America's Ashlin Barry crushes top favourites with a spectacular solo breakaway to win the U23 road race

The road races in Canada have been underway for a day now. This Friday, it was time for the men’s U23 race. Earlier in the week, they had completed the time trial, where Dutch rider Ryan Gal pulled off a stunning upset by winning the world title. He did not compete in the road race, which featured a long list of outstanding talents at the start.

And early in the day, we saw some riders go on the attack there. A group of about fifteen riders quickly broke away, including Viktor Soenens (Belgium), Kristian Egholm (Denmark), Pierre-Henry Basset (France), and Wil Holmes (Australia). These were certainly no small names, so the pace was already very high. After an hour of racing, the breakaway attempt was already over.

It was time for a new phase, in which five skaters were given a bit more space. Among them were once again Egholm, William Heffernan (Australia), and Samuel Novák (Slovakia), who had also been part of the first group. But Matthew Dodd (Great Britain) and Visma prospect Ashlin Barry (United States) also joined the breakaway. They gradually pulled further ahead.

That was mainly due to some excellent disruption tactics by the British riders in the peloton. As a result, the breakaway had a lead of about two minutes with 75 kilometers to go, and Dodd was the strongest rider in that group. He then decided to go solo, while the French took charge in the peloton. There were quite a few breakaway attempts, and six outsiders managed to launch a chase.

We saw Matteo Scalco (Italy), Rémi Arsac (France), Matteo Vanhuffel (Belgium), Max Bock (Germany), Jacob Bush (Great Britain), and Jack Ward (Australia) on the attack. But it was a case of stop-and-go, and the peloton eventually came back together. That happened, however, behind Egholm and Barry, the top time trialists who had slipped away from the leading group.

Little by little, however, we saw the top favorites make their move. Héctor Álvarez (Spain), Henrique Bravo (Brazil), Aubin Sparfel (France), and others began to push the pace. Barry was the strongest at the front and broke away solo, but the gap to the favorites wasn’t large with two laps to go. For the Netherlands, we saw Guus van den Eijnden and Jurgen Zomermaand taking the initiative, while Daan Dijkman and David Haverdings were still biding their time.

That was the moment the race really started to heat up. Scalco took off again and rode away on his own. But Barry didn’t just give up. He skillfully maintained his lead of about twenty counts. But Scalco quickly got support from Álvarez, Sparfel, Jesper Stiansen (Norway), and Niels Driesen (Belgium). These were the real big names. But even those heavy hitters couldn’t get any closer to the tenacious American out in front.

In fact, he was pulling further and further ahead. Forty seconds: was a sensation in the making? The Netherlands had to give chase, but was already facing a gap of over a minute to the four leaders. And no matter how hard the five pursuers worked, they didn’t get any closer. Even on the climb, Barry’s pace remained rock-solid.

Sparfel made a last-ditch effort on the final climb, but the rest of the pack managed to catch up again. It proved to be the final blow: 19-year-old Barry—on his birthday, no less—maintained his lead and was able to celebrate early. Álvarez won the sprint for second place, ahead of Stiansen. The speedy Sparfel was exhausted and finished fourth.

1. Ashlin Barry
2. Héctor Álvarez
3. Jesper Stiansen
4. Aubin Sparfel
5. Niels Driesen