Her sunglasses are mirrored, reflecting a sea of Lycra-clad kids as they rally around the start corral with her. Absentmindedly, she pushes the white frames up and tighter to her face, wedging them in securely under her pink helmet. For a brief moment, she chews at the corner of her lip and glances around. She's waiting to sign in—to take her pink, gummy-bear decaled bike through the gear check—and get this party started. It's Stage One of the European Junior Cycling Tour in Assen, Netherlands, and nine-year-old Ruby Isaac is about to throw down in the Individual Time Trial.

Three days earlier

“I like my bike pink. It matches my room,” she says, smiling. Looking around, she adds: “And my TV. And my bedsheets.” Ruby Isaac’s bedroom is pink. Insanely pink. We are bathing in it, which is just about the definition of heaven for Ruby because it’s her favorite color in the whole wide world.

Ruby climbs the ladder to stand on her bed and begins a tour, calling out all her treasures and flitting from keepsake to keepsake like a pony-tailed hummingbird as she does so. Stuffed animals, toys, and dolls are introduced. The character of a favorite book—Horrid Henry—is described in great detail. She shifts from foot-to-foot in excitement as she talks, and it’s all standard nine-year-old bedroom fare until you get to the cycling memorabilia.

Just inside the doorway of her room hangs a giant painting of one of her British cycling idols, Laura Kenny; there are trophies and medallions from Ruby’s races displayed on a window sill; and then there are her "special" jerseys. There’s the Luxemburg National Champion’s kit, given to her by Boels-Dolmans’s Christine Majerus. (Christine was Ruby’s first interview as Race Reporter Ruby at the Tour of California in 2017.) And then there’s one Helen Wyman gave her. She lays it out. “It was a women’s small, but it was too big. Some lady made it fit me better,” she says.

"What does it feel like when you wear it?"

“It makes me feel, like, really fast,” she says, smiling shyly.