The romance. The passion. The history. And pedalling as fast as you can for 4000m or until you are sick.
That is the dream.
Clyde rider Nicole Shields has her mind fixed on a trip to the City of Love in 2024.
Paris is hosting the Summer Olympics that year and Shields hopes to be on the ticket.
The 20-year-old is on course to make it as well. She is serving her apprenticeship with the New Zealand development team and the so-called B team is cranking out some incredible results.
She was part of the New Zealand team which caused an upset to win the 4000m women’s team pursuit during the third round of the UCI Cycling Track World Cup in Hong Kong recently. Shields also teamed up with Jesse Hodges to finish second behind Denmark in the madison.
Despite the impressive results, Shields is unlikely to get to the Tokyo Olympics next year. Her role is to collect qualifying points and pushed the top riders as hard as she can.
"We have amazing depth in women’s cycling in New Zealand right now," Shields said.
"There are 10 of us in the New Zealand squad and usually five will go to an event like that.
"We have enough for two teams ... and we race a development and a senior team. I’m racing for the development team at the moment.
"It is pretty cool to be able to take that pressure off the older girls so they can do less travel and we can still get points for them and help them qualify for the Olympics.
"We get to be a part of that and it has definitely had an effect on how good those girls are going at the moment.
"We are all here to get New Zealand on the top step at Tokyo and Paris.
"And I’m pretty confident in saying we are probably the fastest B team in the world. Not many other countries have that depth.’’
The development team is a young squad. The riders are aged from 18 to 22 and will be in their prime in 2024. Their time will come and when it does Shields plans to be ready.
Shields was born in Invercargill and got her start in track cycling when she was 9. The family moved to Clyde a year later and it was not until about five years ago that she started taking track cycling seriously.
She won the under-19 individual pursuit at the nationals in 2016 and that gave her the opportunity to compete at the world junior track championships in 2016.
"It started me on the path that I’m on now."
She rode in the team pursuit in 2016 and collected silver.
Italy claimed gold and pipped New Zealand again at the 2017 championships.
"We both broke the world record but they just broke it by a little bit more."
Shields moved to Hamilton to study business at the University of Waikato two years ago. She is part of the Sir Edmund Hillary programme and is doing bachelor of business.
This year she moved to Cambridge to join the New Zealand track team but "Clyde is still home."
Balancing study and her cycling career makes for a hectic schedule. A typical day starts with a two-hour gym session. There is also a three-hour track or road session in the afternoon.
Whenever she is on her bike all the data is collected for analysis. Her heart rate, power output, time and speed are all measured. The sports scientists pour over the information and provide feedback.
"Sometimes it is really refreshing just to turn it off and go for a ride and not have to look at something afterwards," she said.
Shields loves being part of the what is a highly-competitive environment. But it has come at a cost.
She does not have the time she once had to put into her art and "I kind of miss it".
"I would have loved to go to design school but it does not quite work out with the cycling thing.
"I’d loved to end up in something like that but I’m yet to figure out how that is going to work.’’
Until then she may just have to settle for a tour of the art galleries in Paris.
