Stories by Michael Barry

• Posted: Tue, Dec 16th
  Michael Barry's Diary: Back in the saddle again
  In a sterile hotel presentation room, roughly 40 male and female cyclists, dozens of staff and seven managers and directors, sat and listened. The group was pushed into the last rows of seats while the front two were empty — like school kids scared of the front, the spotlight, ...
• Posted: Fri, Nov 14th
  Michael Barry's diary: The story of a cyclist
  Behind the story there is always a greater story, one which is often missed. The Tour of Lombardy unfolded in traditional fashion: a breakaway, a gauged acceleration in the peloton, the knife-stabbing attacks that seal most riders’ fate, and then, finally, the winning ...
• Posted: Wed, Oct 15th
  Michael Barry's Diary - The final attacks of the season
  Alessandria, Italy ─ The peloton, stretched thin into a long single line, stuck to the white line marking the edge of the road with the riders on the front pushing the cool yet fresh autumn air as they rode a hard tempo to control the race and bring back the breakaway. ...
• Posted: Wed, Oct 1st
  Michael Barry's Diary: Attacks, crashes and goodbye kisses
  The crowd roared as we, the handful of riders that was once over 200 riders large rode slowly around the course on the final lap of the six and a half hour race. Paolo Bettini sat on the front of the 30 man group, blowing kisses to the tifosi as they chanted his name, ...
• Posted: Wed, Sep 24th
  Michael Barry's Diary - Head down and go
  As the road climbed uphill into the lower Alps the peloton began to shatter. Riders attacked, while others drifted against the flow of the group. Gaps formed in the long line of riders. At the back, groups of dropped riders pooled together while, up front, sensing it was the ...
• Posted: Sat, Aug 16th
  Team Canada's Michael Barry reports on his Olympic road race.
  The motorcade of team cars raced through downtown Beijing, the usually congested roads virtually emptied for the Olympics, to the start. In each unbranded white car, the riders were piled in the back, as the directors drove. A small flag on the side was the only thing ...
• Posted: Tue, Aug 5th
  Michael Barry's Diary - The Olympics: From 1996 to 2008
  Four of us climbed into the back of the borrowed team Saturn truck, picking good spots for our lawn chairs. Once we were settled, the door was pulled shut and locked. We sat in darkness while our team captain, Steve Bauer climbed into the passenger’s seat beside Fernando, our ...
• Posted: Fri, Jun 13th
  Michael Barry's Diary - A homecoming at the Dauphiné
  A last wave goodbye, the tears in my parents’ eyes as they waved back, the pit in my stomach at the idea of being gone for months, and I then I was through the gate and walking towards the waiting lounge.
• Posted: Tue, Jun 3rd
  Michael Barry's Diary - The passing kilometers
  The wet cobbles were icy slick from street cleaners that rinse off the grime from the morning delivery trucks, the sticky ice creams from the after school snacking kids and the alcohol from the late night revelers. I rode through the old town of Girona cautiously, my bike ...
• Posted: Tue, May 27th
  Michael Barry's Diary: All for one and one for all
  One by one the team stepped on to the bus, sweat pouring from their faces, their jerseys wide-open, radio earpieces hanging from their salt-encrusted helmet straps, road dirt and carbon brake dust on their faces, veins pulsing on their sweat soaked arms and legs. As helmets were ...
• Posted: Wed, Apr 23rd
  Michael Barry's Diary - Domestique life
  Cycling dynasties are built around one or two leaders and a team of domestiques who are willing to pedal to the death for their leader. Faema, Molteni, Flandria, La Vie Claire, Systeme U, Banesto, ONCE, U.S. Postal all became dynasties, not only because had leaders who ...
• Posted: Wed, Apr 2nd
  Michael Barry's Diary: Italian icons
  Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali are Italy’s two cycling icons. The duo have become legends because of their heroics on the bike, the mystique and contrast of their lives, the intrigue of their rivalries, the beauty evoked in the images taken of them — black and white; sweat ...