Martín Barrero

The rider from the Principado de Asturias, who is in his third year in the category, comes from Rias Baixas Team, where he has been for the last two seasons, and stands out above all for his aptitude for the mountains. Barrero, resident in Oviedo, was formed in the Escuela de Ciclismo Las Mestas de Gijón, from whose structures he made the jump to the U23 category with the Galician formation. “In 2022 I could only race the first part of the season, I could not get continuity because of a pneumonia and because of an accident that I suffered in which I broke a collarbone and forced me to stop. This year things have been much better, especially in the second half of the season. In the first half of the year I had to face the adaptation that I couldn’t finish a year earlier. In the Vuelta a Ávila, the Vuelta a Salamanca and the Vuelta a Galicia I felt much better”. His approach to cycling had a casual point. “I grew up in a small village in western Asturias, Fonteta, with a quiet life. And, typically, you take the bike, you move around, you play around… One day a cycling event passed by there and I was fascinated to see those road bikes.  So I ended up getting one and started cycling on the road. To this day”. Fonteta, very close to the border with Galicia, is located in a unique mountainous environment, rich in significant and high level climbs. One of the most famous is the Pozo de las Mujeres Muertas. In an environment like this, it was easy for him to feel more comfortable on the climbs. “Although genetics is capricious and there’s Oscar Freire to confirm it,” he jokes, “but in my case, yes, I consider myself a climber. I’ve always stood out more in this terrain and I’ve always liked that feeling of going as fast as possible in this terrain”.  Barrero is currently studying a higher degree in Sales and Commercial Space Management after having previously completed a degree in Chemistry and Environmental Health.