Maggie Coles-Lyster

Hello again! Just got back from Winnipeg and have yet to unpack (ooops). Threw myself right back into reality as the morning we flew in (we woke up 4 am Winnipeg time) we were early enough for me to make it to second block at my high school... yay. Besides that, I had an AMAZING  time in Winnipeg at Cyclocross Nationals! Pre-race focus.... die cucumber ;D Warm up swag under the not-so-warm sun   We flew in on the Thursday morning, and since the racing didn't start until Saturday, my dad and I hit the gym at our hotel. Did some plyos and a bit of a jog- nothing too strenuous but just enough to make me feel good and keep the body moving! Friday, we woke up and had apparently brought the BC weather with us because it was POURING! All I could think about was the leftover mud for the next day, as we were not yet educated on Winnipegs fast drying, tacky river mud/clay! I rode the course, figured out some lines through the 3 sandpits and got to fly over the flyovers! ...

Hello all! I am writing this blog as I am on the plane to Winnipeg for cross Nationals! It has been a busy month for me! Track Nationals took place a month ago in Milton, Ontario on the new Mattamy Velodrome, built for the Pan Am games. People had told me that the track was nice and fast to ride on, but it was even more amazing than I imagined! Riding the track was like riding on velvet, and the facility was absolutely gorgeous! They always had the heat pumping, turning the building into a sauna which made for some fast conditions. Pre bunch race smiles :D My dad (aka coach) and I flew in on Wednesday night, and did a midnight shopping spree, powered by jetlag. Thursday, we got to the track to watch the elites race and get some Team Pursuit practice in. Racing for the u17/juniors kicked off on Friday with the team events. First up was the Team Sprint, which I signed up for last minute with Margaret Ovenell (Devo). We had never done it together before, and even though we didn...

Superweek 2015- So we flew home from Quebec Thursday evening and BC Superweek started Friday with the MK Delta criterium. With the races starting in the evenings, it gave us the morning to build up my bike and go for a shake down spin, pre-race. This was another learning experience for me- don’t eat certain things for lunch/dinner within three hours of a Superweek crit! I had a great start and hung at the front for the first bit of the race, then totally cramped up, got dropped and pulled with three laps to go. It wasn't how I was quite hoping to kick off Superweek, but I had 6 more races to prove myself! Pre-race Interview :D  The next night, I planned out my meals better, and was already over jetlag and feeling great! This race was the Brenco Delta crit and there were 60-70 female riders. Once again I had a great start, and tried to maintain a top 15 position during the race. Eventually, the crowd prime came around and I thought what the heck, I’ll go for it! I didn...

Hello!! Ok Junior Road Nationals was so full of learning experiences, it’s insane! This was the Junior National Road Championships in Thetford Mines, Quebec. My whole family travelled to Quebec 1 week before the race, to make a vacation out of it. We flew into Montreal and were picked up by the 31ft RV we were renting for the two weeks in Quebec. Upsettingly, when our bikes came through security, we found one of the boxes completely ripped and open! We're still unsure what might have fallen out (obviously nothing of total importance). The lack of respect from the airlines on our bikes was quite shocking and extremely disrespectful. Those are expensive bikes in those boxes, like seriously! So, despite being jetlagged, we drove two-ish hours to Trois Rivieres to hang with my sisters exchange partner, then to a trailer park just outside of Quebec City. My dad and I built up the bikes and found a ride, then we went in to Quebec City for a couple of days. I absolutely fell in lo...

Hellooo! Here's a summary of the first part of my season :D So my season started out with an adventure down to Enumclaw, Washington for the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage race. There were about 30 cat. 1/2/3 women in our field, which made the racing fast and exciting! First up was the time trial, Mercx style. It was a beautiful 10 km TT out on the windy roads in the farmland part of Enumclaw. I finished 15 th in the TT, just over a minute down from the leader, but felt strong and that overall, I had a good TT. We followed the TT with a pancake brunch at our traditional breakfast place. 7 hours to chill, then warm up time for the infamous, fast, 8 corner criterium. I have been incorporating some gym workouts into my warm up, off the bike, and it has so far really helped me warm up everything from my arms to my core, and also, my balance and focus, instead of just my legs. During the crit, I watched for moves, and stayed in the top 10 for the majority of the race, and also won the spr...

Hey all!! So I am writing this as I am sitting in the airport waiting to catch my flight back to Vancouver. What perfect timing to, as it just started raining here in LA! (So it was actually written in the airport, even though I am posting it much later ;) I have been in LA for almost exactly 2 weeks at a Canadian elite/junior National Team training camp. It has been an epic 2 weeks with around 35 hours of riding! The camp took place in the county of Oxnard, around two hours north of LA. The place where we stayed was a total beach house! It was this quaint little blue "surf shack" 1 block from the beach with the perfect number of beds for us 4 juniors (Liah Harvey, Katherine Maine, Catherine Ouellette and I) and womens National team road coach, Denise Kelly. It was so nice to get to know Denise and the other juniors, whom I hadn't met before! The riding was great! You could drive 20 minutes out to the canyons and do 4 hours just on the back roads, or ride from our h...

Hey!! Long time no blog ;p So I got to race my new Colnago for the first time this past Sunday! I couldn't race Spring Series Saturday as I was at the Vancouver bike show and had the pleasure of meeting Colnago Canada Manager, Juli Dutil as well as Colnago's signature Ferrari! I also got to model some skin suits for CODE Sports! Colnago's Juli Dutil, me and the Ferrari!  Modelling CODE skin suits!  Later on, I hit a dog that bolted out at me on my training ride and crashed, skinning my poor pinky :(. Sunday finally came around and brought with it my first race of the season! The race went well, with me for most of it, staying in the top half of the pack. There was a really big B field with a half dozen women, and having them there just gave me more motivation to hang in the race. Although, with less than 1 lap to go, I got gaped on a corner and couldn't get back into the race. All in all, I found my first race and first B race to be pretty...

Hey there! Nationals blog finally post-ready!! So Nationals.... The whole week started on Wednesday with Team BC training on the track and getting our first glimpse of the other Provincial Teams coming in! Training again Thursday, then Friday, the team events started! First up was Rachel Carrey and I for the Team Sprint, and despite a start malfunction, we still got the fastest time in the qualifiers! Rachel and I had been working on our Team Sprint and knew pretty well how one another rode. She was the starter and I finished. Rachel Carrey (right) and I racing the Team Sprint. Photo Credit to: Scott Robarts Up next was the Team Pursuit, where Holly Simonsin, Jess Reynolds and I communicated well and rode a fairly smooth race, getting the 3rd fastest time in the qualifiers and moving onto the finals for bronze later on that evening. The evening session started out with the Team Sprint, and Rachel and I confidently and nervously warming up for the sprint finals, e...

Hey all!! So this past weekend I raced at the Burnaby 4 Day track race at the Burnaby Velodrome. It was a 4 day event (hence the name ;) and I raced 3 Elite Women races per evening. The races we raced were some of the longest track races that I had ever done, with races such as the 75 lap scratch race and the 80 lap points race!! They were long and faaaast. There were 17 elite women, which is awesome considering the low numbers in the past! There were also some very top riders in that category, such as Jasmin Glaesser, Steph Roorda, Carri Higgins and Joanne Kiesanowski. Jasmin Glaesser, me, Steph Roorda Picture By: Pete Whalen Going into the week, I spent many nights visualizing the different races and visualizing myself on the podium in each one. I had an idea of what to expect for speed and skill aspects after having done BC Superweek two years in a row. Turns out that I was accurate with my predictions of how the racing would be, as there was very little sketch and reall...