Maggie Coles-Lyster

Here's Superweek Part 1! Better late than never! Sooo... last year, Superweek was all about trying to finish a crit (which I didn't quite accomplish). Going into this years week of racing, I did not really know what to expect. I knew that I had definitely improved from last year, as I had finished 6th place in both of the high speed, cat. 1/2/3 Bastion Square Grand Prix and Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race crits. Yet, with all the big, powerful teams like Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies coming to race, I knew I was in for a sufferfest. The first race I did was the MK Delta criterium. I had done continuous visualization before and during Superweek so I went in feeling fit and strong, both mentally and physically. I made sure I had great position at the start, and the race was off!! Every lap, there would be either accelerations or attacks on the hill, but no one was able to stay away. I took great corners and the whole time, I kept thinking, move up, move up! There were...

So, back to Elma for the Northwest Juniors Classic Stage Race!! A totally professionally run (not to mention, epic) stage race in Washington! On top of great racing, I mean, how often do you really get to race around an abandoned nuclear power plant?! The weekend started off with us arriving at the Elma RV Park resort and after a day in Olympia, we met up with team mate Clara Mackenzie to ride the time trial course (the actual course- last year we pre-rode something completely different ;-) Saturday morning we got up and rode to the tt course. After lots of talking with my dad (coach) and visualisation, I knew exactly how I was going to ride the perfect time trial! A great warm up with a good playlist consisting of Eminem and Nicki Minaj and I was off! A perfect track-like start and very well executed time trial and I finished 2nd place behind Hannah Green (BYRDS) and beat my last years time by 3 min 56 seconds! I went into the crit with a goal to make it super aggressive and make ...