'I just kept getting ill' — Louis Barré on long COVID, missed Classics and a cautious way back

Visma | Lease a Bike gave themselves a New Year's present with the announcement of Louis Barré as a signing on 1 January — but the Frenchman did not finish his first race until 1 May. Speaking to IDL Pro Cycling, Barré explains what went wrong in the build-up to his new team and how much it hurts to have not yet been able to show what he can do.

The Nantes-born Frenchman has been racing in the WorldTour since 2023, but never fully found his feet at Arkéa. Despite that, Aike Visbeek — then sporting director at Intermarché-Wanty — spotted the raw talent in Barré and brought him to the Belgian team with a clear plan.

That plan paid off almost immediately. Last year he finished sixth at both the Amstel Gold Race and GP Montréal — two of the hardest one-day races on the calendar. When the Intermarché-Lotto merger made Barré free to move, Visbeek was understandably devastated to lose him.

Visma | Lease a Bike moved quickly and brought Barré in with another clear plan — this time with the Ardennes Classics as the target. "The team's story and the plans they have really convinced me. The team is innovative across every area: nutrition, equipment, training camps and more. I want to challenge myself and I think I can become the best version of myself here," he said at his presentation.

In the early weeks everything appeared to be going well — but then things unravelled. "The integration into the team was actually going really well, so I'm frustrated by what happened. Above all, missing the Ardennes Classics was painful. That was a real main goal, for both me and the team."

Barré explains what was behind it. "I had long COVID, which is basically why I haven't been able to race. I've been able to start training again, but my form is logically not there yet. The fact that I can train properly again is already a step forward."

"I started having symptoms in early February, but at first we didn't know it was long COVID. I just kept getting ill — it was two weeks training, one week sick, every single time," says Barré, who did manage to race the Drôme and Ardèche races in late February but reacted badly to them again.

"At the start of April we decided to pull the plug, and I stayed off the bike for ten days so the body could really reset," says the French speaker of excellent English. He tested that reset for the first time at Eschborn-Frankfurt, where he even briefly made the race on the climbs and finished his first race of the season. "An important indication of what is still to come."

"From the moment I started training again, I picked it up quickly," he reflects. "But I'm talking about two or three weeks, so I'm not completely certain yet. After three hours I still feel some fatigue creeping in, for example. But hopefully within a month I'll be fully back to my old self."

"If everything goes well, I hope to be racing again in the coming weeks and also to be in good shape for the French national championships," he says, looking ahead cautiously. "I won't be doing the Tour in any case, so after that I think races like the Clásica San Sebastián, the Canadian races and the Italian autumn classics could be great goals for me. But first of all I just hope to get fit again."