A dual gold medallist at the world junior track titles, twice Australian Madison champion, and reigning Bendigo International Madison champion, O’Shea will race in the Inglewood classic this Sunday.

A remarkable run earned The Advertiser Southern Cross TEN Sports Star of the Year award for 2007-08.

O’Shea, 18, will race off scratch in the fourth round of the Myer Bendigo-backed road series.

The Eaglehawk-based star recently returned from a seven-week stint racing and training on Europe’s roads.

"It was a great experience," O’Shea said of being with the Australian under-21 team.

The campaign included two tours in Germany, racing in the south of France, and three one-day classics in Italy.

A highlight for O’Shea was the second of the German tours in which he finished third in the time trial, fourth in a stage, and sixth overall.

"It was my first time racing in Europe and the style is a lot different to here.

"There are attacks right from the first kilometre of a stage and they never let up."

A lot of the team’s training was in Varese, Italy.

"The lowest amount of kilometres in training or racing in a week was 700," O’Shea said.

"It was full-on, not just racing, but the training as well."

The Aussie team won the teams category in the Tour of Berlin and Western Australia’s young gun Travis Meyer was the tour champion.

The line-up included Geelong’s Leigh Howard, who teamed with O’Shea to win the McCaig Airconditioning Bendigo International Madison last March.

Also in action in Europe was Jack Bobridge, from South Australia.

"We also had a few of the South Australia AIS.com team race with us in a few races."

O’Shea said he was looking forward to Sunday’s race at Inglewood.

"I have never won a Bendigo classic on the road."

After such a hectic campaign the young cyclist will "take it easy" for the next two weeks before another big bloc of workouts begin.

The training sessions will be on the road and the gym.

Later in the year, O’Shea will head back to Europe to compete in the under-25 six-day races in Munich and Amsterdam.

He and Howard are tipped to team up in the madison at the world cup in Manchester.

A highlight of summer’s track racing will be a world cup leg in Melbourne.