Having started the cyclocross season like a train, Curtis McKee's name will surely be the first on the team sheet, along with Greta Lawless (Team WORC), for the national team at the upcoming UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin.
However, though still aged 16 years and already winning elite races as a first-year junior, McKee told stickybottle he was not counting his chickens just yet. The Spellman Dublin Port rider admits to being surprised at his form in the first weeks of the season.
He saw off national elite champion, Dean Harvey (Trinity Racing), and top juniors Cameron Henry (Inspired Cycling) and Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles), at the Ulster Cyclocross Series in Co Cavan last weekend. But McKee says that trio, and others, will soon ride themselves into form.
"I'm very happy with how I'm going, but I can't just settle at that," he said. "There's work to be done and that's what I'm planning on doing.
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"You can't just rest on your laurels and say 'yeah, I'm going good, let's just keep it like that'. I have to keep aiming for something."
He described selection for the World Cup in Dublin on December 1st as "one of the main goals for the season", adding he "really hopes to be selected for that one".
So far this season, McKee has won the first round of the Cyclocross National Series in Belfast, UCI Verge Cross Clonmel - the first Irish winner there ever - and last week's opening round of the Ulster series.
Asked how he felt about being the first Irish rider to win a race at the UCI-ranked Verge Cross Clonmel, McKee said he was delighted. But he had hoped more riders from abroad would be in the field, to offer up a more international challenge.
"I was definitely happy with that result in Clonmel and happy with the race in Belfast and then really pleased to win at the Ulster series last weekend, with a few big names out," he said.
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"I can't take too much from that because there's their first race back and I have a few races in the legs," he said of his nearest challengers, Harvey, Henry and Murphy. "I'll take it one race at a time and I expect them to come back fighting harder in the next races.
"But I was looking forward to getting to race Conor and Dean. I wanted it, to try and get a close race, a good battle. I didn't expect the race to play out like it did," he said of winning solo.
"I'm quite happy with how it played out but there is a lot more to come from Dean and Conor and Cameron."
McKee also went to the UK in recent weeks, riding the British National Trophy in South Shields, but suffered a nightmare; 16th place after three punctures on the day.
Overall, he said he felt "drained" at the of the end of the U16 road season, during which he won the John Haldane Memorial in Newry but was perhaps disappointed with how other phases of the year had gone.
However, once the road season was done he "knuckled down" on his training and nutrition and has been very encouraged by his cyclocross results to date.
In the longer term, he is looking forward to riding abroad at some point, perhaps for road racing next year. But for now, it's all about cyclocross, even though his cycling career began elsewhere.
"Everything kinda started from mountain biking and then 'cross and road came into it," he said. "I started off with the mountain biking when I was about seven. My dad, David, was a mountain bike rider. He started cycling with friends and then took me to a race and that's where it all started.
"I've really enjoyed the road so far and I've maybe fallen out of love with the mountain biking a bit, just because the Irish scene kind of fell apart a bit. But the more I do 'cross, the more I love it."
