Guelph’s Kiara Lylyk is about to put the pedal to the metal against the best women’s cyclists the world has to offer.
Lylyk has signed a one-year deal with Winspace, a France-based cycling team and will be competing on the professional road racing circuit in Europe in 2025.
“It’s a dream come true,” she told GuelphToday. “Since I was little, I’ve always been athletic and I’ve always seen myself wanting to pursue some kind of athletic career, whether that was hockey or running, or now biking.”
She equates bike racing in Europe to playing hockey in Canada.
The 20-year-old considers it a big privilege to earn a wage doing something she loves, especially at her age.
“It’s going to be my job, (but) I don’t really look at it like that,” she said. “I just ride my bike.”
Lylyk has been filling the trophy case since beginning her trek as a competitive cyclist four years ago. Her most recent success came as a collegiate cyclist, as part of Brevard College.
She won three national cycling championships at the USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike Championships earlier this month in Arkansas.
She topped the podium in the women’s cross-country event and the women’s individual omnium (scoring the most points in the four individual cycling events).
Lylyk was also part of Brevard’s team relay victory, and took bronze in the short track cross-country event.
But it was a road that didn’t come without its share of obstacles.
After competing at the Tissot UCI Track World Championships in Denmark in October, Lylyk said she was supposed to head back to school and go straight into nationals for Brevard.
But questions lingered because the original site of nationals was devastated by Hurricane Helene. It eventually moved to Bentonville, Arkansas.
“It was pretty quick notice, but only like a month out,” she said. “It changed everything, so instead of driving 30 minutes to the venue, we had to drive 15 hours. It was more of an affair to go, but it was still a great experience.”
Lylyk is back home for the next couple weeks, getting her visa for Europe sorted out ahead of time.
“I’m actually taking these two weeks completely off the bike, which is new to me,” she said.
“I’ve never done that before but it’s pretty common this time of year. I just started with a new coach, she said ‘yeah, two weeks completely off’ so it’s been really weird for me to step back and be okay with not moving as much.
“I think it will help me prepare in the next couple weeks, before I get back into training.”
From there, the countdown begins as Lylyk moves to Spain in January.
“It’s coming up quick, I’m not sure I’m ready but I’m living with Canadians, so it won’t be such a culture shock,” she said with a laugh.
The former hockey player and Centennial CVI grad is still pursuing her exercise science degree at Brevard.
She will do online courses this spring while competing, before returning to North Carolina in fall 2025 for her senior collegiate season.
But until then, she and the Winspace team are hitting the road in races such as the Paris-Roubaix Femmes in northern France, and possibly the women’s Tour de France (known as Tour de France Femmes).
“It’s a possibility,” Lylyk said. “I don’t know yet if our team is invited. We find out later, and depending if I’m selected. It’s a possibility, but I could be doing big races like that.”
