Canadian multi-discipline rider Maggie Coles-Lyster signed a two-year contract to compete with Human Powered Health, changing from the red kits of Roland to the orange and purple colours of the US-based women’s WorldTour squad for 2025-2026. Human Powered Health made the announcement Wednesday, their first new contract for next season.
The all-rounder from British Columbia competed on the track at the Paris Olympic Games this summer, but still packed in 30 days of the road, which included two podiums at Thüringen Ladies Tour, a stage top 10 at the Tour de France Femmes, fifth at Ronde de Mouscron, fifth on a stage at UAE Tour and 10th at Gent-Wevelgem.
The team will look to the 25-year-old to add a spark for sprints, especially in one-day Classics.
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"To be on an American Women's WorldTour team is special. Since Human Powered Health stepped up to WorldTour and then focused on women's cycling, I've heard nothing but good things. The staff seems incredible, which builds a solid foundation and that increases my excitement even more," Coles-Lyster said in a press release.
"To come to a program that will help me step it up to that next degree of development is important. I've figured it out on a large scale and now it's time to fine-tune details with a team that will support that."
She began racing cyclocross when she was eight years old, but changed her focus later to the solid surfaces of track and road with Canadian national teams. On the road she spent three years with the DNA Pro Cycling team, where she had top 10s at the Joe Martin Stage Race and Tucson Bicycle Classic, as well as podiums in criterium events such as Saint Francis Tulsa Tough, Athens Twilight Criterium, Sunny King Criterium and Spartanburg Criterium.
In 2022 she had won a stage at Joe Martin, the Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic and earned podiums at Salt Lake Criterium and Boise Twilight, and that momentum led her to sign with a B&B Hotels team to race in Europe. But that team failed to materialise and she then signed with Zaaf Cycling, and that Spanish team fell apart on short notice in the early spring. She finished the season at Israel Premier Tech Roland on the Women's WorldTour, which became Roland this year.
"You see a lot of female athletes go down some slippery slopes. Maybe they're really good for a season but then they get completely burnt out and that is sad to see. For our long-term health and performance, balance with the Pillars is crucial," she said about Human Powered Health's focus on "pillars of performance" - movement, fuel, mindset and recover.
In 2017, Maggie Coles-Lyster became Canada's first junior world champion in track cycling when she won the women's points race a day after taking silver in the Omnium. She was a double silver medallist at the 2019 Pan American Games in the women's team pursuit and women's omnium. By 2022 she had earned a bronze medal in the Scratch race at the Commonwealth Games and was fourth in the Omnium at the World Championships.
At the Paris Olympic Games, Coles-Lyster put together a second-place finish in the Scratch race with a pair of thirds in the Tempo and Elimination races, but a low score in the Points race moved her to ninth overall in the Omnium. She also competed in women's Madison and Team Pursuit but also fell out of contention for any medals.
"For a first Olympics it was quite the week," Coles-Lyster told CBC Sports after the events at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome. "There were some great moments and a fair amount of disappointment, but that's bike racing. I know what I have to do and I feel this is going to be the first of many Olympics for me."
Coles-Lyster is finishing her bachelor's degree in Health Sciences from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada.
