Cycling through Life: How Joe Barr found purpose on two wheels

At first glance, Joe Barr’s book ‘Going the Distance’ might seem like just another bundle of tales about cycling. But scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find it’s as much a tale about life as it is about bicycles.  

The Donegal native is after completing his 53rd season on the bike, there’s been highs and lows but never any regrets.  

Now 65 years old, he remains a figure of undiminished drive and extraordinary self-discipline who came from such humble beginnings.   

“I started my first race in Ramelton back in 1972,” Barr reflects. “I never thought for one moment that come 2025, I’d still be racing.”  

“Everywhere I go around the world, I carry a Donegal flag in my case. I’m a proud Donegal man and I’ll never be anything other than that.  

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“I was born in Palmerstown in Dublin but my mother is a Donegal woman from Newtowncunningham and my father was from Derry. I grew up in Newtowncunningham with my grandmother basically.  

“I have nothing but good memories from that time. That’s where I got into cycling, it was a mode of transport, it was an escape, it was a sport. I went to school at St Eunan’s in Letterkenny and I rode my bike to school every day instead of taking the bus.  

“Growing up in Donegal and with cycling, I saw something in that where I could make a better life for myself. When I started, there was a lot of festival races in Donegal, and that’s where it all started for me.”  

His career is a testament to longevity and reinvention, a tapestry of triumphs, setbacks, and the enduring pull of the road.  

That passion would eventually morph into a career, though life as a professional cyclist was far from the glamorous image often portrayed.  

His early years were marked by emotional and physical trials that would shape his worldview. He recounts the financial struggles and relentless challenges with a mix of pride and candor.  

“In the early 80s, I was just trying to get onto the Commonwealth teams and the Olympic teams but I was passed over, probably because I wasn’t experienced enough,” he told Donegal Live.   

“It was a big dent for me because if you can’t make the next step it was going to be very hard to make it at a professional career.   

“I didn’t make it to the Olympics in 1984 which I was okay about but when I wasn’t picked for the Seoul Olympics in 1988, I realised I had to make a change to my professional riding route.”  

And it was during that time he was arguably at his career’s zenith.  

“Between those two Olympics, in 1985, I won the national league in Ireland that year,” he said.   

“I was pretty dominant because I was winning everything at that time, so, I was proving that I could compete at the highest level. I got bronze at the Commonwealth Games in 1986, which was incredible only losing out to Australia and Canada who were the world champions at the time.”  

But not making the Seoul Olympics in 1988 was a particularly painful moment and opened Barr’s eyes that it was time for a change.  

It was those very setbacks that fueled his determination to carve out a career on the professional stage. They were a bitter pill to swallow and something that followed him around for years, but it never stopped him from fulfilling a professional career for almost a decade.  

“It affected me for a long time not making the 1988 Olympics,” Barr said. “There was politics involved, both in the sport and in the country, and I was unfortunate to just fall through the cracks on what was a turbulent time in the country.  

“My generation was the next group to follow in the steps of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche and those boys. Cycling was massive in Ireland at the time, and when I wasn’t getting my chance, and I was getting older too, I knew I had to make a change with my career.  

“I turned professional directly after the Commonwealth Games in 1990. And since then, I’ve just never stopped. I have one continent to cycle in which is South America, and I’m sure I’ll get that covered before I retire.  

“My professional career in the 90s was about me being the very best I could be. I knew I could never be a Sean Kelly or a Stephen Roche but I could do my best to stay at this level for as long as I could, which I did until 1999 when one day, in a small town in Belgium, I just woke up and said ‘I’m done’. I packed up my stuff and went home.”  

By the end of his career, Barr was burnt out, his love for cycling worn thin. He rediscovered it in the era of large sportives, where the pressures of competition were replaced by a purer enjoyment of the sport. But the financial realities meant that, by the start of the millennium, and at 40, Barr entered the 9-to-5 working world for the first time.  

And then came the news that would alter his life forever: his baby son Ross was diagnosed with cancer. The harrowing experience reshaped his priorities and spurred him into action.  

“It brought everything in me to account really,” Barr reflects. “It was the most frightening time because I generally was in a world where I was nothing except a facilitator. I wasn’t really in control of anything and that’s a very daunting and vulnerable place to be.  

“That moment I changed my perspective on life,” he said. “It educated me about the value of time on this earth, and I realised during that time, that if my family and I could get out of this unscathed, then I would make every moment I could count.”  

In 2009, when Ross recovered, Barr threw himself into fundraising, taking on the grueling Race Across America to support the system that had helped his family when his second cycling act came calling as he took on a life of Ultra Cycling.  

“Fifteen years ago, I changed to Ultra Distance and that meant everything on the bike changed for me,” Barr said.   

“It became a whole new career where I would be going to race across America and winning that. It really changed the whole landscape of how I'm situated in the sport.  

“I didn’t know what I was going to do until I discovered the whole Ultra World in 2009. I think the whole stuff that happened to me over the years, especially the setbacks at amateur level, it gave me a resilience and a drive where I could go for a really long time.  

“I found the Race Around Ireland and won my first one, and from there, the Ultra Racing just took off for me. I was learning about the sport every day and I just started to win one race after another.”  

Barr’s first attempt at Race Across America came in 2012 and almost ended in disaster. Struck by altitude sickness on Wolf Creek Pass, Barr came dangerously close to death.  

“Altitude sickness is a really severe situation to be in,” he explains. “I was drowning inside . . . Luckily for me, there was a hospital up there at about 9,000 feet.”   

Despite the ordeal, Barr returned to Race Across America in 2014 and again in 2019, finishing both times and winning his category on the latter attempt.   

“The Race Across America in its entirety as an event is a lifetime in its own right,” he says. “But when you get to the finish line . . . I was ecstatic.”  

And he’s not slowing down yet. In 2023, Barr, at the age of 64, finished sixth in the 3,600km Race Around Poland to be crowned world champion at the end of his latest epic outing.  

“Last year I won the World Championship and in 2024 I decided a bit of a down season, just so I could get a bit of a rest of all the travel, and get some time to breathe,” he said.  

Even in his sixth decade, Barr is defying expectations. “You notice when you are still competing at my age that a lot of things drop off,” he admits.   

“So, what I try to focus on is trying to slow up the aging process, but I’m still driven.”   

His victory at the Ultra World Championship last year proved he’s still capable of remarkable feats but is there any sign of him slowing down?   

“I know when I lose that motivation to go training every day, then that’s the time to stop. That hasn’t happened yet, I’m just always living in the moment,” Barr said.  

Through all the hardship and through the highs and lows of life, when Barr summarises his career and his life, the Donegal native pauses before concluding with one sentence: “I have no regrets about what I’ve done in life, I’ve had a hell of a journey.”