Ben Shaw isn't one to rest on his laurels.
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Someone who relishes a new challenge, fresh from taking all before him on the mountain, the talented Tamworth teenager is changing gears and turning his focus to the road.
The newly-crowned under 15s men's XCC (cross-country short track) and XCO (cross-country Olympics) national champion is now setting his sights on earning a road racing national champion jersey to hang up beside his mountain bike one.
It would be a rare double but you wouldn't write the 2023 NIAS Male Athlete of the Year off from achieving it.
Especially coming off the mountain bike season he has just had.
Shaw was unstoppable, winning all five rounds of the MTB XC National Series to clinch back-to-back under 15s series wins, as well as the Oceania and National titles.
The latter was the one the Calrossy student was really targetting.
"I just wanted the Australian title so bad," he told the Leader.
Held at Lake Macquarie in March, the short course was first up.
Shaw confessed to a few nerves knowing that the rider who was coming second to him in the national series (there were more races post the championships) was "pretty strong in those races".
"He (Michael Straffon) got in front for a bit and then at the end I managed to sprint away from him," he said.
There wasn't a lot in it though, only a couple of seconds.
It was then onto the XCO, which of the two events is probably Shaw's strongest.
Conscious that anything can happen, he said he was "super nervous" milling around beforehand. But once he got to the start line he "calmed down a bit".
"I got a gap pretty much straight off the start. I just went really hell for leather, just went so hard," he said.
"Then all the parts I thought he'd (Straffron) be going as fast and hard as me, I'd just go another step harder."
Shaw's stats across the 40 minutes showed that his average heart rate was around 186, which is pretty close to his threshold.
"It was probably hardest race I've done for a while but it was worth it," he said.
Going on to finish 45 seconds clear of Straffron, he spoke of an overriding feeling of relief crossing the finishing line. All of the hard work had paid off.
Last season, stepping up to the under 15s, he won the national series and picked up bronze in the XCO at the national championships.
Off the back of that, Shaw said he went into the just-completed season feeling a lot more confident and just with a "good mindset".
He knew what he had to do to achieve what he wanted and "wasn't really thinking that anyone was going to stop me getting it".
"I was like, 'I want this, this is my year'," he said.
The first road season he has fully committed to, he is "looking forward" to it.
Along with the challenge of racing new rivals, a big part of what excites him is that it is a completely different style of racing.
"It's a whole different race strategy," he said.
"Mountain bikes you pretty much just go from the mark but road riding, it's tactics and lots of mind games."
Make no mistake though he'll "be going all out".
The plan is to do a few rounds of the Junior Road Series, which runs from April to July.
After that it's the NSW State Championships in late August/early September, then the big one - the nationals - in September.
