US junior time trial and highway champion Ashlin Barry hit the accelerator on his path to the WorldTour, signing a multi-year cope with Visma-Lease a Bike this week.
In 2025, the 17-year-old will compete for the Dutch-based junior squad that companions with Visma-Lease a Bike, JEGG-SKIL-DJR Academy. After finishing his remaining 12 months as a junior, Barry will transition in 2026 to Visma’s growth group, which competes on the Continental stage, or leap to the highest tier.
“That is the primary time now we have signed somebody so younger straight for our WorldTeam,” Robbert de Groot, head of growth at Crew Visma-Lease a Bike, stated in a group press launch.
“We see immense expertise in Ashlin, together with vital room for development. We’re subsequently very happy that he can be a part of our group within the coming years. It displays our confidence in Ashlin’s potential and underscores our perception in long-term collaborations. Solely by working intently with a expertise from a younger age can we fulfill their most potential.”
This previous season Barry moved to EF Schooling-ONTO, the junior racing programme based mostly out of South Carolina. He earned GC wins at Valley of the Solar stage race in Arizona after which Tour du Bocage et de l’Ernée in France, his first total at a UCI stage race, then took a high 10 at Paris-Roubaix Juniors earlier than sweeping two of three highway occasions at US Nationals.
Barry is the son of profitable professional cyclists and Olympians Michael Barry, of Canada, and Deirdre ‘Dede’ Demet-Barry, of USA. With twin citizenship, Barry dedicated to a USA Biking racing licence for 2024, scoring three gold medals in January at The Subsequent Era occasion within the Netherlands, within the Elimination, Skratch and Tempo races, and a pair of silvers in pursuit occasions. He additionally swept the junior and elite titles with Enzo Edmonds at US Madison Observe championships.
The transition to gravel was spectacular, with a 3rd at Paris To Ancaster and later a powerful victory at Blue Mountains Gravel Fondo, a part of the UCI Gravel World Collection, forward of Canadian Benjamin Perry and Brennan Wertz, who later gained the US gravel nationwide title.
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“Crew Visma-Lease a Bike is actually a dream group. It’s extremely inspiring to signal with the identical group as riders like Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard. They’re nice examples of how one can develop additional inside this group,” Barry acknowledged within the group’s press launch.
“After all, I’m nonetheless very younger and within the means of discovering my specialties. I imagine the classics and time trials may swimsuit me greatest, however I’m assured that this group is the proper option to information me on that journey.”
Barry grew up in Toronto, Ontario the place he and his siblings had been inspired to play a number of sports activities, and did not give attention to biking till he was a youngster. He spoke to Cyclingnews within the spring about his pursuits in a number of disciplines in biking as he appeared a future profession within the sport, calling it ‘distant’ on the time.
“I positively wish to race professionally. It’s onerous to know what I can accomplish because it appears very distant. I’d like to mix racing on the highway and observe,” he advised Cyclingnews, admitting his highway focus for spring 2025 was a victory on the junior Paris-Roubaix race.
“The Olympics in 2028 are a giant aim for me to look in the direction of, however there are plenty of targets I’ve earlier than that. Racing with EF Schooling-ONTO for the reason that begin of final 12 months has been a extremely nice expertise for me. I’ve discovered rather a lot and had superb assist.”
Rusty Miller has been the group director of EF Schooling-ONTO for over a decade and gauges success not a lot in victories however in nurturing younger adults with racing skills and life abilities. He stated Barry was forward of the curve in each.
“We’re proud to see Ashlin’s ascent to the World Tour stage. He is an unimaginable rider and a terrific human being,” Miller advised Cyclingnews. “We’ll all get pleasure from watching his progress within the upcoming years as we proceed to carry alongside the subsequent crop of North American skills already inside our program.”
The “growth pyramid” supplied by Visma-Lease a Bike turned out to be a golden alternative for the rising expertise to hurry up the clock on his professional profession.
“Whether or not and the way lengthy he’ll race for the Growth Crew and when he’ll step as much as the WorldTour will rely on his progress,” De Groot defined. “Due to our growth pyramid, which features a junior, growth, and WorldTeam, we are able to stay versatile and supply riders like Ashlin a tailor-made pathway to additional their development.”