Michael Barry (born 18 December 1975) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

author and former professional

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most comm ...

. Barry raced for numerous world-class teams with the role of '

domestique In road bicycle racing, a domestique is a rider who works for the benefit of their cycling team, team and leader, rather than trying to win the race. In French, ''domestique'' translates as "servant".However, in French, the term used is ''équip ...

'. His greatest personal successes were placing eighth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics' road race, finishing second in the Canadian National Road Race Championships in 2001 and 2012, and winning a stage of the Tour of Missouri in 2008. He announced his retirement in September 2012, stating that the 2012 Tour of Beijing would be his last race. He is also an author who has written three books.

Career

He was born and raised in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. His father, Michael (Mike) Barry Sr., was a racer himself in England in the 1950s, who until 2006 ran a specialty bike store and manufactured a line of hand-made bicycle frames under his own Mariposa brand. As a result, the younger Barry grew up in a cycling-intense environment, and started racing at a very young age. He has been a professional since 1998. He has spent many years on the Canadian National Team during the early years of his career. His wife is 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Dede Demet Barry. They have 2 children. Previous to riding for

UCI ProTour The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle racing, road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale, UCI (International Cycling Union). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, i ...

team Barry spent several years with the team. He also raced with the

Saturn Cycling Team The Saturn Cycling Team was an American cycling team, sponsored by the Saturn Corporation car company.The team existed from 1992 to 2003. It was originally created and managed by Warren Gibson of Los Gatos, CA. In 1993 former rider and US Pro ro ...

for a number of years before going to US Postal Service/Discovery. Barry has raced in 5

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...

s and 5

Giro d'Italia The Giro d'Italia (; ), also known simply as the Giro, is an annual stage race, multiple-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also starting in, or passing through, other countries. The first race was organized in 19 ...

s but in 2007 had to abandon the Giro due to health issues, which put him out most of the season. He also had to pull out of the

2002 Vuelta a España The 57th edition of the ''Vuelta a España'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the three grand tours, was held from 7 September to 29 September 2002. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and was won by Ait ...

after colliding with a motorcycle on the eight stage.. In 2005 he wrote the book: ''Inside the Postal Bus'', about his experiences at and the 2004 season whilst riding in support of

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times fro ...

. The work contains texts authored by some of his team mates, including

George Hincapie George Anthony Hincapie (born June 29, 1973) is an American former racing cycle sport, cyclist, who competed professionally between 1994 and 2012. Hincapie was a key domestique of Lance Armstrong. Hincapie was also a domestique for Alberto Contad ...

. When the doping topic arises in the book, Barry vehemently denies having ever witnessed any drug intake in the team. He and his wife also wrote a training book. He also writes diary entries during his cycling season. His third book, ''Le Metier'', detailing the life of a cycling domestique, was published in 2010 by Rouleur. He is generally considered a support rider, or

, helping the team leaders win races, but he will often get the opportunity to go for personal results. He is usually the team leader for Canada for the World Championships. His strengths lie in the time-trial, and hilly road races. He can be counted on for grand tours, and other stage races as well. For 2010, he left , and signed with for 2 years. On 24 June 2010, Team Sky announced that Barry would be part of its

2010 Tour de France The 2010 Tour de France was the 97th edition of the Tour de France cycle race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on with an 8.9 km prologue time trial in Rotterdam, the first start in the Netherlands since 1996. The race visited th ...

team. This would be Barry's first Tour de France appearance after thirteen seasons as a professional. On 5 September 2012, Barry announced he would retire at the end of the season, after his last race, October's

Tour of Beijing The Tour of Beijing was an annual professional stage bicycle road race held in Beijing, China. History Its first edition took place in October 2011, as the penultimate event in the 2011 UCI World Tour. The tour was a partnership between the U ...

