Allison Lee-Meyer’s love for cycling began with family treks that stretched across Vancouver. Now she has taken that passion to the track where she is riding wheel-to-wheel with some of the top up-and-coming athletes in the country.
The 16-year-old Grade 11 student at South Delta Secondary School showcased her potential at the recent nationally-sanctioned Western Canadian Track Cycling Challenge at the Burnaby Velodrome Club. Lee-Meyer won gold in the U19 Pursuit, U19 Team Trail and U17 Scratch Race. She would later add bronze (Keirin) and silver medals (Team Sprint and Team Time Trial) when she moved up to race at the elite women’s level.
The results reflect her significant progress since taking up the sport two years ago.
Lee-Meyer recalls being in awe the first time she stepped inside Metro Vancouver’s only velodrome and just how sloped the 47-degree track was.
“The first time I went in there, there were some other people who were practicing sprints, and they were just flying around the track. I was like ‘wow’ because it's such a steep track, said Lee-Meyer. “Being my first time there, I will always remember that. It's almost like I'm riding on a wall.”
Her love for cycling came at a young age on weekend excursions when her family lived in Vancouver before moving to Tsawwassen.
“We'd put our bikes on the bus and we would go all the way to UBC then we would ride all the way home. So when she was six, Allison was riding across Vancouver,” said her father Aaron. “At that point in time, we were living in East Vancouver, so gives you an idea of the distance. We were riding for five hours and stopping at playgrounds and what not.”
As Allison got older she was getting faster to the point it was time to take her passion to a junior club in the city. The downside was that involved a lot of riding on busy streets. She eventually learned of Burnaby Veldrome Club’s generous BIPOC youth cycling program that provided her a 10-week introductory program free of cost. There has been no turning back since.
Now her goal is to eventually earn a spot on Canada’s NextGen for future Olympians.
