Maggie Coles-Lyster

This was my third weekend on the island after coming over for the Dove Creek Stage Race, and the Podium Search- put on by the Canadian Sport Institute: it was well organised, lots of fun and really interesting to see our how I did in each test. Then it was the Robert Cameron Law Cycling Series and last was this race, the Youth Road Provincials and time trial Provincials in the Comox Valley! I got to pre-ride the road course the day before the race and discuss with my team mate, Clara Mackenzie, our strategy for the following day. I raced u17 women, but we were put with the u19 women for the road race which made for more aggressive racing and a larger category. All the youth at the start of the Youth Provincial Road Race Guys are such posers :-P Sooo, race day... After riding up to the race, we rolled out, warmed up and were off! The first 2 laps (out of 7)  stayed pretty tame, until I attacked on the hill at the start/finish. Gillian Ellsay was on me right away, with t...

Of course I always go into a race ready to win- especially the BC Road Champs were I got to race cat. 1/2/3 with some pro's like Anika Todd, Annie Ewart and Denise Ramsden. I proved to myself in at the Enumclaw Stage Race that I could stay in and race with the cat. 1/2/3's, so I had no doubt that it was going to be an epic weekend of racing for me! After a ferry ride over, the weekend started with the Hotel Zed time trial along the water. I practised my corners, did a good warm up.... and missed my start!!! Ugh! Everyone I talked to afterwards though, told me that that was going to happen to me one day! Anyway, I still felt that I had a good tt (besides being 2-3 minutes behind everyone else) and applied everything from the corners to my speed that my dad and I had talked about! Next up was the Accent Inns Cycling Classic Provincial Road Race! I raced this course last year, so I knew the course and how hard yet epic it actually is. The race started out well, with me up ther...

The Sunshine Coaster and Ore Crusher were so much fun!! Judging by the fact that walking was a painful chore afterwards, I definitely pushed myself to my max, and now, I just need to work on skill!! I found that in both races, being a road racer and all, I was able to power up the non-technical climbs and flats and use those to my advantage, it was just when we hit the more technical sections that I couldn't ride them very fast. I found it very helpful having cyclocross skills for those obstacles that I couldn't ride- being able to dismount and mount quickly and run with my bike until I could get back on. The Sunshine Coaster was the first mountain bike race that I had ever done, and wasn't quite sure what to expect despite the pre-race talks from my Local Ride teammates. I had a really good start, and was right up there on the climbs, once we hit the more technical trails I lost some ground, but again, was able to make it up on the non-technical climbs that followed! The...

All year, I've look forward to the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race in Enumclaw Washington , due to the big women’s categories, awesome atmosphere and super fun courses! This year, I raced cat. 3 women, which were combined with the cat. ½ women but got scored separately. The field size was the biggest field I had raced since Superweek. There were 16 cat.3’s and 25 cat ½’s!!! It challenged me to race aggressively to stay in good pack position and to be up there to counter-attack and go with the breaks that I could. This year was especially awesome as I got to race with my new teammate, BC junior, Clara Mackenzie. Although the pack was very strong and it was difficult to work with team tactics, we went in with a plan, and I found it really nice to have someone there to cover you when possible and as moral support. This was our first race together and we proved that we make a great, determined team, not to mention that Clara looks awesome in the Local Ride blue and orange! After pre...

This was the first opportunity so far this year where I got to race with just cat. 3/4 women, so it turned out to be a really aggressive field. The weekend started off with the road race, a fairly hilly course. My teammate Kelsey MacDonald and I pushed the pace on the hills on the first lap, to see who we could knock off the back. Some attacks where initiated, but none stuck. On the second lap, I attacked on the steepest hill, knowing that the decent included some corners where I could get out of sight. After launching the attack, no one seemed to react that quickly. I pushed myself as hard as I could, until I was caught by a chase of two girls right on my tail. We worked together for the remaining three laps, and it came down to an aggressive entrance to the sprint finish with attacks being launched and elbows out. In the uphill sprint finish, Louisa Scarlett took the win with a very strong sprint followed by me for second and Gillian Ellsay in third place. I knew, going into the ti...