In March the Tamworth teenager announced himself as one of the rising stars of the sport when he won the under-15s boys cross-country short course title and finished second in the cross-country Olympic event. But then COVID hit and Willis found himself changing gears.

He had done a bit of road cycling over the years but it was more to supplement his mountain bike training - nothing too serious.

But during the lockdown he started training on the road a lot more.

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Then, missing that competitive edge of racing, he started looking at what opportunities might be around should the restrictions ease.

"We looked at mountain biking first but nothing came up," he said.

So then they looked at the road. There were a few options there so he decided to turn his focus towards that.

Now he is preparing for the NSW Junior Road Championships, which have been rescheduled to October 3 and 4, and following that the national championships.

Willis tuned up for the state champs with a strong performance in the Junior Tour of Sydney on the weekend.

After finishing fifth in the road race on Saturday, he then won the Country Criterium Championships and was fourth in the State Criterium Championships.

It was his first time racing at that level and "a big learning curve".

"I was very surprised how different the races where," Willis said.

"In a mountain bike race it's really hard off the start and hard all the way."

"On the road there are a few more tactics and a lot more people in it."

He learnt all about the tactical side in the road race, which came down to a sprint.

"Going into the last corner I was sitting second wheel back," he said.

But it was "quite a long way" from the corner to the finish line and when the leader pulled off, Willis found himself on the front.

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Not the spot you really want to be, in the chaos of the final flurry he put in a "solid sprint" but "had nothing left" and was reeled in.

Going into the second day he was a lot more race aware.

The country championships were first-up, and again it came down to a sprint. Sitting about fourth going around the last corner, this time Willis got the right lead-up and with about 70m to go he "came around and put in the biggest effort in possible".

He was happy with how he went overall, especially given the wet conditions.

"Not only was it the first real wet race for me, it was my first proper road race," he said.

"Especially the first one was hard, everyone knew each other, knew who the strong riders were."

That did get better over the weekend.