Steven Roberts' dramatic road-racing ascent will see him tackle a monster of a hilly course in the L'Étape Australia, at Jindabyn on Saturday.
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That would appear to be good news for the 18-year-old - a noted hill climber given his high-calibre mountain biking pedigree.
However, he said some of the hills on the 170-kilometre course were longer than what he preferred.
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"They're not my kind of hill," he said, adding: "I don't want an extremely hilly course to be my undoing."
Roberts prefers shorter hills. "We'll have a lot of ... short, snappy hills," he said.
"But the two main ones, that we accumulate points on for the hill climber's jersey, are gonna be ... I think the first one's three (kilometres) and the second one's 20km or something. So it's a long hill."
Saturday's annual race, which is sponsored by the Tour de France, will be a continuation of Robert's steep learning curve since his first road race: the 2018 Autumn Festival Criterium in Armidale. He impressed in that race.
He also impressed at his debut Road National Championships, in Ballarat in January - finishing second in the under-19 road race king of the mountain classification.
In April, he had a top-six finish at the NSW Criterium Championships in Sydney.
At L'Étape Australia, he will be among the top group of riders. He said his category had about 100 entrants and the overall quality was similar to what he encountered at the nationals.
The teen - who recently signed with Bella Vista-based Mainpac Cycling Team - regularly switches from a mountain bike to a road bike.
This month he finished third in the under-19 cross-country race at the mountain bike state championships at Orange. Fellow Tamworth Mountain Bikers member Nick Chisholm won the race.
Roberts said he was going into the L'Étape without any expectations.
"I'm just gonna see what happens," the Tamworth Cycle Club member said. "I don't really know - I never really like to speculate.
"I feel all right, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna feel all right tomorrow [Saturday]."