His rise has been inexorable and his legion of followers continues to grow; just last week he earned the plaudits of Eddy Merckx, arguably the sport’s greatest ever cyclist, for his performance in an U23 Nations Cup event.

There, Dunbar led a stellar field of world-class riders for 140 of the race’s 180 kilometres; scorching into a lead of over seven minutes at one stage.

It took the might of four teams to bring the two-time Junior Tour of Ireland winner back and though he didn’t win the race, his aggression was rewarded on the podium, with Merckx leading the appreciation.

“It was just a bit crazy,” Dunbar recalled of the incident.

“The fact it was an U23 race and there were really good names in there…Eddy Mercyx came up to me and said ‘that was brilliant, well done’ and before I left the stage he came up again and said the same thing.

“When someone like that says it, you don’t know how to react! It was an honour. I came back to the hotel, Twitter went mental and the response from people was unbelievable.

“It’s very hard to get around to thanking everyone but I really appreciated the support. It means a lot to me and definitely spurs me on to do better things and hopefully I can continue to make people happy.”

Dunbar’s stock has been steadily rising over the past two years but he seems to be at the peak of his powers now, as last week’s performance illustrated.

But it’s been almost 10 years sacrifice to get to this point. And one man has been there to guide him through it all, his coach and mentor Dan Curtin.

“Danny has been there with me from the very start, ever since I came into the club in Kanturk,” recalled Dunbar.

“He’d be driving into Kanturk on a Sunday morning, blowing the horn in his rickety van, dragging fellas out of bed to come training in all kinds of weather.

“He’s there every single weekend for training without fail, 12 months of the year. I don’t know where I’d be without him. He’s done so much for me and as much for Irish cycling as anyone, particularly the underage, and not just in Kanturk.”

Curtin has produced some of the best riders in the country over the last three decades, with Dunbar the latest to roll off the North Cork town’s production line. When several teams came in search of his signature to enter the paid ranks at the end of last season, they first had to go through Dan.

BMC’s Development Team were rumoured to be interested. Predictably, Irish Continental outfit An Post-Chainreaction was also linked.

“An Post is an Irish team, so it was a no-brainer for some people, and as for BMC, there were talks but we never really got into it,” Dunbar says.

“I was really close to Bissell Development Team (now Axeon) in America. It was between them and NFTO in England, but we weighed up the options and basically NFTO ticked all the boxes. It’s only an hour from home so it was an obvious choice at my age.”

Indeed, that proved to be a masterstroke because for starters, Dunbar is still a young man and Dan knows that. There’s a lot of smoothing of edges to be done yet.

He also knows how close Dunbar is to his mother (his father passed away some years ago) so being close to home was a priority.

And this past week, the decision to go to the UK was further vindicated when the team announced details of an exciting new partnership with one of Europe’s leading investment companies, Aberdeen Asset Management.

In short, that means more money and money gives teams leverage to move up the sport’s tiers, from Continental, to Pro Continental to World Tour, where the likes of Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche reside.

Many ProContinental teams ride the world’s biggest races, including the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, which is what Dunbar has dreamed about since he was a nipper, hammering in the Freemount road on Sunday mornings to make Dan’s deadline.

“I always said to my mum that I would never quit cycling until I win the Tour de France. I reckon the likes of the Vuelta A Espana or the Giro d’Italia will probably suit me better though, they’re that bit hillier,” he says.

“Hopefully now with the new sponsor, it’ll increase the chances of getting to that level and give me time to develop because I’m still young.”

“If they do go Pro Continental next year and World Tour a few years after, it’ll be really good for me because I’ll be working with the same people. It’ll be a good pathway,” he says.

“But obviously if the likes of Sky came along, it’d be very hard to say no.”

But before all that, Dunbar has the Tour of Yorkshire, a three-day race over the May Bank Holiday weekend he believes will be up there with anything he’s ever done in terms of hardship.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” he said enthusiastically.

“We rode the circuit as a team and I think it’s going to be the hardest race of the year, not least because of who we’ll be up against.

“The first day is really hilly, the second day will be a day for sprinters but if it’s windy it will blow to bits and the last day is really brutal. It’s like the organisers found every hill in Yorkshire!

“It’s the hardest circuit I’ve ever ridden in my life. For a UCI race it’s short, one stage is ‘only’ 174k but with over 3,000m of climbing it’s mental. I’d love to do something in either the first or last stages but we’ll have to see.”

Dunbar does look capable of very big things. His team were the highest-ranked in the UK last year and only four months into his contract with them he’s the highest ranked rider in Britain following a clutch of dazzling displays.

“I really like the aggressive style of racing here, but I need to improve on the tactical side,” Dunbar says.

“I like… I love the hills, but stage races probably suit me best. Time trialling and climbing seem to be where I shine at the moment and hopefully it stays that way. It’s where the big races are.”

NFTO, incidentally, stands for Not For The Ordinary and such has been Dunbar’s profession this year against established pros few could bet against him doing something extraordinary next weekend.