Commonwealth Games-bound cycling prospect Claudia Marcks is almost waiting to be asked if she ever picked up an oar and set out across Lake Burley Griffin.
"This question always comes up," Marcks laughed.
"No, I didn't. Obviously mum and dad both came from a background of rowing. I tried it, didn't enjoy it, wasn't really my thing."
Canberra's freezing cold mornings go some way to explaining why the 22-year-old endurance rider is set to make her Commonwealth Games debut in the velodrome, after being named in a 25-person cycling squad for Australia's tilt at gold in Glasgow.
To say mum and dad came from a rowing background sells the story a little short.
Her mum, Megan Marcks [nee Still] was a world champion rower who won gold at the 1996 Olympic Games. And the rising cycling star's father? Gordon Marcks was a national rowing coach for more than a decade.
"Mum would always come into primary school and do talks for the kids and talk about her experience, but all of her Olympic stuff is kind of tucked away. I don't think we've really pulled it out at all," Marcks said.
"For me, potentially making the Olympic Games, I want it. I think I want it just because I want to be able to have the possibility to get an Olympic gold medal as well, just like Mum did. That's a big driver for wanting to do well in the sport.
"They're happy to support me, but they're also happy to let me go and do my own thing and figure out my own pathway, so I've been really grateful for that.
"I was never pressured to try [rowing] or anything, but I went through all the sports as a kid and eventually when I fell into cycling, thanks to my younger brother, Eddie, it was just the first sport that kind of actually stuck with me."
Which brings us to Milwaukee, the latest stop for Marcks on the Tour of America's Dairyland as she ramps up preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
Marcks became Australia's first elite women's 1000m time trial national champion at last year's national championships in Brisbane. It marked her second national title, but her first gold medal after she finished third behind Ireland's Lara Gillespie and Czechia's Petra Sevcikova during 2024's elimination race.
Now she is part of a team Chef de Mission Petria Thomas says is "well positioned for another outstanding campaign at the velodrome" at the Glasgow Games, which begin on July 23.
"I feel like it hasn't quite hit me yet. Over the last six months or so, I've had a lot of changes," Marcks said.
"I've had to I relocated down to Adelaide to be with the national team, because that's where the team's based, and really gotten my head down, stuck into training. I feel like I just hadn't had an opportunity to look up yet and take in what's actually been going on.
"Now I've had a bit of time to just chill, I'm excited. This is my first big Games, really. It makes me really excited for, potentially, Olympics down the track."
And of course, her parents will be there.
"This will be their first international race of mine that they've been able to come over and watch," Marcks said.
"I've heard so much about the atmosphere, and I've always just been watching the games on the other side of the TV, so it'll be cool to be there in person and take all that in."
