Race the Ridge 2014

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 time trial that it could win or lose me the race. Having pre-ridden the course and having raced it last year, I knew the speeds I had to maintain to get a good time. I felt consistent, but my time wasn't quite where it needed to be for me to move up in the GC. It was a painful time trial, but that's racing! Thanks Jeff Ain for giving me tips on my time trial position- I have been training in it and it is slowly becoming more comfortable!!

Going into the crit, I was sitting second overall with Gillian Ellsay leading by an impressive 1 min 12 sec! I calculated which primes I needed to get and by how much I had to win by to close the big gap. Kelsey and I were upfront actively attacking and countering in an attempt to get away. I ended up taking the time bonus prime, but still needed to make up quite a lot of time. So, playing with tactics, Louisa Scarlett and I tried multiple times to get away, but the pack was not about to let anyone go. The race came down to a sprint finish were I got a good lead out by Kelsey and took the win, but wasn't able to make up enough time to win the GC!! Although, I still came out as the Junior Women Leader of the BC Premier Road Series!!

All in all, an amazingly awesome, fun weekend of racing that I can't wait to race next year!! Thanks to Local Ride Racing, Kicking Horse Coffee, Golden Ears Physio, Cycles Lambert, Cycling BC, Giant Bikes, Q Energy, Power2Max, District of Maple Ridge and City of Pitt Meadows for all the continuous support!

After a couple weekends of Mountain Bike Racing, it's off to the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race- I am sooo excited!!! :-)



Play by play of my attack in the road race!!
Photos by Steve Devantier




Out of sight, out of mind!!









Thanks for reading!
Maggie Coles-Lyster 

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