From Coalisland to the Caribbean - Tyrone teenager returns with Youth Commonwealth Games gold

Ferrity is hoping his success in Trinidad and Tobago is the start of a long and successful career in the saddle, but as the road race season comes to an end, the 17-year-old will turn his attention to education.

“I finish my A-Levels off this year,” he said. “I think it is trying to find the right balance and not training too much and prioritising school still.

"I have a whole life to ride a bike yet so need to get school done properly.

“Long term goals would be world cycling, the Tour de France – that sort of level and I’d love to go to the Olympics as well.”

Ferrity got his tactics prefect in the 65km race at the Youth Commonwealth Games.

“I’d said we went into the Commonwealth’s quite confident because we knew a few of countries to watch, Wales, Scotland and Australia are always strong, but we just kept them behind,” he added. “It was really nice to even get so far away and experience a new country on the other side of the world.

“It was a good race – me and one of the Welsh riders got away on the second lap of 13, so it was just the two of us at the front for the whole race and I think we’d built a gap of two minutes at one stage.

“One ride got it down to 20 seconds near the finish because me and the Welsh boy started to play games and slowed down on the last lap.”

Ferrity was delighted to cross the finish line first.

“I don’t think there is any feeling like it,” he said. “It is what you put all the work in for and when it pays off it is always nice.

“It was really nice standing on the podium, I was out by myself. I got an awful lot of phone calls and messages after it.

“It’s not really sunk in because I came home and then two days later I was flying out to Belgium to go and do more racing, so I only got home last Sunday night

"I’ll take a bit of time now to enjoy it.”

Ferrity got on a bike for the first time a decade ago.

“I got into cycling about 10 years ago,” he recalled. “My dad used to ride bikes and it was him that got me into it and then the two of us started racing around the same time.

“I started mountain biking and then moved across to the road.

“At the start it was just a bit of craic and enjoyment and then as I moved through the years I started to get more competitive – it has just taken off the last couple of years.”

A change in discipline certainly suited the teenager.

“There are big differences,” he said. “Mountain bike races for us would only be an hour long where road races could be three to three-and-a-half hours.”