Ben Healy's sensational form at the Tour de France has seen him claim a stage win and the yellow jersey, but those who have been following his career are not surprised by the performances of a laid-back yet methodical individual.
Having produced a typically aggressive display last Thursday to claim his first Tour de France stage win, Healy again took the inititaive on Monday to finish third on the Bastille Day stage and sensationally wrest the general classification lead from Tadej Pogacar.
The Birmingham-born 24-year-old has been a regular on the Irish cycling scene since his teens thanks to his ancestry, but it was five years ago that he announced himself as a real prospect.
"He has been spectacular since he came on the scene," PJ Nolan, former National cyclocross champion and Cycling Ireland president, told RTÉ's Morning Ireland. "Back in 2020 was the first time I saw him. He went to Knockaderry in Limerick for the National Championships.
"At the start he took off with Nicolas Roche, who many people would know - 11th at the Tour de France - and a guy called Darnell Moore, who was a national champion as well. These are really, really good bike riders, and Ben Healy destroyed them.
"He won by three minutes. People were scratching their heads and thinking that's impossible. This tiny little guy."
Since then his career has gone from strength-to-strength, and the EF Education-EasyPost rider has been notching some significant results - national championships, a stage of the Giro d-Italia, third in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Martyn Irvine is a former Olympian and a world champion on the track and in his current role as high performance pathway coach at Cycling Ireland, he has got to know Healy quite well.
"I'm not surprised at all. If you have been following at all he has been trending upwards. He's a world beater on the one-day races, he is a Giro stage winner, he's been doing the stage races and learning. It's all clicking and it's all working very well for him," Irvine told Morning Ireland.
"He's so laid-back he's horizontal. He's really chilled out. He's so methodical. He knows exactly what he can do and just goes and does it. It's kind of painfully easy watching him.
"He's under my umbrella at the last couple of World Championships. They're really big days and you'd swear they were just little club league he was doing. It's impressive."
As well as his impressive mentality, Nolan reckons Healy's slight frame is also an advantage in the most punishing races.
"He is almost freakish because he doesn't slow down. Other people get tired but this young man is just unbelievable. He is only 5'6" or 5'7" and 60 odd kilos. He looks like a little hedgehog on the bike.
"I don't mean that in a disparaging way, there is no shelter behind him. You can't get shelter behind him on a break so he crucifies people.
"He is an absolute genius aerodynamically," adds Nolan. "He seems to get into his groove after about 200 kilometres."
While Irvine was in no mood to downplay the significance of Healy becoming the first Irishman since Stephen Roche in 1987 to wear the maillot jaune, he could not make a case for the Irish rider wearing it once the race rolls into Paris in little under a fortnight.
"It is once in a generation when you sit down and think about it. Pro cycling is so hard, so committed, so long term, it takes a lot of things to go right for a bike rider to get to the top of the sport.
"It is really great to see, especially for Ben, he is a very methodical man, he puts the work in. His trajectory has been great to watch," said Irvine, who struggles to look past race favourite Pogacar.
"Honestly, I think he has only a couple of days in yellow if the big hitters start dancing. Thursday's finish in Hautacam and that's a really big climb. Pogacar trying to make his mark on the race etc.
"I really do think a podium is possible, top six realistically, because he has a strong team with him. If the team get around him I wouldn't be surprised to see him finish on the podium."
