Amber Pate had a bike while growing up a small Northern Territory town but there were no competitions, no academies and, as far as sport went, she was a swimmer.
But after a three-month stint racing overseas with the Australian Cycling team, she has been selected to ride in the World Tour.
The track and road cyclist's major achievement has not always been her dream.
She had not even set foot in a velodrome until two-and-a-half years ago and, as a child, all she knew was that the Tour de France existed on television but it was never something she wanted to win.
"It never occurred to me that cycling was something you can do as a sport," she said.
Tough ride to the top
Pate, 27, has been contracted to join Team BikeExchange-Jayco, which competes in the UCI Women's World Tour, the prestigious Tour de France, the Olympics, and other elite women's events.
She is turning pro with fellow athletes Alyssa Polites, Blake Quick and Rudy Porter after finishing second to Grace Brown (who placed fourth at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020) in this year's National Time Trial Championships.
"I guess it is a really surreal feeling," she said.
The significance of the milestone had barely settled when the contract was signed after months spent getting up to speed in an almost alien sport.
"I didn't think you could make a career out of your sport, I guess … I just didn't have that advice in my life," she said.
"The second I stepped foot in cycling it opened [my] eyes to realising, you know, what actually can come from it."
She said she decided to do the best she possibly could.
"I didn't know what that would be because I felt that I started late in life," she said.
"I was worried that that would limit me."
But her later start could be the reason for her success.
Pate had been on a slow course to her team selection having switched university degrees from nursing, to finance, and then clinical exercise physiology in the years since leaving her hometown of Katherine for Adelaide after high school.
"I started triathlon because I enjoyed swimming," she said.
"I did swim club as a kid in Katherine and I thought 'Oh, I can swim. I've ridden a bike a few times'.
"It got to the point where more often than not, I got in trouble from my triathlon coach for riding too much because I loved it so much."
She said her contract meant moving to Spain next year.
It also meant stability in a male-dominated sport after years of just scraping by juggling university and two jobs.
"I was working in restaurants at night and during the day I was either studying or I had another day job," she said.
"It was exhausting on my feet."
Can't be who you can't see
Pate said she did not have a defining moment or person that shaped her as a junior competitor into who she had become.
She instead credited her middle-year teachers, her parents and growing up in a small town.
"I loved swimming as a child," she said.
"So I knew that I wanted to go to the Olympics. I've always had something inside me that has been there."
She said she did not have a mentor to make her realise it was actually possible until later in life.
"My determination is definitely something from my parents, my dad, especially," she said.
