After an impressive 2016 race season, Maggie Coles-Lyster has raised the bar even higher as she enters her last year of racing as a Junior.
Last season, the 17-year old cyclist from Maple Ridge, BC competed in three different World Championships, where she won a Bronze medal in the Omnium at the World Junior Track Championships in Aigle, Switzerland and battled hard for a 14th place finish at the Junior World Road Championships in Doha, Qatar. She also set three new Canadian Junior records on the track.
For 2017 she looks forward to returning to two World Championship events. In August, she plans to head to China for the Junior Track World Championships with her sights set on a gold medal in the Omnium then to Bergen, Norway in September in search of a podium finish in the road race.
To help her achieve her goals, Maggie has decided to split her season with racing at home and in Europe.
While racing in Belgium back in September, as she prepared for the Junior Road World Championships, Maggie was approached by the team director for the Belgian-based UCI women’s team Lares-Waowdeals. She was offered a contract to ride with their newly formed development team for 2017.
“After racing in Belgium and the World Championships, I knew that if I was to reach the next level in my racing career, I would have to spend more time racing in Europe. The competition is so strong and the racing so physical that it really suites my style. We don’t get to experience that kind of racing here in Canada” expressed Coles-Lyster.
Maggie will attend a team training camp in Spain this spring, and will plan to move to Belgium on a more permanent basis in July, once she graduates from high school.
In her final year of high school, Maggie will again have to balance her time wisely to accomplish all of her goals. Maggie has a full academic course load at school, and plans to graduate with her French/English Dogwood. In addition to her training, she plays in the school band and manages to find time to ride her horse Elmo. Her coach Barry Lyster takes a whole-person approach and strongly believes that you need to encourage and foster many pieces of one’s life to be a successful athlete.
She will start the season with TaG Cycling Race Team who she will represent at North American races until she can make the full-time transition to Belgium.
“TaG Cycling Race Team was an important part of providing me the support I needed for a successful 2016 season. I know if I am going to reach my full potential in 2017, there is no other team in Canada that can help me achieve these goals than TaG,” commented Coles-Lyster.
It truly takes a community to build an athlete. Maggie would like to thank the following for supporting her dreams: Local Ride Racing, TaG Cycling Race Team, Lares-Waowdeals, Cycling Canada, Code Sports, Power2Max, Masimo, ISM, Podium Sports, Epoch Analytical, Cycles Lambert, Vision Wheels, Orange Sport, Born Sports Care, Bont Cycling.