Doping

On 10 October 2012 it was announced by USADA that he would be suspended for six months for admissions of doping during his time with the US Postal Cycling Team. Later that day a statement was released confirming his acceptance of a six-month ban from 1 September 2012 ending on 1 March 2013 along with a stripping of all race results between 13 May 2003 and 31 July 2006.http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net/2012-10-09+WB+to+Berke+re++Barry+Sanction.pdf, Michael Barry acceptance of Sanction He confessed that the US Postal team were using

performance-enhancing drugs Performance-enhancing substances (PESs), also known as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. Many substances, such as anabolic steroids, can be used to improve at ...

Highlights

Highlights include: * Stage win at the 2008 Tour of Missouri * Placed 9th in the men's road race at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

* Placing 4th overall in the

2003 Tour de Georgia The 2003 Tour de Georgia was the inaugural edition of what has now become the highest ranked bicycle road racing event in the United States. The six-stage race was held April 22 through April 27, 2003, with the overall title won by Chris Horner of ...

* At the

2006 Tour of Flanders The 2006 Tour of Flanders was the 90th edition of the Tour of Flanders (men's race), Tour of Flanders cycling classic, taking place on 2 April 2006. World champion and 2005 Tour of Flanders, last year's winner Tom Boonen was the favourite before th ...

, Barry went down extremely hard in a crash, suffering severe facial cuts and lacerations and also fracturing some vertebrae.

Major results

;1997 : 1st Road race, National Under-23 Road Championships ;1999 : 2nd First Union Invitational : 4th Overall

Ringerike GP Ringerike Grand Prix is a road bicycle race held annually near Hønefoss, in the region of Ringerike, Norway. The race was created in 1975 as the Fossen Grand Prix, and was ranked 2.2 on the UCI Europe Tour between 2005 and 2010. In 2011 it tur ...

: 8th Overall GP de Beauce : 10th Overall Tour Trans-Canada ;2000 : 5th Overall

: 6th Overall Redlands Classic ;2001 : 2nd Road race, National Road Championships : 2nd BMC San Francisco GP : 4th Overall

Peace Race The Peace Race (, , , (), , , , ) is a cycling race that was established as the largest event in Eastern Europe after the Second World War. Since 2013, it has been run as one of the most prestigious stage races for national U23 teams. Histo ...

: 4th Overall GP de Beauce : 7th Samsung Classic : 7th First Union Invitational ;2002 : 1st Stage 1 ( TTT)

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; Tour of Catalonia, ) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of the Basque Country. The race has had ...

: 6th First Union Invitational : 9th Road race,

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

;2003 : 4th Overall

Tour de Georgia The Tour de Georgia was a U.S. professional road cycling stage race across the state of Georgia. The race began in 2003 and was contested six times until 2008. It was one of the three events in North America ranked as Hors Classe ( 2.HC) stage ra ...

;2003 : 7th Road race,
UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...
;2004 : 1st Stage 1 ( TTT)
Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...
;2005 : 6th Overall
Tour of Austria The Tour of Austria () is a stage race, stage cycling race held in Austria. From 1949 to 1995 it was a race for amateur cyclists, turning into a professional event in 1996. In 2005 and 2006 it was organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour ...
::~~1st Points classification~~ ::~~1st Stage 1~~ ;2006 :2nd
Eindhoven Team Time Trial The UCI ProTour Eindhoven Team Time Trial was an annual road bicycle race held in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It was approximately . Each team had six riders. In 2006, team size expanded to eight. Conceived as part of the UCI ProTour in 2005 UCI ProT ...
;2007 : 3rd Overall

Sachsen Tour The Sachsen Tour was a multi-stage road bicycle race held in the region of Saxony, Germany. It was first held in 1985 and wasorganised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour from 2005 until its final edition in 2009. Between 1985 and 1995 it was an ...

;2008 : 5th Overall

Tour of Ireland The Tour of Ireland ( Irish: Turas na hÉireann, known from 1985 to 1992 as the Nissan Classic) was a bicycle stage race held in August, which ran for 35 editions over a 56-year period. Irish rider Seán Kelly recorded the most wins, four. T ...

: 8th Road race,

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

: 10th Overall Tour of Missouri ::1st Stage 4 ;2009 : 1st Stage 1 ( TTT)

;2012 : 2nd Road race, National Road Championships

References

External links