Barry Wicks is already a household name in the domestic cyclocross and mountain bike scene, but this year he is trying his hand at joining mountain bike racing’s elite crowd on the World Cup.

Wicks made his first foray into European World Cup racing in April, racing World Cups in Houffalize, Belgium, Offenburg, Germany and Madrid, Spain. In terms of results, Wicks didn’t blow anyone’s door down. He started at the back of the herd, and had to fight tooth and nail for top-80 results. But the 26-year-old Oregonian garnered some valuable experience, as well as a nasty stomach bug in Spain. VeloNews caught up with Wicks to discuss the finer points of battling it out with the Euros.

VeloNews: What expectations did you have coming into the races?

Barry Wicks: Well I didn’t really think I would turn anybody’s heads because I knew I’d be starting at the back. I really just wanted to get the experience of these races. The World Cup is the logical next step for me. I feel like I have the [National Mountain Bike Series] and domestic races pretty dialed, and I think it’s pretty easy to become complacent racing in the U.S. and be OK with finishing top-fives and saying you don’t need to push yourself any harder. The World Cup is what I want to focus on in the next few years, and why not? I race my bike for a living so I might as well try and race at the highest level. So I guess my goal was to try and do well at Houffalize and then move my way up in the starting position. I just see where I stacked up against the world’s best. It was kind of a fact-finding mission, you could say.

VN: And what facts did you find?

A long way from the front

Photo: Fred Dreier

BW: Well the big lesson was, don’t screw up the first World Cup of the season! For me I had no points so I started at the back and basically had to finish top-60 if I wanted a call-up at the start. So I passed a ton of guys and caught the position, but of course at the time I didn’t know it and kind of blew up and then finished 61st. I kind of shot that one in the foot. It was pretty awful to miss it by just one spot. The next week in Offenburg I started way in the back again and there was no passing. There were a full 60 guys in front of me who I could have started in front of had I finished one spot up in [Houffalize].

VN: How did you handle the depth of competition?

BW: Well I just told myself that every little bit matters. In NMBS races there are 10 guys who finish within the first five minutes. In a World Cup you could finish 80th and only come across three minutes from the front. You just have to be on your game at a World Cup. Every crash you lose 20 spots. I moved up from 101st to 62nd in Offenburg and when I crashed I was back in the 80s.

VN: You’ve raced your share of cyclocross World Cups. What differences did you find in the competition in mountain biking?

BW: I thought it was pretty similar. You just try and pass as many guys as you can. There are guys going ape shit for 80th place, just like in ’cross. I mean, mountain bike is a two hour race and ’cross is one hour, but you can’t just go there and automatically expect to be one of the big guys. Even the guy lined up in 100th place is fast. It takes time to earn your spot in the race. I mean look at [Jonathan] Page, he’s been doing it for five years and he’s still a second-group rider.

VN: So where do you think you have room for improvement?

BW: Aw, it’s just a game of percentages. It can get demoralizing to finish 60th, you’re like “gee, I really suck.” But from a different perspective you can see that you were only a couple of minutes from the guys who finished in the 30s. So you start to think, well maybe I can run lighter tires or try to save energy better on part of the course and make up some time. I mean, if I didn’t crash in Offenburg and throw my game off for five minutes I probably could have finished better. It’s a lot of intangibles. For me I never think about that in the U.S., I just ride hard and try to do well. In the World Cups it’s all about finding the small things to see what you can do to move up instead of just riding as hard as you can.

VN: Which do you see yourself pursuing more in the future, international mountain bike or cyclocross?

BW: I think at this point mountain biking. ‘Cross will still be a big focus of mine in the U.S. but I think I’m more inclined to do mountain bike World Cups. I have more potential and passion there. I’ll still do the USGP series but probably not ’cross World Cups. Europe sucks in the winter. It’s rainy and cold. I’d rather go there in the summer.