Ashlin Barry capped off a successful junior racing campaign, securing the silver medal in the individual time trial at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda.
The 17-year-old racing for Team USA says he is looking forward to starting the next chapter of his career, developing with Visma-Lease a Bike Development and with a target on the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
"After the World Championships last year, I had some really good results last season, and got offered a long-term contract with Visma. Next year, I will race with the under-23 team, or maybe the next two years. I have the option to move up to the WorldTour team when I'm ready, depending on how my development is," Barry told the assembled media at the Kigali Convention Centre on Tuesday.
"To be honest, it's a team that I've always looked up to, and I think it's a huge opportunity. I've gone to a training camp with the team this year, and I enjoyed the atmosphere. It's been great working with the staff. I'm super excited to be making the step up next year."
Barry stepped away from EF Education-EasyPost's development programme at the end of 2024 to join Visma-Lease a Bike's partnership club team JEGG-SKIL-DJR this season with much success, securing five victories across the Internationale Cottbuser Junioren-Etappenfahrt and Watersley Junior Challenge. As an undeniable talent in the individual time trial, he earned a junior title in the ITT at the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships. He was also second in Paris-Roubaix and E3 Saxo Classic for juniors.
Barry said he is anticipating a lot of major changes in his life and racing career starting next season, which will include spending more time abroad, an increased racing calendar and a higher level of training.
"I'm spending a fair amount more time in Europe, and I'll be training on the track with the National Team. I'll be balancing track with my goals on the road," he said.
"The level of races, I'm sure, will be higher, and training volume will increase. I'm out of school now, so it will just be a lot more focused on riding. It's a lot of changes in this transition, but I'm excited for new challenges."
As for the men's junior individual time trial in Kigali, Barry finished the 22.6km challenging course in a time of 29:14, reaching maximum speeds of more than 90 kph on the descents, and finishing just six seconds slower than the new world champion, Michiel Mouris from the Netherlands.
Barry admitted that he had doubted himself ahead of the event, citing the challenges he had faced during his preparations, which made the silver-medal performance an even more memorable one.
"It feels incredible to be able to finish on the podium of his race. The preparation didn't feel like it was going super well for me. I spent two weeks in Boulder, Colorado, which has super nice training, and then a week at the Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs. It was nice to get that altitude exposure. I was with a couple of good friends, teammates, and we got really good training in. I had a lot of good support there. That really helped," Barry said.
"But, my performances have been super up and down, and I was struggling for the past couple of months for a couple of different reasons, so I didn't have a reason to believe that I could show up today and do this kind of performance. I was nervous, and honestly, slept two or three hours last night, just wired, and thinking about the race. To be able to do this performance is incredible, it's a huge relief."
Born in Spain, he is the son of retired professional cyclists, Canadian Michael Barry and American Dede Barry. Barry swapped his official nationality from Canada to the US two years ago, in what he said was a strategic sporting move ahead of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
"100%, I have had a lot of really special opportunities with the [US] National Team, both with the track and on the road, over the past two years. That will continue. The LA Games are a massive objective for me, especially on the track. So, I'll be really working toward that for the next couple of years."
Asked if he received congratulatory messages from his parents after the time trial in Kigali, Barry said, "I spoke to my parents on the phone right after the race. They were super happy for me. They've really supported me, and they were really happy with what I was able to do."
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