Maggie Coles-Lyster, 14, of Maple Ridge, has been racing to success across B.C. and the Pacific Northwest this season.
She has competed well above her Under-15 age class, against Senior women over 19, with her most recent victories earned May 31 through June 2 in Victoria at the Robert Cameron Law Cycling Series. She won all three competitions in the stage race.
Coles-Lyster’s significant improvements this season are due to physical and mental factors, like being another year older, fitter, and more experienced. But the young speedster credits her invigorated drive to her late coach, Jeremy Storie, who tragically passed away in February.
In fact, she dedicated this past weekend’s success in Victoria to Storie, who always encouraged his athletes to make the competitions more exciting for racers and spectators alike by animating the races with attacks and gutsy tactics.
Coles-Lyster took her coach and mentor’s words to heart and puts them into practice in every race she enters.
“If she’s in the race, everyone knows Maggie’s going to attack,” said Coles-Lyster’s father, Barry Lyster, who owns Maple Ridge’s Local Ride Bike Shop.
And attack she did, relentlessly, during both Saturday’s Westhills Cycling Classic road race and Sunday’s Bastion Square Grand Prix.
Her efforts in each race succeeded in splintering the field and putting the odds in her favour at the finish. In the 40km road race, Coles-Lyster reached the line first with only one other rider in contact, whom she craftily out-sprinted.
In Sunday’s Bastion Square Grand Prix, her hard pace and aggressive attacks pared the group down to four riders and she won the final sprint after 15 laps of the challenging circuit.
In Friday evening’s 5km Rumble individual time trial, the only possible tactic was all-out pedaling as she raced against the clock and powered out a personal best time and the win.
Coles-Lyster continued to train hard and earned another impressive result at the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race, May 18-19, in Enumclaw, WA. She competed in a strong field of Cat 4 women to finish third overall.