Many people’s contribution to cycling goes way beyond the results page.

They’re the people who knock down barriers and forge the pathways for the next generations.

Donna Rae-Szalinski is one of those people.

On the bike she was a world-class athlete.

The 1980s were a breakthrough period in women’s cycling.

In 1984, at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, women's racing was first added to the cycling program via a road race.

For track cycling, that introduction would come four years later at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Cycling was playing catch up and it was group of pioneers who were leading the charge.

For Australian women, that push was led by Queensland's Liz Hepple, a member of the University of Queensland Cycling Club.

The 1914 Tour de France was a significant step in the history of Australian cycling.

The Tour, in its 12th edition, was already cycling’s premier race worldwide and would be the last edition before the beginning of World War I.

Don Kirkham and Iddo “Snowy” Munro, along with four other Australians, travelled by ship for seven weeks, from Melbourne to Toulon, in the south of France, to race their bikes in the hope of a Tour start.

Even before creating history by riding alongside Don Kirkham as the first Australians to race the Tour de France in 1914, Iddo "Snowy" Munro had already established himself as a record breaker.

In the early days of Australian cycling, the iconic Melbourne to Warrnambool was often ridden the other way, Warrnambool to Melbourne.

Riding on rough roads, often gravel, and with no gears, the big challenge was how would riders measure up against the train that would leave Warrnambool when the top riders did.