Maggie Coles – Lyster 5th at Ronde de Mouscron in Belgium

Roland Cycing’s Maggie Coles – Lyster had another great day in the office, finishing 5th at the 1.1 Ronde de Mouscron in Belgium on Monday. The Maple Ridge, B.C. native took a respectable 26th at the brutally hard Ronde van Vlaanderen on Sunday, her first time riding the Monument.

Before Flanders, she had a top-10 at Gent – Wevelgem.

First Flanders for Coles – Lyster

“I did my first Ronde van Vlaanderen yesterday. Was feeling good on the big loop, then was hit in one of the crashes at probably the worst time,right as we were entering the climbs. That left me with a mechanical which meant my teammate Tamara Dronova was literally pulling me by the arm to make it up the first climb,” the 25-year-old said in an Instagram post. “Then I had bike change on the cobbles, then a 20-minute chase back on just to be on the last wheel up the first cobble climb.”

Leg-busting climbs

At that point, Coles-Lyster thought the race was over, but she kept giving ‘er. “Thought that was game over, but just kept making up ground, and took a nice jog up the Koppenberg, then found myself in the second big group on the road, where we spent the rest of the race chasing the 24 riders in front of us,” she added. “We didn’t make the catch, so I ended up in 26th. I left my legs somewhere on the Kwaremont, but finished the race buzzing and eager to make the front split in these Classics. If I had to describe it all in one word: iconic.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Maggie Coles-Lyster (@maggiecoleslyster)

On Monday at the 122.5-km Ronde de Mouscron, things went smoother. Although there were plenty of crashes, she managed to avoid the carnage of the day. “And this morning, got to wake up and do it all again,” she posted. After an extra cup of coffee and off we went for Ronde de Mouscron, where the day was spent dodging an insane amount of crashes, clawing back in cross winds and finally ignoring the pain in my legs from yesterday to go 5th in the sprint.”

|