Ryan Daly (Scott Racing IRL) has been going about his business in cyclocross and MTB, racing at home and abroad in recent seasons, and appears to be developing rapidly.
The 17-year-old, who was competing in Portugal last weekend, won the junior race at the second round of the National Cyclocross Series in Dublin yesterday, setting some very impressive lap times.
Indeed, his fastest time around the course, 5:22, was the best in any of the races on the day, including the senior men's event, with Daly lapping throughout his event with real consistency; going into an early lead and never fading.
At the start, the junior men started 30 seconds behind the seniors, yet at the end of the opening lap - just 5½ minutes of racing for him - he had closed up to the lead group in the senior race.
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But, as impressive as he was, Daly's performance wasn't the only talking point of the day at the EPIC MTB promotion. Robin Seymour (Team WORC), now into his Masters 50 years, claimed victory in the senior men's race.
In wet and cold conditions in Glencullen Adventure Park in the Dublin Mountains, there were some great battles at the front of the races, with many of the events - especially the Masters 40 and 50 races - quite tight.
In the main events, Rachel Newell (McConvey Cycles) may have ceded time on the opening lap of the women's race to Darcey Harkness (Dan Morrissey Pissei), but she recovered and came through to win.
Harkness tore away from the start line to gain 19 seconds on Newell, with Leah McCarthy (K Capital Rocky Mountain) settling into 3rd place early in the contest. After losing that time on the opening lap, it took Newell until the end of the third lap, in the five-lap race, to get back to Harkness.
But when she did, they were evenly matched over the next lap, though Newell nudged ahead, by 12 seconds on the penultimate lap, and was faster again over the last passage of the circuit to win by 33 seconds over Harkness. McCarthy was 3rd at 49 seconds.
In the senior men's race, Olympian Seymour rounded the opening lap with plenty of company. Indeed, after that first circuit, he was alongside Graham Boyd (McConvey Cycles), Richard Barry (St Finbarr's) and Pierce O'Leary (Lucan CRC).
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But from that point, Seymour pulled clear and by the time he had the fourth lap completed he was just over 20 seconds clear of eventual runner-up Boyd.
Though Boyd got closer to matching the lone leader over the next four laps, in the nine-lap race, Seymour was never really challenged and ran out the winner by 39 seconds. Barry completed the podium on the day, 1:03 down on the winner.
In the junior race, while the field was small, some very good riders took to the start line. They included winners in recent weeks, Shane O'Brien (Fermoy CC) and Conor Regan (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospacial), not to mention U16 national champion from last season, Caleb McGreevy (VC Glendale).
However, it was Daly who went into an early lead and simply never looked back. The only time he ceded any ground, and it was just a couple of seconds, was on the last lap when he eased off at the end to savour his win.
His lap times - three well under 5:30 and three just over - were all among the fastest of the day across the races. He ran out the winner by 51 seconds from O'Brien, with Regan 3rd at 1:40.
The Masters 40 race was won by national champion Glenn Kinning (Kinning Cycles) by just eight seconds from Marcus Flavin (Dungarvan CC), with Brian Melia (Team Worc) 3rd at 1:07.
Though Flavin took an early lead, Kinning got him back, though not until the sixth lap, and then pulled clear to win it.
In the Masters 50 race, Fearghal Regan (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospacial) claimed victory by nine seconds from Barry Convery (Newry Wheelers), with John Doris (EPIC MTB) 3rd at 38 seconds.
The U16 boys race was won by Eoin Davis (Bohermeen CC), on a charge this season, from James Cunningham (team WORC) by 58 seconds. James Geary (Fermoy CC) was 3rd at 1:21.
Ava Baker (Breffni) won the U16 girls race by 2:25 from Naoise Byrne (Carlow RCC), with Ciara Flavin (Dungarvan CC) 3rd at 5:47.
