The moment Nick Chisholm has been long dreaming about and striving towards finally arrives on Thursday.
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The Tamworth mountain biker is currently in Mont Sainte Anne in Canada, preparing to represent his country at the World Mountain Bike Championships.
Speaking with the Leader before he flew out, the Year 11 Farrer student said he was feeling a mix of nerves and excitement, and just looking forward to getting over there and racing. And of course pulling on green and gold.
"It's a huge honour and not many people get to do it, so it makes it that bit more special," he said.
He said it has been a goal "for a long time", his ambition to compete for his country no doubt only intensifying after a breakout 2018 which saw him crowned the state and national under-17s champion.
Stepping up an age group to the under-19s this year, Chisholm has again proven himself one of the best young mountain bikers in the country. In April he won the silver medal at the National Championships - one of four mandatory selection events for the worlds team.
He will race in the cross-country Olympic discipline in Canada and is happy with how everything has come together.
"Training has ramped up the last couple of weeks, I've just been doing the last few tweaks," he said.
He has been focusing on lot of "short, sharper stuff" to try and get his speed up.
Chisholm got a bit of a taste of what it is going to be like at the worlds in June when he competed in one of the Junior World Series events in South Africa.
"It was definitely a good learning experience, seeing how fast those other guys go," he said.
He showed he can match it with them, achieving a podium result, and gaining some valuable UCI points towards his worlds seeding position, and confidence.
"It shows I can at the bigger races perform," he said.
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One of the biggest challenges in Canada will be working out the kinks of an unfamiliar track. From what Chisholm has seen of it it will "be a hard crack".
"By the looks of the track the hillclimbs are quite steep and the corners are really tight," he said.
"The climbs are pretty big and the downhills have heaps of rocks on them and are really rough."
Chisholm is heading into the championships with one eye to the future. He spoke about hoping to gain experience for next year and getting a gauge as to where is at compared to the top riders in the world.
