The 16-year-old Niagara Falls native is becoming a force in the cycling world.

Recently, he helped Team Ontario win a silver medal in his category at the Canadian National Track Championships in Burnaby, B.C. while pedalling against older riders. Dickenson then placed third in his category (under-17 men) at the Ontario Provincial Time Trial Championships in Plattsville, Ont.

"I'm not a very good runner. I used to ski and other sports, but it got to be too much," Dickenson said. "And I drifted more and more towards cycling. It's more athletic and more fun."

The Saint Paul Catholic High School student said he rides 300 kilometres a week between training and events. He rides in 20 races a year, be it track or road cycling. His addiction to the sport started when most kids are involved in playing hockey or soccer. At the age of nine his parents began road cycling.

"I caught on and started off with road and I really liked it. I got into track for training purposes and I started doing good," he said. "I like track when there's bad weather. The rain or the wind doesn't affect it. There's also no hills. I like the road, because you get a lot of time to yourself."

Dickenson has become serious enough about the sport to hire a racing coach with specially designed programs for his age and level of athleticism. The young rider is shooting for the stars now.

"I'm on a plan to put me in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. My biggest goal is to someday ride in the Tour de France for the road," he said. "That would be a well achieved goal. Canada isn't represented there."

His cycle coach, Chris Helwig, has been cycling competitively for 15 years. Dickenson credits his Helwig for his increased power as a rider.

"He has a real love for the sport, which is important because you spend a lot of time on the bike. You've got to really love it," Helwig said. "He's had one of the best seasons out of anybody that I coach or that's on the team."

An endurance rider, Dickenson likes to stay with the pack throughout during a race and strategizes when to take advantage of spent riders.

"I wouldn't be able to out sprint everybody in the end," he said. "But I can hang in for a whole race."

Coach Helwig said his best attribute is time trialling, but needs to make bigger strides in his career to become Olympic-ready.

"At this point, he needs to have a solid next year in junior and get noticed by the national team coaches and he's got to go to Nationals as a junior," said Helwig. "From there, he would have one more year of junior. If you're going to the Olympics, in your last year of junior you should be probably going to the world championship on the National team."

Under-17 is considered cadet; juniors are 18 and 19. Weighing in at 140 lbs., Dickenson trains and rides like a boy of mettle. He rides in 20 races a year and racks up 300 kilometres worth of mileage each week.

"There's a century ride of 100 miles I did. I did that, plus riding to get there and home," he said. "210K is the longest I've ever done."

He rides with the St. Catharines Cycling Club on the weekends and when he's taking a day off, he'll stop by to help out with local riding events. Besides winning a silver medal, Dickenson said an event in Toronto stood out from all the rest.

Halfway through a short circuit race, Dickenson sat in front of nearly 200 riders in a race around the CNE. When Dickenson felt approaching riders making a move for first-place, he sprinted for the entire final kilometre, only to come up fourth, but fist overall in his category.

"That was probably the first race I threw up after. I didn't know if it was because I won or all the effort I put into it," he said. "What I did wasn't a very good idea, but it was a resort because they told us not to draft from the other group."

During the winter, he'll be track racing indoors and said can't fathom life without riding.

"I would probably be a lazy kid, watching TV all the time."