Langkawi. Stay tuned to see what bike I'll be riding...
