Ashlin Barry’s epic solo raid delivers America’s first Under-23 men’s road race World title

Ashlin Barry (United States) soloed to victory in the under-23 road race at the UCI World Championships in Montréal, Canada, becoming the first American winner of the event.

Barry, who races for the Visma | Lease a Bike development team, formed part of the main five-rider breakaway after an early 15-man move was caught. 

With 30km remaining, the American distanced his final breakaway companion, Kristian Egholm (Denmark), going solo and not looking back. 

Despite a dangerous quintet of pre-race favourites forming on the penultimate lap, Barry was able to maintain his advantage, which hovered between 20 and 45 seconds. 

In the end, the American had enough time to plan his celebration as he claimed the world title by 53 seconds over Héctor Álvarez (Spain), while Jesper Stiansen (Norway) took third. 

Barry’s performance was the perfect way to celebrate his 19th birthday, which will no doubt be one that lives long in the memory of the American. 

After a series of early attacks, which included a large group of over ten riders going clear, Ashlin Barry (United States), Matthew Dodd (Great Britain), Kristian Egholm (Denmark), William Heffernan (Australia), and Samuel Novák (Slovakia) pulled away to form a dangerous breakaway.

Inside the final 70km, more dangerous moves started to form off the front of the peloton. With 53km remaining, Egholm pushed ahead solo, though he was shortly rejoined by Barry. Behind them, a number of contenders opened a small advantage on the peloton, bridging across to the remaining riders out front.

This triggered a counter-attack from Ugo Fabries (France) and Erazem Valjavec (Slovenia), who were joined by Paul Fietzke (Germany) just before crossing the finish line with three laps remaining. While the leading duo held a 40-second advantage at this point, the chasing trio remained dangerously close to the peloton on the Camilien-Houde ascent.

The chasers were reeled in on the climb with 38km remaining just as Héctor Álvarez (Spain) launched an attack. Marked by top contenders, including Aubin Sparfel (France), Álvarez's move caused the peloton to fracture once more.

Inside the final 30km, Álvarez managed to break clear again before the penultimate lap, this time alongside Matisse Van Kerckhove (Belgium), Guus van den Eijnden (Netherlands), and Cameron Rogers (Australia). On the Camilien-Houde climb, this group caught Egholm, who had been distanced by Barry.

Once again, the climb allowed the strongest climbers to bridge across to the chasers, with the rest of the peloton sitting just a few seconds back. By the top of the penultimate ascent, Barry maintained an advantage of around 20 seconds. 

Looking to shatter the race even further, Matteo Scalco (Italy) launched an acceleration near the summit and pushed hard over the top, threatening to split the leading chase group. Eventually, the Italian's determination saw him open an advantage over the rest of the peloton, as he aimed to bridge across to Barry with 20km remaining. 

Scalco’s move managed to draw out some of the pre-race favourites, with Álvarez, Sparfel and Niels Driesen (Belgium) bridging across, as well as Jesper Stiansen (Norway) a short while after.

On the final ascent of the Camilien-Houde, the chasers tried to reduce their deficit by attacking, which put Scalco briefly under pressure, though the Italian was able to return to the group with 10km remaining, as Barry still had 35 seconds and proved to be too difficult to catch. 

Sparfel launched another roll of the dice with 3.5km remaining, which only Driesen was able to initially respond to. But once Álvarez, Scalco, and Stiansen also latched onto the wheels in front, the impetus went out of the chase once more, as Barry was on his way to the rainbow jersey.