RETIRING THE RED HERRING

According to ultra racer Joe Barr, age is a red herring - best ignored in favour of smarter training and nutrition. James Shrubsall explores how riders are staying stronger for longer

- By James Shrubsall

It’s only autumn but Joe Barr has just returned from his first meaningful training ride for the 2026 season. As he wheels his machine up the drive, dressed immaculately from top to toe in his own BarrUltra kit, he looks fresh enough that he could be preparing to leave, rather than coming back from a 200km ride. “I was just enjoying it today,” he tells wife Jill as she films him for a social media reel. “I have a good level right now,” he adds. “I feel like 200K days are not that big an effort anymore.” If his fresh face and complete lack of any apparent ache or pain as he strolls up the drive weren’t impressive enough, how about this: Joe Barr is 66 years old.

Today's epic training ride - incidentally, he averaged 17.2mph - is part of his preparation for a record-setting ride next year, the length of Route 66 in the USA, a distance of 2,448 miles (3,940km).

I'm 15 years younger than Barr, and I don't mind admitting that these days I struggle to push his seven-hour pace even just for a single hour. His fitness, at pensionable age, is not just enormously impressive but a real revelation. I'd been assuming that my gradual weight gain and ebbing fitness were an inevitable part of hitting 50. But Barr's example makes me think again. How is he able to retain fitness levels that many cyclists half his age would be proud of, while for riders like me, fighting the effects of middle age feels like a losing battle?