Corvallis High, OSU graduate secures his first mountain bike crown

By Aaron Yost
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Barry Wicks knows winning cycling.

A Collegiate Cyclocross champion in 2003, the 24-year-old Wicks cherishes each victory when it presents itself.

Those wins aren’t easy to come by, requiring hours of training, hitting the decisive moment and having the good fortune to make that moment pay dividends.

All of those factors came together a little over a week ago at the 2006 USA Cycling National Mountain Bike Championships in Sonoma, Calif., during the short track race.

Putting his cyclocross experience to good use, Wicks worked with Kona Les Gets teammate Ryan Trebon to surge ahead of the lead pack on the final lap and pull away for the championship. Trebon, feeling the effects of winning the long-course cross country championship earlier in the weekend, finished third. Wicks was second in the long-course race.

“Short track went good,” Wicks said. “It was a pretty tactical race. There were six or seven riders that could have won it on the last lap. There’s a moment when the winning move happens and I was lucky enough to be in the right place and strong enough at that point to move away from everyone else and separate myself.”

As a result, the Corvallis High and Oregon State graduate will don a special jersey the rest of the year, including at the World Championships in New Zealand on Aug. 27. Wearing the Stars and Stripes is a special honor, one that goes only to national champions.

“There’s definitely prestige in winning that title,” Wicks said. “It’ll be cool to represent the U.S.”

Chances of collecting a World Championship aren’t great. Wicks will approach the pressure-packed race — one two-hour race decides the world’s best — with an eye to gaining experience against the best cyclists in the world.

Cyclists in the U.S. trail the world’s top riders for the most part, although anything can happen on any given Sunday.

“There is another level above where the U.S. racing is right now,” Wicks said. “We go there more to get the experience and maybe on that one day, you have that awesome day. But everyone there is the best in the world that want to do it. It could happen, but it’s quite unlikely.”

In the meantime, Wicks continues to live the life he has always wanted: that of professional athlete. He began racing as a pro in 2000 and in the small world of bicycle racing he rose to the attention of Kona Bikes of Ferndale, Wash. As a member of the Kona Cyclocross and Les Gets teams, Wicks raced throughout his career as a student at OSU.

“The cycling world is kind of small,” Wicks said. “Once you make a name for yourself, people know who you are. I liked (Kona) and they liked me as a racer.

“Cycling is not a big enough world to have recruiting.”

He met Trebon through cycling and was influential in the latter moving to Corvallis. Trebon moved to Ventura, Calif., recently. Wicks shifted his base of operations to Santa Cruz about 18 months ago, or right after finishing up his degree in Exercise Science, as he followed girl friend Sarah Robinson as she pursues a doctorate at UC Santa Cruz.

Living in Santa Cruz allows Wicks to train in comfortable weather most of the year, as opposed to the rain he often encountered during winters in Corvallis.

Most weekends Wicks is on the road, racing somewhere in the U.S. or overseas. This week he is racing in a seven-day road race series in Pennsylvania. By the end of the week he’ll have pedaled about 650 miles.

It’s a different experience than the Race Across Oregon, held this past weekend. It’s also one Wicks enjoys more than the frenetic pace of the RAO.

“Those guys are crazy,” he said.

Like most cyclists, he followed the Tour de France. That is a level of racing Wicks would like to aspire to, though no one is as aware of the difference between cyclocross and mountain bike racing and the elite international fields the world’s most famous cycling race draws.

“That’s a whole other level,” he said. “I started doing it more and more. I’m riding for a road team this year; that’s the first time I’ve done that.

“To make it to the Tour de France is a huge leap from where I’m at right now.”

Of course, where he’s at now is a far cry from the races he rode around Corvallis and along Bellfountain Road before turning pro.