On Friday, Ashlin Barry missed out on his first elite win by a single second. On Saturday, the Toronto-raised rider found redemption on the VAM-berg. The Visma-Lease A Bike Devo rider took the stage win, his first since moving up to elites and first since joining the Dutch squad.
“It feels unreal. It’s a surprise to be honest. I’ve been strong recently, but at an elite level the racing’s different and there’s a high level of competition here,” 18-year-old Barry said after the race. “To be performing at this level already and this early in my first season feels really good.”
Ashlin Barry lands debut win after a day of climbs and crosswinds
Barry takes his first elite win on the fourth stage of the Olympia’s Tour. The stage covered 133km, hitting the VAM and Dek van Drenthe mid-stage before returning to the VAM-berg for the finish line. While short, at just 400m, the VAM-berg averages a punishing 9.7 per cent gradient and punches up to 12 per cent for the opening 150m.
While on paper the three short but steep climbs look like the main feature, the story on the road was different. Crosswinds, which you can hear in the video of the finish below, made as much of a difference as the elevation.
“It was pretty much full gas from the beginning. There was a lot of nervousness with the roads being really narrow here,” Barry said of how his first win unfolded. “There was a group of 15 guys that got away early and, with the wind, we were able to stay away the whole day.”
Na een slopende strijd wint 🥇Ashlin Barry🇺🇸 @visma_lab_devo etappe 4 op de📍VAM-Berg 🛣️133 kilometer. Na een aanval in de slotkilometer
🥈Aldo Taillieu🇧🇪 + 5 sec
🥉Max Kroonen🇳🇱 + 5 sec
4 Joshua Amos Gudnitz🇩🇰 + 5 sec
5 Mads Andersen🇩🇰 + 6 sec en nieuwe leider.#OT2026 #Metec pic.twitter.com/InAPRv94wn— Courage Events (@CourageEvents) March 28, 2026
The Olympia’s Tour is a five-day stage race in The Netherlands contested by continental squads, the majority being feeder teams for World or ProTeams. Visma-Lease A Bike’s Devo program actually went 1-2, with Belgium’s Aldo Taillieu finishing second, five seconds back at the front of a quartet of chasers.
Barry, who was born in Girona, lives in Toronto and races with an American licence has raced four times so far in his first year with Visma-Lease a Bike.
Our boys dominate the VAM-berg!
🥇 Ashlin 🥈 Aldo pic.twitter.com/LykYgDBGrK
— Team Visma |…
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