Anyone watching the race results so far this season with even a passing interest will have noticed Cameron Henry's name. The 16-year-old secondary school student, and former rugby player, is competing for Inspired Cycling and is from good cycling stock.
Yesterday at the PJ Logan Cup he claimed another win, his third of the campaign to date. Those wins - and impressive rides when in the company of A1s - have come after aggressive performances and long range breakaway moves. He also seems to have the instincts, and legs, to seal the deal when it comes to a sprint.
"I started taking the sport seriously last year when I was second-year U16, I started getting coached and that really brought me on," he said, of coach, and former international, Cormac McCann. "He's definitely a legend in the sport.
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"So I was just really enjoying the training and in races I was finding my way. I've only been properly cycling for about a year-and-a-half."
That "finding my way" last year included winning the U16 Ulster TT title, placing 3rd in the National MTB XC Championships and "starting to do well in the road races".
As he moved into the winter, Henry competed in cyclocross - "not taking anything too seriously". The Coleraine Grammar School pupil - from Moneydig "outside Garvagh in the sticks" in Derry - did well enough to secure a place on the Irish junior team for the UCI Cyclocross World Cup Dublin round last November.
"I'm really enjoying my racing," he said, adding he played rugby in his first three years in school. He then found his way back to cycling, after his father - well known cyclocross and road rider Jason Henry - had introduced him to cyclocross when he was very young.
While last year may have been a bit of a transition back to the sport, the same cannot be said for the current campaign. Henry not only won the A3-Junior race at the PJ Logan Cup yesterday - hosted by Island Wheelers in Co Tyrone - but also did the same at the Carn Classic last week and at the Annaclone GP on the opening day of his season.
However, he gets most animated discussing the early season Phoenix GP, where he didn't win but got into the mix against the top A1 riders. In the handicapped event, he was able to stay with the leading A1s George Peden (Performance PB) and Odhran Doogan (Caldwell Cycles).
As Peden and Doogan went through the field, from the scratch group, and across to the early breakaway, Henry matched them. He even separated them at the first; Doogan winning, the 16-year-old 2nd, and Peden 3rd.
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"That was a good hit out and I was happy enough to be able to stay with them," Henry said. "They're the top U23s and elites in the country at the minute."
Yesterday in the PJ Logan Cup, Henry spent most of the A3-Junior race out front before sealing the victory, from a two-man breakaway, at the chequered flag.
In the seven-lap race, David Gaffney (Villeneuve Cycliste) launched a strong attack on the climb to the finish at the end of the second lap. Henry responded, joined by a few others, before he and Gaffney pulled clear and rode up and over for the remainder of the race.
"I was surprised we were able to get away that quickly," said Henry. "It got a bit cagey in the last couple of laps, David tried a few times and I was able to follow. And then in the final sprint up the hill I was able to beat him, so I was happy enough."
Henry said he "likes climbing, likes a bit of TT" and also "has a good sprint" if he is galloping from a breakaway group. He added he did not feel he had "out and out ability" off-road and, as he was enjoying success on the road, and loving the racing, he felt he would focus on the road discipline going forward.
Last winter, while it was the first off-season he was coached, he "wasn't doing crazy miles". Riding cyclocross at the weekends took up some of his time but even if he was racing 'cross on Sunday, he would at times do up to four hours on the bike the day before.
With exams over the next few months, when he tackles the GCSEs, Henry said he would probably need to put racing on the back seat for a time and then come back strong for summer.
And what about national team selection? Does he believe he may be in the frame?
The immediate future, he said, was looking to get on "a team for the Junior Tour". After that, and though he has no firm plans in place at present, he would love to try his hand at racing in Europe.
"At the start of the season, I wasn't really thinking of that," he said of perhaps going to Europe in the months ahead. "I was just thinking about enjoying the racing this year and then maybe next year go for it. But I would like to go for it, yeah."
