21/06/10 - Our team (Shortis.com.au) is based in the Gold Coast so the weather is mint all year round. It’s an awesome place to train. We are not far off the middle of winter and its currently blue sky wall to wall outside and just touching 23°C, hate to think what it’s doing at home right now. There is an abundance of sweet training roads too. Amongst numerous other hills in the area we have a 20 climb right at our doorstep. If all goes to plan I should be a demon at climbing as soon as we roll into the National Series.
We haven’t really been doing much in terms of racing just yet. It’s only just been some club racing in the weekends and heaps of motor pacing during the week. However, we did compete in a TTT at Grafton last fortnight. We posted an average speed of 44kmph on a filthy 100km out and back course with solid block head wind, dead road and heaps of stupid pinchers to finish off the legs. However, we did come out on top to post a winning time of 2hrs 18min. 
It’s a solid season coming up, I’m staring down the barrel at 50 days of racing jammed into four months, but really looking forward to it.
Our team’s first National Series race of the season kicks off next weekend. It’s the Tour of Toowoombah. Luckily just 4hrs north of the Gold Coast, all our other races usually mean flying down to Victoria. Anyway, the Tour of Toowoomba is by far the shortest tour in the series at only three days long, however, it boasts one of the most demanding courses with numerous 10 – 15km hill top finishes at gradients that will nearly cause your front wheel to lift and profiles resembling a chainsaw blade. It should suit a whopping 58kg brut like me though.
I'll keep you posted with our team's results
Mat Marshall