'There are no magic potions': how one record breaker is still thriving at 65

Ultra-racer Joe Barr always refers to himself as having had two careers – one as a young and successful road racer who won a Commonwealth Games medal and National Championships; and one as a world-beating ultra-distance racer that began in his forties and now, at the age of 65, shows no sign of letting up.

There are no prizing for guessing that, of the two, he says it is ultra racing that has been the more enjoyable.

"It's better because it's more enjoyable," he told Cycling Weekly's Going Long podcast. "It's better because I was probably more successful at it and… on my own terms."

'Successful' is certainly the word, with the Northern Irishman having finished the Race Across America twice, winning his age category once, and winning the Race Around Ireland twice. He was also the 2023 World Ultra Cycling Champion and a multiple world and Guinness world record holder.

It's a story that ought to inspire and offer hope, whether you're 25 or 65.

Asked on Going Long what the secrets to thriving on the bike into older age are, Barr pinpoints a few things, with nutrition and sleep at the top of the list.

"My interest in pushbike riding was probably bypassed by my interest in nutrition," he said. "I always was more interested in how the body worked than I was about the bike. I just had a good bike, always presented very well and blah blah blah. But I knew that that bike was not going anywhere without me to push it. So I was focused on 'how does this work?'

Barr's wife Jill is a nutritionist – together they run the Barr Ultra World Endurance Cycling Team – which really boosted his success, he said: "When I met Jill things just went through the roof, so there's the nutritional aspect of it that I've carried through all the years has been a great mainstay.

His diet contains plenty of plant-based food but his meals are fairly standard – "There's no magic potions," he said.

"The other big thing for me is that I was always – and still am – l a great believer that sleep is a core piece of this whole thing. So I go to bed at 9.30 every night, and I will sleep soundly right until 8 o'clock in the morning," Barr said.

That is a lot of rest. But no one could accuse Barr of not earning it. He rides six days a week, usually for five or six hours at a time. The weekend before we spoke to him he had done an eight-hour ride.

"You get into this model that's almost a bit regimented," he said. "So I always think that I would have made a great military guy, because I like the regimented timings and whatever."

He added: "The last 15 years of ultra has been just the most incredible journey. There's absolutely no way I could have sat 25 years ago and ever imagined that as a rider or as a person that I could actually achieve some of the stuff that I actually have achieved."

And Barr's journey is far from over. His next big target is to set a Guinness world record by riding the length of the USA's Route 66 in what will be his 66th year.

"It's 100 years old next year," Barr said. "So the first highway ever in the US is 100 years old next year. It goes through eight states and it's just short of 2,500 miles long.

"We're going in June this year to recce the whole course and then next June we're going to do it. No one's managed to... it's a Guinness World Record… there's been a few attempts."

To hear more about Barr's life as a road racer in the 1980s and 1990s, his ultra-racing journey and the life challenges he has overcome, listen to the whole conversation here at Going Long.