Zac Johnson's cycling dream would be to dovetail the beginning of his elite career with the end of his mentor Richie Porte's.
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The 19-year-old is about to jet off for his first full season on the European circuit a decade after his Launceston neighbour embarked on a similar journey that would lead to nine Tour de France races, a glut of major titles plus Olympic and world championship appearances.
Like Porte, Johnson is starting on the sport's bottom rung but has high hopes of climbing the ladder to the World Tour.
"Once I get over there I'll want to move up to the next level, focus on high-end results and World Tour is the end goal. If you are not in it for that you may as well not race," Johnson said.
"It would be nice to get there for Richie's last year. To have a year racing together in Europe would be a dream come true.
"When I see Richie racing in the Tour de France, that's what I aspire to."
After a seventh-place finish in last year's under-23 Oceania time trial, Johnson made solid progress with Drapac-Cannondale at the sport's Continental level, getting an initial taste of racing in Belgium.
A summer which included a maiden Tour of Tasmania and ninth place in the under-23 national road race in Ballarat was spent getting intimately acquainted with the Sideling as he trained alongside Trek-Segafredo veterans Porte and Will Clarke.
It culminated in signing a one-year contract with British under-23 outfit Trinity Racing and Johnson flies off this week for some Belgian one-day races before basing himself near Clarke in the Spanish city of Girona.
"Richie's left, Will's left, so now I just want to get over there and get stuck into it.
"With Drapac I spent two weeks in Belgium and did three or four races so I'm not completely going into the unknown and there's so much I want to learn."
Johnson's race program remains a work in progress but he hopes to include the Liege-Bastogne-Liege under-23 stage race and Baby Giro, the Italian race which helped announced Porte to the cycling world.
Both riders are specialist climbers with a talent for time trialling, although height would be their biggest differential.
"When I spoke to the team manager he said it's a young team and there's no pressure on riders to do anything spectacular. It's just about getting experience and finishing the year better than when you started.
"I would love to win a stage of a race, that would be a big goal. Just to get the chance to put my hands in the air. But whatever happens it will be good experience in a very organised set-up."