Bored in the midst of COVID-19, Felicity Wilson-Haffenden saw an ad five years ago for a cycling talent ID program.
Now, she's a powerful weapon for the Australian women's track endurance program, and a character with it.
Wilson-Haffenden, fellow Tasmanian Georgia Baker, Claudia Marcks and Alyssa Polites beat New Zealand to claim gold in the team pursuit on day one of the Commonwealth Games track cycling program.
Wilson-Haffenden, 21, is a massive emerging talent in the sport. Three years ago, she won the junior road time trial world championship.
But by her own admission she had no idea of what was in store when she drove up from Hobart to Launceston for the talent ID testing.
"They asked me to put my cycling clothing on and I honestly just said 'what do you mean? I don't have any'," she said.
"When I say I was raw to cycling, I had no clue what I was doing."
Wilson-Haffenden said she had "my arse handed to me" when she had her first trip to Europe to taste road racing.
Then she watched Baker, a fellow Tasmanian, win three gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and was inspired.
While she is now one of many Australian professional cyclists based in the Spanish town of Girona, it's been the freezing early-morning rides at home, "dodging wallabies", that have set her up for success on the road and track.
"I can't be grateful for COVID, but I can be grateful for the outcome,' she said.
"It's the cold mornings in Tassie that really build the character.
"'G' (Baker) will attest to it as well, it's a pretty lonely sport."
The Australian women are coached by Ash Ankudinoff, a former team pursuit world champion, who is developing this new-look squad ahead of the LA Olympics.
"We're very lucky to have Ash Ankudinoff. She's really bringing the squad together ... this is only a sign of what's to come," said Sophie Edwards, who rode in the qualifying round.
Australia rode to a time schedule in the final against New Zealand, then switched as planned to full racing mode and easily won.
"That's my happy place, when we start racing. I don't like following a schedule, it's a pretty common fact about me," Wilson-Haffenden said.
And what was she thinking at the end?
"Just pedal - I was riding 50 cent coins at the end, the pedals weren't going around smooth," she said.
Also on Thursday, Olympic gold medallists Olly Bleddyn and Conor Leahy combined with Blake Agnoletto and James Moriarty for silver in the men's team pursuit.
The Ashes win was some revenge for England, after Australia beat Great Britain for Paris Games gold.
While disappointed with the result, Bleddyn said the Australians rode well.
"It was part of the program, the way we attacked it, and we can be proud of how we raced it - we took it to them," he said.
"We were beaten by the better team."
