The pair live together in Girona, Spain, which is their home away from home. They ride together for the professional road team Liv AlUla Jayco.

On the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in Paris, they will race together in the Madison where they will sling each other around the track for 50km, in a bid to end Australian track cycling's 12-year gold medal drought at the Olympic Games.

"I think we're probably the closest ‘Mado’ pairing you could have,” Alex says. 

“I mean the Polish girls (Daria and Wiktoria Pikulik) are sisters, but we're basically sisters too, so I feel like you can't really get much closer. 

"We've been roommates whenever one of us has had something pretty rough going on, and we've been a part of the team pursuit squad for a long time as well.

"There are times you miss out on something, and you watch the other friend succeed, then it goes the other way.  You have to be resilient and you do grow quite close in those moments - as well as the good ones too."

Alex and Georgia have been racing the Madison together for the past three years and their best result is a silver medal at the 2023 UCI Track World Championships.

"Alex and I have always been super close and best friends even before the Madison,” Georgia says.

 “It was just coincidence that we were both really passionate about it and our different strengths and weaknesses make for a really good pairing and balance each other out really well.

"It's cool that we get to race together as best friends."

These Games will be Georgia's third Olympics after she made her debut in Rio in 2016, and Alex's second Games after racing in Tokyo.

Together they are chasing Australian track cycling's first Olympic gold medal since the London Games, which was won by Anna Meares, who is now retired from racing and the team's Chef de Mission in Paris.

"That's definitely our goal,” Georgia says.

“Everything we've been doing this year with our training has been structured around the Madison so we will be giving it everything we can to make sure we have the best condition going into it.

"I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to our preparation, but you have to know things can happen and a spanner can be thrown into the works.

"We've learnt so much from each Olympic cycle and that's all gone into this prep so we know what works for us as a pairing and individuals."

Georgia feels like she has "unfinished business" at this Games.

"We've fallen short the last few Olympics and it is super frustrating but I really believe in the team we have, the staff, the athletes and the environment," she says.

"That keeps me going, knowing we haven't quite fulfilled our potential and it's exciting."

Alex says she's motivated by a love of the sport and more specifically, the Madison itself, an event where Stuart O'Grady and Brett Aitken won a memorable gold medal for Australia in Sydney 2000.

"I just really love it," Alex says.

"I love the team pursuit, but the madison in particular there's something that needs to be finished off.

"It seems like we've been putting all this work in and everyone is helping us and we want to finish the job."

Track Cycling will be held from 5-11 August at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.

Reece Homfray