Maple Ridge’s Maggie Coles-Lyster is a professional cyclist and member of Team Canada. Coles-Lyster races in both track and road cycling. She’s travelled all over the world to compete, but when you speak with Coles-Lyster, you meet a young woman who loves her hometown of Maple Ridge and is genuinely honoured to be a Hometown Hero.
In August of 2017, Coles-Lyster became a world champion for the first time, winning the junior points race at the world track championships in Italy. She had won silver in the omnium just the day before, and the win made her Canada’s first-ever junior world champion in track cycling. The teen's win was likely no surprise to people who saw her ripping around the dikes and roads of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows in races put on by her father and coach Barry Lyster. He owned Local Ride Racing, and has been putting on well-run local cycling races for many years.
She attended Laityview and Maple Ridge Secondary French Immersion, loved horseback riding and cross country. "I was born into cycling," summarizes Maggie.
Her father was her coach from early days, but not a taskmaster. Maggie had a desire to win that was all her own. "He never pushed me, and so I just had fun with it," she said. "I'm an extremely competitive person, and it's a perfect outlet for me."
She’s now a member of the DNA Pro Cycling Team, and based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She got a satisfying win at the Joe Marten Stage Race in Fayetteville, as she won a dramatic finishing sprint against an archrival.
"To get a win at that level was super exciting for me," she said.
Long-term, she is working toward qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Coles-Lyster has raced in the up-and-coming UGI Track Champions League, and expects to be involved in the invite only event again this year. It brings together the top 18 male and female endurance riders and sprint riders.
It was a new racing series that debuted in 2021-2022 as a partnership between Discovery Sport Events and the UGI (Union Cycliste Internationale). The Champions League bills itself as re-imaging what track cycling can be, featuring the best riders, with high stakes and a huge audience. The circuit features simple racing formats. There were races in England, Spain and Lithuania, with an event in Israel being cancelled.
"That was so exciting," said Coles-Lyster of the races, which drew crowds of up to 6,000 to the indoor tracks to watch. She won the first-ever final in Mallorca, Spain, and finished the series fourth overall, based on points awarded for results in four races.
This year she came away from her first Commonwealth Games with a bronze medal. She also snagged a 4th place in another event called the Points Race and a 5th place in the Road Race.
"I definitely enjoy coming back home. My family is still in Maple Ridge, my grandparents, and I love doing some nice, long rides," she said. "I have the Golden Ears Mountains tattooed on my ribcage. I wanted to take them with me." For all her trophies and awards, Coles-Lyster is proud to be named a Hometown Hero in Maple Ridge. "It means a lot. I remember going to the Leisure Centre, and looking up at the Hometown Heroes and wondering if I would be successful enough to be nominated as a Hometown Hero."