Matilda Raynolds knows better than anyone that cycling is a cruel and brutal sport that rarely dishes out just rewards.
But when the chance arises, it must be taken - and Raynolds is not the type to die wondering.
So the 36-year-old Australian, now living in New Zealand, seized her moment in searing heat during Friday's stage one at the Tour Down Under.
After switching to a spare bike early in the stage because of a mechanical problem, Raynolds found herself in a four-rider breakaway.
She attacked by herself at the second mountain classification checkpoint, 58.1km into the 93.9km stage from Hahndorf to Campbelltown.
As the temperature hit 40C, Raynolds built her lead to about a minute.
But her heroics came to nothing, with the peloton swallowing her up inside the last 10km.
There was some reward for Raynolds, who was named most competitive rider for the stage.
"You dream, you dream. There is the smallest moment where it is 'if you go, this will change your life' but you can only do what you can do and I've just had really bad luck," she said.
"I've been to Europe twice by myself the last two years and just haven't gotten the opportunity I've needed to perform.
"I've got the opportunity here, so I wasn't going to waste it."
Raynolds is a talented domestic rider who has never quite landed the break she needed for a full-blown international career.
But no one doubts her heart.
"At that point (when she made her solo attack) you are just head down and it is awful in that heat, just awful," the Team BridgeLane rider said.
"I was breathing through every orifice I had and I was just cooking, and you know you are gone. You blow up 10 times and go again, sort of thing.
"If you have ever turned up an oven with the fan as high as possible, it was just like a furnace through that gorge there (near the end).
"But I don't mind, you can actually feed quite well when you are by yourself. I tried to do my best."
Raynolds had plenty of support from her BridgeLane boss, former top rider Pat Shaw, who urged her on from the team car.
"I had Pat in my ear (on the team radio) and anyone that knows Pat Shaw will know he is not quiet, so that was OK," she said.
