2011 Season roundup - Daniel Barry

Daniel Barry ©RoadCycling.co.nz

Sep 6th, 11. 23 year old Daniel Barry shares his roundup of his second year as a Kiwi International, his first season racing in the USA after previously racing in France.

He described the two countries as providing quite different styles of racing.

"Amateur racing in France was absolute mayhem: there was normally no team strong enough to control a race so it came down to the most aggressive riders who bagged the wins," Barry told RoadCycling.co.nz.

Considering he took six wins in France last season, the Kiwi certainly knew how to handle himself in the aggression stakes.

Those skills came in handy this year too. His team PureBlack Racing made a name for themselves in the US with their attacking style of team racing.

"The races in the US were far more team oriented and races were controlled by the strongest teams.

"It was great fun taking it to the big teams over there and seeing how they reacted to some aggressive Kiwi style racing," he added.

2011 international season round-up Daniel Barry

Best ride or result of the season?
My best result would have to be taking a win on Stage 2 of the Tour de Toona. It was a really sweet day actually because while I was up the road in the break the team rode an excellent race to bring Scott Lyttle home just seconds after I finished, securing his yellow jersey.

Best experience (on or off the bike)?
That's a tough choice but if I have to pick one then racing the TD Bank Philadelphia Classic would go down as the best experience.

The crowds were huge all the way around the course and the on the Manayunk Wall they were just unreal!

This was our first chance to really test ourselves against Pro-Conti and ProTour teams and everyone really stepped up. It was great to get a result with Jimmy Williamson coming in 6th but who knows what might have happened if Guddy [Tim Gudsell] and Mike [Northey] had avoided the nasty pile-up that happened on the final corner!

Biggest lesson learnt this season?
I learned my biggest lesson in the prologue of the Tour of Utah: when racing at 7000ft don't go out too hard! It was only 2km but it stung me so badly that in the last 500m I was having issues just turning the pedals... lesson learned!

Did you achieve your goals for the international season?
Yes I achieved what I set out to do this year for sure! I went into the season with two goals: number one was to be a rock solid support rider for my teammates and number two was to take a win if an opportunity was there.

I managed to tick off both of these so now I'm looking at setting some goals of the bigger and better variety for next year.

When are you back in NZ, (if you're not already) and where will you be based?
I'm back hanging out in Christchurch at the moment but I will be all over the show this summer. Might spend a bit of time in sunny Nelson and maybe even some time up in the North Island.

What's the thing you like most about coming home after a season of racing?
This year the thing I was most excited about was being back near the sea - there's not many beaches in Colorado!

What's the first major Kiwi food addiction you have to quell upon landing?

My first priority was getting my hands on a flat white. In particular, a flat white from my good mate Glenn Rewi out at Coffee Culture Sumner.

What are your goals for the NZ summer season of racing?
The Tour of Southland is my major focus. I'll be heading down there with some big goals.

All 2011 international season roundups - Chris Macic, Patrick Bevin, Jeremy Yates, Hamish Elley-Brown, Josh Atkins, Joe Cooper, Michael Vink, Shane Archbold, Louis Wright, Myron Simpson, Sam Lindsay, George Bennett, Kieran Hambrook, Brett Tivers, Emma Crum, Shem Rodger, Daniel Barry, Mark Langlands, James McCoy, Glen Chadwick, Kate Chilcott, Louis Crosby, Scott Lyttle, Courteney Lowe ...

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