Launceston's national mountain bike champion Sam Fox targets Paris Olympics

Seven months after competing for Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Trevallyn 22-year-old was in strong form at the venue for the 2018 event with his sights set on the host city for 2014.

Fresh from winning the opening two rounds of the national mountain bike series, Fox added another victory on the Gold Coast's Nerang trails before a puncture saw him drop to fourth in the weekend's second race.

He is next off to Oceania Championships as he builds to world titles in Glasgow in early August.

The former national under-23 champion claimed his first senior national title last month and said the achievement is still sinking in.

"Hopefully I did the Australian champs jersey proud in its first outing," he said.

"It's really special to put this top on. It still amazes me that it's happened. It's pretty incredible that I get to wear the bands for the rest of the year.

"The support's been incredible. Having everyone congratulating me coming home was amazing. It's just good to be able to bring the national title back to Tassie."

The former Trevallyn Primary, Riverside High and Launceston College student has been a regular competitor at junior nationals, contested junior worlds in 2017 and '18 and finished sixth at last year's Commonwealth Games, but admitted the senior national title was the highlight.

"To be honest I thought this was out of reach for a good many years and it's only really been the last year when I've started to believe it was possible. It took me eight years to win my first national title at under-23 and to try to step up last year didn't go so well and then this year to take the title was really nice."

The national champion's jersey will open international doors for Fox who has enough UCI points to enter world cup events as he targets Glasgow 2023 and Paris 2024.

"Obviously wearing the green and gold bands overseas is pretty special and something that gets you a lot of recognition but also means I get to wear the green and gold bands on my sleeve for the rest of my life which is pretty spectacular.

"And it's a good sign for the Olympics as well and I'd like to try and tick that off next year.

"We need to secure Australia a spot which is going to take a team effort from all the guys. We need to all head overseas and try and chase as many points as we can and bring Australia's ranking up to the point where we get a spot at the Olympics and then you have to be the best of those riders.

"It's going to be hard to secure a spot based on world ranking alone. I think we'll probably have to do it at world titles which means having everyone there being on good form. It's not a given and is going to be a bit of a battle but I think it's a really nice goal to have to work towards."

Having also competed in last year's Commonwealth Games road race, Fox plans to continue road riding for Australian UCI Continental outfit Team BridgeLane.

"They've been really supportive," he said. "They're all-in behind the Olympic dream and said I can do the races I choose but I like to try and give back to the team because that's where a lot of our sponsorship support comes from. And it's less pressure for me, I'm not there for results, I can just play the team role and have a bit of fun with the rest of the team."

Fox hopes to compete in National Road Series events, including the Tour of Tasmania, and possibly some tours in Europe if they fit in around the mountain bike calendar.

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