Fellow Tasmanian mountain biker Sid Taberlay was a five-time national champion, 2004 Oceania champion, Athens Olympian and came sixth at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

“Sid was pivotal to me starting in the sport and a pretty decent role model and mentor to have along the way,” said Bradley, a multiple junior national cross-country champion who has already attended four world championships by the age of 22.

“He went to the big ones and has done most of what there is to do in mountain biking. We live pretty close and see each other a fair bit but he does not ride much now because he has a young family and new priorities.”

Both riders have also used road cycling to boost their skills and fitness with Taberlay winning a stage and the king of the mountains classification in the 2005 Tour of Tasmania and Bradley also embarking on his home-state leg of the National Road Series earlier this month. 

Representing Phil Leslie’s Van Diemen Cycling team, the Kingston rider also contested the Stan Siejka Launceston Classic before reverting to a more familiar mountain bike to win the individual category in the Hellfire Cup and pairs at Launceston Mountain Bike Club’s enduro.

“The Tour of Tasmania was a bit of everything and a good kick start for the mountain bike season,” he said.

“It’s good to be getting some ‘k’s in the legs. You cannot simulate racing when you are training so this is really good for me.”

The former St Virgils and Guilford Young student went to world champs as a junior in Austria (2012) and South Africa (2013) and an under-23 in Andorra (2015) and Cairns earlier this year.

He won the under-23 Oceania Championships in Toowoomba in March and has also claimed numerous top-five finishes in rounds of the national series.

Bradley expects Australia to have two spots for male mountain bikers at the Gold Coast with Victoria’s triple Olympian Dan McConnell in pole position courtesy of his bronze medal in 2014 and top-10 finish at worlds followed by Cam Ivory, of NSW, who demonstrated his climbing capacity by winning the Tour of Tasmania prologue and Launceston Cycling Festival hill challenge.

But Bradley is among three or four riders in contention.

“It would be a real honour. It’s been in the back of my mind for a couple of years.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I’m not in the box seat but I am in the mix so I just need to control what I can.”