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More than two years after he broke his femur, North American Will Barta finally feels he’s back in “one of the top levels of my life right now”. It likely couldn’t have come at a better moment.
The Movistar racer is currently tackling the Giro d’Italia for a second straight year, where he’s got a ‘free’ role of looking for breakaway success and, hopefully, his first pro win.
Barta tried hard to get into the one break to go all the way to the finish so far, on stage 4. But while that didn’t work out, he is keen to be back in the action again as soon as possible.
“It’s my second Giro and I’m in a lot better shape than last year,” the 27-year-old told Cyclingnews. “I want to go for a stage win and that’s the main goal so we’ll see how the race develops.”
The main reason why there has been a hike in his condition, Barta says, is that “this is the first winter that I haven’t had to have surgery on my leg. So that makes a big difference. Also I have a good group around me and a good trainer, good nutritionist, so everything’s been good.”
Some long-standing injuries, particularly formerly broken bones, can make their presence known when the weather turns bad like it did in the Giro on stages 4 and 5. But Barta says that’s not his case.
“There were some problems for a long time, but now everything’s fine and I don’t feel anything,” said the Boise, Idaho native.
A gifted time triallist who came within a whisker of taking a Vuelta TT way back in 2020, Barta claimed a notable 15th on the opening Giro TT. But although the course was not ideal for him, his performance was still useful as an early gauge of his form.
“It was a bit too flat and fast for me, but I did want to go out and see what I could do. I had hoped I’d get in the break on stage 4 so I could have a chance of taking the pink, but there was a big fight and I missed out there.”
Barta does what he can to help Movistar in their highest-profile goal in the Giro, trying to win stages with Fernando Gaviria, who was fifth on stage 6. But his main set of team duties are looking after the squad’s GC rider, Colombian Einer Rubio.
“What I do is varied. I’m not the biggest guy so I have a hard time battling up there with those [leadout] guys, so I’m more with Einer and maybe do some early work for Fernando. But I’m not in the finales,” he explained.
That second role proved more than necessary in stage 5’s fraught finale, where Barta was assigned with…
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