Monumental year takes US rising star Ashlin Barry from 'I could barely walk' to 'memory that will last a lifetime'

New under-23 road world champion Ashlin Barry didn't have a lot of time to celebrate a gold medal and a rainbow jersey as one of the most extraordinary rewards for a 19th birthday three weeks ago. After his solo conquest across the slopes of Mont Royal in the U23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships, he went straight to Los Angeles for a training camp on the track with Team USA and then headed to Shanghai for the UCI Track World Championships.

There's no time to rest on any laurels for Barry, as his sights are set on a version of California dreaming at the Los Angeles Olympic Games, now 639 days away.

"At the moment, I'm putting a lot of focus on the track in Team Pursuit, and then maybe qualifying for the Omnium, or something will come as a byproduct of that. If I could qualify for the road [at the Olympic Games], that would be pretty cool. But I think I have to take a step up physically from where I am now to make that selection," Barry told Cyclingnews in an exclusive one-on-one interview in Montréal.

"In terms of preparation, there's a lot going into our team pursuit now, and whether it's like a bunch event on the track or qualifying for the road, I think those will fall into place."

Barry has a huge balancing act to manage across multiple disciplines, global travel and a new commitment through 2029 to the Visma-Lease a Bike Development squad that could see him jump to the WorldTour team sooner rather than later.

Just two years before, he impressed with a silver medal in the Omnium at the Junior Track World Championships, sweeping US national titles in the road race and time trial, and winning junior and elite national titles in the Madison.

In 2025, after graduating from high school, he came second in the junior men's E3 Saxo Classic and Paris-Roubaix, earned a silver medal in the junior time trial at World Roads and the gold medal in the US Pro junior time trial national championships.

But his plan to make a statement on the track was derailed at the start of 2026, and he kept goals with his new Visma team modest.

"This was a tough year because I was supposed to do Pan Am Championships in February. I crashed on my knee in January, so I wasn't able to ride my bike. I could barely walk," he recalled.

"Things didn't go as planned. I was in Spain at training camp. Then I had to get some stitches in my knee, and I couldn't bend it. It could have been a lot worse, but it was a couple of weeks off the bike, and then I missed the track because of that."

While his track maturation was put on hold in the spring, he jumped into the fray in the Olympia's Tour at the end of March, earning two podiums. He then finished fifth in the U23 In Flanders Fields and then won the US Pro U23 road race and came in fourth in the US Pro elite men's road race the next day.

So when he finished one step off the podium in the U23 time trial at Montreal Road Worlds, he had modest expectations yet again. When asked two days before the U23 road race what he expected, the teen simply stated that he could be competitive on Friday but was "not going in thinking I have a super-high chance of getting a medal".

A gold medal and rainbow jersey were the result of a solo ride on his biggest stage yet. Barry called the win in the men's U23 road race "a memory that will last a lifetime". It was a monumental final 30 kilometres of the 174km contest, as the teenager carried the colours of Team USA to the win, and enthralled family and friends from two countries as a dual citizen of the US and Canada.

Even as he held his pace at the front of the race for the 12th of 13 circuits across Mont Royal, he said he wasn't sure he was strong enough to maintain a 40-second advantage. However, once he crested the major climb the final time and added to his solo lead, he let himself believe he could win, encouraged by supporters around the course.

"Once I was away, I just committed. It really felt like a home race out there," he told the media, including Cyclingnews, in Montreal. "It was just unreal being out there, seeing so many friends, seeing my family. I could hear my dog barking on the side of the course."

He now registers an entry in the family's journal of success in Montreal, his mother and former US elite women's road race national champion Dede Demet-Barry having won a pro race in Montreal in 2002, five years before Barry was born. His father and two-time Canadian road race silver medallist Michael Barry competed on the Mont Royal course on two editions of Grand Prix du Cycliste Montreal, when his son was old enough to remember ringing a cowbell at his father's race.

Both parents competed at multiple road world championships for their respective countries; Michael's best effort was eighth in the U23 road race in 1996, while Dede won the junior road title in 1989. And Dede also competed frequently on the track, going fourth at the UCI Junior World Track Championships.

Demet-Barry later translated that speed to a silver medal on the road at the Athens Olympic Games in the individual time trial. An Olympic medal of any colour, and in road or track, has the attention of her son.

Team environment

Barry said one of the reasons he enjoys the track so much is the emphasis on teamwork, be it Team Pursuit and other events like Madison. In fact, his personal favourite moment from 2025 was not even a win, but a fourth-place finish.

"[Last year] at Track Worlds, we were just off the cusp of getting a medal. But seeing the way that programme's come together has been really cool, and I'm personally proud to be a part of it, proud of those guys and seeing the way they've improved," he said about the US Men's Team Pursuit squad.

"[Track] Worlds will be a really good opportunity for me, and then I'm hoping next year to do Track Worlds again, hoping to get some more racing experience on the track."

This year, the quest for a gold medal in Team Pursuit began on the first day of the 2026 UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai as Barry rejoined Grant Koontz and Anders Johnson with the new addition of Taylor Phinney. They made it through qualifying but not the first round, with France ending their dreams. Barry will race the individual pursuit and Elimination Race later this week.

On the road, before earning his world title, Barry said his top road highlight of the season also showed the teamwork he values.

"There's something special about achieving something with another person or with a group of people, and being able to share that moment. The Olympia story comes to mind. That was just a cool moment, I mean one-two is cool," Barry said about that March race with teammates on the podium.

"We had a great team there. It's a good atmosphere; I really liked that course. I feel proud about the way that I raced there and worked with my teammate Aldo.

"My teammate and I were in that front gro,up and probably we had a pretty equal chance of winning, either one of us. I mean, he was second in the end, but he helped me set up that winning attack. He could have gone to the finish and won. It just ended by luck that I was the one winning."

Barry has the talent, not just the luck. Those two top moments of the past two seasons, however, were probably pushed to runner-up positions after he won the U23 road world championship.

In fact, his personal victory was also one for his country, scoring the country's first-ever U23 world title for a US athlete. And who was the last U23 men's rider to take a medal of any colour? It was his track teammate Taylor Phinney in 2010, who tied Canadian Guillaume Boivin to give the USA a bronze.