A World Cup Sweep Has Barry Wilcox Riding High, Now With An Eye To The World Championships

One, two, three, four.

That’s four, as in four gold medals in four tries for Barry Wilcox at this spring’s UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup stops in Belgium and Italy. The veteran handcyclist won both time trials and both road races in his MH1 classification.

The performance left a smile on the face of his coach, Jim Lehman.

“He had a great world cup campaign,” Lehman said. “It’s hard to go four-for-four.”

But why? Why did Wilcox dominate the way he did? And how does that set up the world championships Aug. 28-31 in Ronse, Belgium?

“I think one of the biggest things for sporting events, and things in life, is consistency,” Lehman said. “He’s been very consistent with his training and diet, just the attention to detail. This year, things have fallen into place, and usually momentum takes over at that point.”

But to hear Wilcox tell it from the confines of home in Gilbert, Arizona, he’s just a guy who loves to race.

In other words, it’s not as easy as he might make it look.

“No, it’s not,” he said. “It’s pretty rad. We could put every buzzword in — sweet, empowering. Overall, it’s humbling … ‘Wow, I did that.’ It opens the opportunity for what comes next.”

Make no mistake, though. It takes a lot both physically and mentally to do what Wilcox does.

“I think it takes numerous things to contribute to your mental outlook,” he said. “A huge emphasis is sleep and recovery, your nutrition, your stress levels, whatever dealings you’ve got going on with family or friends or injuries.

“Mentally, I find I perform best when I have the confidence from doing the right things. I like to avoid the distractions and stay focused, and it helps me stay in the game.”

Lehman said he perceives Wilcox as “fairly relaxed,” and he brings a lot of racing experience from his youth. As an able-bodied cyclist, Wilcox made the junior national team at age 16. A car crash that caused a spinal cord injury changed his trajectory.

The key, Lehman said, is that Wilcox, now in his late 40s, keeps his eye on the big picture.

“There are ups and downs in training and results, and if you can take the ebbs and flows in stride, the long-term goal of being able to compete at the highest level will come into place,” he said.

While the mental aspect of his racing is crucial to Wilcox, that perspective ties into his physical prowess. He’s developed both in his 10 years as a Para-cyclist.

“I’m at the lowest functional level in Para-cycling, technically quadriplegic,” he said. “My life motto is maximize your abilities, and health is wealth. I’ve got my training set up in my home so I can transfer on and off my bike independently. As far as the physical, what works is strong, very strong.”

It’s something he emphasizes with his students. With expertise as a clinical exercise physiologist, he’s an adjunct professor at Park University in Gilbert, and his charges will eventually become primarily physical therapists and personal trainers.

“Specifically the sport I teach and my history (in) athletics as a top-level cyclist nationally as a teenager, to sustaining a spinal cord injury, I love talking about the subject matter,” he said. “It’s just helping these pre-health profession students for what they may see in the future.”

Now that the world cups are behind him, Wilcox is gearing up for the world championships at the end of August in Ronse.

As the season shifts, Wilcox said his training is going to shift. He’ll ride eight to 10 hours per week and do strength training two times per week, including weightlifting and body exercises on the mat.

Off in the distance is the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028. Wilcox knows a lot can happen in three years, but he agrees with Lehman on one point.

“The biggest thing is consistency with many factors,” he said, “with all those things that contribute toward growth and getting better, staying healthy, the list goes on.”

One thing’s for sure. He just loves wearing that Team USA jersey.

“I’m being grateful for the opportunities we have here that many don’t,” he said. “Our opportunities are limitless, it seems.

“It’s a lot to be said about the journey and a lot of reflection.”

Gregg Voss is a journalist based in the Chicago suburbs who has been writing sports for newspapers and magazines for more than 20 years. He is a freelance contributor to USParaCycling.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.