Amber Pate loves a challenge. In her own words, she “thrives being thrown in” at the deep end and trying to swim.
That’s what she did when she joined Liv AlUla Jayco in 2023 just three years after deciding to go all-in on competitive cycling.
In many ways her approach is quite fitting, given that she was a keen swimmer in her early years. Sport has always played a big part in her life, throughout her childhood and even more so in her adulthood.
“A part of me has always been an athlete. My personality was an athlete, and I dreamed of going to the Olympics for swimming when I was young,” Pate says. “A part of me has always had this ridiculous desire for exercise and sport and that’s definitely what got me to such a high level at a late age.
“I definitely reckon that if I’d had the opportunities as a young kid that I see with juniors these days, I would have been in elite sport at a younger age, but I just never had the opportunity.”
Pate is from the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory, making her the only one of the 41 Australian WorldTour professionals, male or female, from the area. Situated about 200 miles from the region’s capital of Darwin, the town has less than 10,000 residents.
As a child, Pate lived on a wide-stretching patch of land with her parents and two sisters. Space was copious and the family made the most of it for their recreation.
It was here that she developed her love of being outside and racing around on two wheels, though these bikes had a bit more horsepower than ones she uses now.
“We rode horses and motorbikes, so I was a very outdoorsy kid. I didn’t live on a farm, but that’s what some people say. We didn’t have animals that we made a profit off. The property was more for recreation with horses and motorbikes,” explains Pate. “I really enjoyed being outside and going fast on motorbikes, which I think carries across into cycling. It was a really different life. It was a great life, too, but it was a small place.”
Broadening horizons
As Pate grew up, her parents decided to send her to a boarding school in Adelaide to give her a better education. She would ultimately go to university in the South Australian capital and now calls it her home, as does the rest of her family.
University proved to be a turning point for Pate in her unexpected journey towards becoming a professional cyclist. Sport was her constant while she tried to figure out what she wanted to do in her studies and beyond, having started on a nursing course and then switching to a finance degree before settling on sport science.
“I didn’t like uni, I didn’t like studying, but I liked training for triathlon. I really enjoyed the fitness and the routine and the double days of training. It was way more interesting than uni,” Pate says. “I thought, maybe uni isn’t my thing but what I am interested in is sport science. So, I did that and I really enjoyed it. I stuck with it until the completion of the degree, which was just before I turned pro.”
As Pate progressed in triathlon, she soon realised that cycling was her favourite of the three disciplines and two wheels eventually took over running and swimming.
“I was doing triathlon for a couple of years before I decided to fully do cycling. I just loved riding so much,” she says. “When I dabbled in a couple of these races, a crit and everything like that, I had a lot of fun and I found the environment fun. Most of all, riding my bike was my favourite of them all. It was mainly a love for riding and the competitiveness in me that made me think, let’s start racing.”
Making sacrifices
Things moved quickly for the Northern Territory rider after she decided in late 2019 to really give racing a red-hot go. She took part in her first road national championships at the beginning of 2020, finishing in a group with her soon-to-be teammate Ruby Roseman-Gannon in it.
A year later, she took fourth in the road race and 10th in the time trial after her debut at the Santos Festival of Cycling the week before. The 2022 season saw Pate earn a guest spot on the GreenEDGE Cycling squad at the Festival of Cycling followed by her first experience of racing in Europe, where she consistently made the top five and hit up the podium a few times.
While the path was fast, Pate had to make a lot of sacrifices to dedicate her time to cycling and show the world what she could do. It wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it when she made the step into the WorldTour with the team in 2023, aged 27.
“It went quite quickly for me, but there was two and a half years of cycling where I earned no money, and I committed everything to it. Because I was older, I had to reduce my study load, I had to reduce my workload. I was very poor,” Pate says.
“At that time, it’s difficult for your family to understand why you’re doing something that doesn’t seem to have a future. They didn’t know that making it as a professional was actually possible. They were supportive, but they also wanted what was best for me. They’re incredibly proud and they’re actually going to be at the Tour de France Femmes this year for the last three stages.”
Coming into competitive cycling later in life can be a challenge, but Pate is making big strides and she’s determined to put the hard yards in to gain all the experience she needs. She believes there are some benefits, too.
“I always wished I started young, but you can’t change the past. I think [starting later] helps you keep a level head. I have a very level head when it comes to the racing and setbacks. We all go through setbacks, especially in the professional field and I think the maturity does help and that has been a benefit in these last two years,” says Pate.
“When I came into the sport, my first coach said to me if you give 100% then I’ll give 100% and that’s exactly what I did. If I felt my skill at something wasn’t as good as somebody else, I would go and fix it. I spent a lot of time on fixing my skills. I bought a mountain bike and did everything I could to ensure they were as good as they could be, as quickly as possible.
“The biggest thing is learning to be patient with my own development. I haven’t got as many years in the legs as a lot of other people so sometimes I’m just not as strong. It can be frustrating and building that strength takes time and there’s lots of different puzzle pieces and having the patience in development is important.”
Top photo: Sprint Cycling
