His first year with Slovenia-based Continental team Ljubljana Gusto Santic was first hampered by a broken arm, but more so by a viral infection which has floored him for the past two months and counting.

Despite the condition ending his season prematurely, the 18-year-old has learned plenty from training around the clock, and racing and observing quality rivals.

Not to mention getting to take in the sights of Europe while NSW endures lockdown.

"It's been good just to focus on training and doing everything correctly," he said.

"Myself and the other Aussie (Dylan Hopkins) have been put in an apartment, we usually train together and when there's racing on we travel with the team for team training.

"I definitely think I've improved a bit, up until June when I've had an infection and haven't been able to train at all.

"I've definitely improved with the racing because the races are a fair bit longer than Australia and the quality of riders, everyone is good."

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Barnhill said the infection has affected him to the extent even climbing up stairs is an effort.

It's lasted a fair few weeks unfortunately which has put an end to my season a bit early, but I'm looking forward to next year," Barnhill said.

"The broken arm was OK, that was about four weeks and I could still train. This has been very frustrating because everyone else is out racing and training, but I can't really do that as it will only make it worse. I just have to wait it out unfortunately."

"I have to keep my chin up and get ready for next year and prove myself then. It's been an up and down year really.

Barnhill has still managed to get some racing in, which has given him a close-up gauge of where he needs to get to in order to realise his dream of racing on the world tour.

He has also met and raced against back-to-back Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar who has previously raced for Ljubljana Gusto Santic.

"I've got some good racing in. I've seen the level I need to be at to get results," Barnhill said.

"The under-23 Italian races were my favourite, they're they're more attritional, and the tour of Slovenia was also good.

"I know what to expect now, I didn't coming over. I thought I'll get straight into it and finish the races well, but I keep getting dropped. It's not like Australia.

"Training in Wagga I didn't really train with many people, but Dylan is strong than me so he pushes me and motivates me a bit more.

"It (meeting Pogacar) was next level, he's so easy to talk to and wanted to know how I'm going. It's not all about him."

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