It was the trophy she was presented for being named the elite female Para-cycling category winner at the 2018 Cycling Australia Awards.

Staged in Melbourne on Friday, Miller joined the likes of Tour de France green jersey winner Robbie McEwen, time trial superstar Rohan Dennis and BMX talent Saya Sakakibara in the crowd.

She was one of three finalists in contention for the award, Emily Petricola and Carol Cooke the others. While Miller had earned her nomination for winning both the time trial and road race for her category at the 2018 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in Italy, she knew she was up against two very talented women.

“I’d never been to it [awards] before and I’d never been nominated before, so it was very exciting,” Miller said.

“To be nominated I was over the moon, but to actually win the award against that sort of competition, I’m thrilled.

READ MORE: Dennis wins Cycling Australia award again

READ MORE: Miller earns a pair of rainbow jerseys

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“It was probably the most competitive women’s category we’ve seen in some time. Emily Petricola had broken the world record twice this year for her track events and Carol is obviously quite successful with winning the World Cup series.

“It’s a great problem for Cycling Australia to have really, to have such depth in the women. For a long time we’ve had such depth with the men, so it;’s great to see that is transferring across now with the women.”

Miller was presented her award by Caroline Buchanan, a multiple BMX and mountain bike world champion. She was then asked by MC Matthew Keenan what it was like to both wear national colours and the rainbow stripes of a world champion.

“For anyone to pull on a green and gold skin suit – like many people in the room – it’s a tremendous privilege to be able do that,” she said.

“But to put on rainbows as well – I’ve looked up to other people in our team, it’s a quite successful team and there’s a lot of people who’ve worn rainbows before – to pull it on myself it was ‘Oh wow’.

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“I was super proud to be able to do that and be recognised for the effort and the great races I did put in.

“I got my rainbow skin suit that other day to wear at nationals and it was very exciting. It will be a little bit different next year not racing in Bathurst colours or WRAS [Western Region Academy of Sport] colours at nationals.

“I didn’t know it was coming so I opened up the package and pulled it out and it was like ‘Wow, this is what it is, this is really exciting’. So I guess that’s more motivation to ride well at nationals so I can go to worlds and hopefully keep doing it over and over again, because it looks pretty nice.”

The Cycling Road Nationals will be staged at Ballarat from January 4.