THE ALT TOUR – LACHLAN MORTON SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES THE CHALLENGE!

UPDATE! He’s done it! Following on from our feature on his ALT TOUR we’re pleased to confirm that Lachlan Morton has successfully completed his challenge! Skip to the bottom of our original report to see his final stats for this gruelling ride…

 

Lachlan Morton of the EF Education NIPPO pro-cycling team is in the process of upstaging the entire field of this year’s Tour De France. Only a few days into a unique cycling challenge Lachlan and his exploits have caught the attention of not only the world’s cycling press but also the wider media as he undertakes the ‘Alt Tour’. So what’s Lachlan up to and what exactly is the Alt Tour? Well first, let’s have a quick Tour De France history lesson…

…We all know the modern Tour De France as a 3 week high-speed race packed full of drama and stunning athletic performances. Packed full of the very best professional cyclists in the world it’s all about flat-out speed and efficiency, with the race being spread over 21 stages each day is in effect a separate race with its own stage winner and a race leader who has the least amount of overall time over the combined stages wearing the iconic Yellow jersey. In a modern Tour riders are ferried to the start of each stage on their team buses and collected at the finish to move on to the next stage start the following day. Depending on the course that’s set around France it’s not unusual to see the riders being transferred 100’s of kilometres between some stages such is the demand for French towns and cities to host a stage start or finish. The modern Tour De France is so demanding when it comes to rider performance the organisers have even factored in two rest days within the three week race.

Lachlan Morton is taking on a unique challenge during this year’s Tour De France…

(Image by EF Education NIPPO)

The Tour De France wasn’t always this way; hark back to the very early days of this gruelling spectacle and the race was very different. The Tour of old featured ultra-long stages made up of distances of more than 200-300 miles, with riders competing self-supported, racing the vast distances while feeding themselves at road-side cafés and repairing their bikes themselves as and when they needed to. These historic Tour De Frances in the early 1900’s saw riders racing through the night to reach the end of each stage and this format of ultra-endurance racing caught the imagination of the French public and made hero’s out of these brave men.

Leap forward over one hundred years and the race has transformed, now being completely different to its earliest incarnation. During that time cycling has diversified and split into so many sub-genres as the sport continues to evolve and new cycling disciplines are born; in the past decade we’ve seen a real resurgence of ultra-endurance cycling events, with gravel bikes playing a large part in the development of this sort of single or multi-stage competition which sees competitors riding vast distances while being completely self-supported, carrying all of their own equipment including camping kit in the case of multi-day adventures.

Lachlan Morton is no stranger to self-supported ultra-endurance bike races…

(Image by EF Education NIPPO)

When it comes to the most gruelling multi-stage adventure races out there one man more than most sticks out – Lachlan Morton is a professional road cyclist who races for the EF Education Nippo team, competing all over the world at the highest level including Grand Tour races such as the Giro D’Italia. With an alternative race calendar between those conventional road races Lachlan has carved a niche for himself by also competing and excelling in such gruelling ultra-endurance events as the GBDURO.

Now Lachlan Morton takes on his greatest cycling challenge yet – racing the Tour De France completely unsupported in an effort to beat the race to the finishing line in Paris. Setting off at the same time as this year’s race departed from Brest in Brittany Lachlan has been riding ultra-long distances each day carrying all of his own gear, camping at the side of the road and stopping at cafés and supermarchés to stay fuelled up for this gruelling challenge. Sounds impressive, but there’s more! Lachlan is not only following the route of this year’s Tour De France but is also riding the transitions between the stages which the Tour’s competitors will be taking by team bus or high speed train. This means that while this year’s total distance is 3,383 kilometres Lachlan’s Alt Tour will be 5,510 kilometres and will take on 65,500 metres of climbing compared to 42,200 metres in the ‘conventional Tour’.

Lachlan’s chosen bike for the Alt Tour is his versatile Cannondale SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod road bike…

(Image by EF Education NIPPO)

Having a wide range of Cannondale bikes to choose from Lachlan has gone for the SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod Disc, the same machine that his teammates will be using to take on the Tour De France, with this super-lightweight bike best suited to the Tour’s gruelling mountain stages. It’s a real indication of just how versatile the Cannondale SuperSix EVO is; while Lachlan could have chosen the more rugged Topstone gravel bike and perhaps compromised a little on flat-out speed in an effort to be more comfortable, he has confidently selected the SuperSix to gain a higher average speed while still being able to carry his full bike-packing luggage and remain comfortable and in control thanks to the bike’s compliant carbon frame with dropped seatstays, versatile spread of Shimano gearing and enhanced braking power thanks to those hydraulic disc brakes.

Lachlan is taking on the Alt Tour onboard a SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod very similar to the version we recently reviewed, click the image below to read more…

(Image by James Vincent)

The Cannondale SuperSix EVO is a fantastic example of a modern carbon race bike that’s a true all-rounder built to excel on all gradients and in all possible road racing scenarios – light and stiff to help you dance up the climbs, just the right amount of aerodynamic tube shaping to help you hold your speed on flat high-speed stretches and precise handling for a ride-feel that is truly confidence inspiring and encourages you to throw the bike into tight corners at the mid-week crit race. Benefitting from a rich racing heritage and all of the design and engineering experience that Cannondale have built up over the years the SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod has taken all the classic elements of the original and brought it bang up to date with all of the key features we’ve very quickly come to expect from a contemporary, premium, disc-equipped-road bike.

Read a full review of the SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod Disc Ultegra HERE

(Image by James Vincent)

Lachlan’s Alt Tour Equipment:

• Bike: Cannondale SuperSix EVO
• Wheels: Vision Metron
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa
• Saddle: Prologo
• Aero Bars: Vision
• Pedals: Speedplay
• Powermeter: Power2Max
• Minipump: Silca Tattico
• Bike Computer: Garmin Edge 1030
• Bar Bag: Rapha
• Rear Pack: Rapha Waterproof
• Custom Frame Bag: By Tolcat
• GPS Tracker: Followmychallenge

Bike-Packing Luggage Contents:

• Foam sleeping pad
• Sleeping Bag
• Bivy
• Camping Pot
• Camp Burner
• Water Bladder
• Powerbank
• Spare lights and head lights
• Spare jerseys, bib shorts, Rapha puffy jacket, extra rain jackets
• Spare inner tubes & tyres

(Image by EF Education NIPPO)

Lachlan’s Alt Tour is gaining world wide attention right now and it’s great to see such a gruelling challenge capturing the attention of so many people. There’s a really important fund-raising element to the challenge too with his team sponsors EF Education First and Rapha each donating 500 bikes to World Bicycle Relief, a non-profit organisation that provides locally assembled and maintained bicycles built to be rugged and durable in an effort to provide sustainable transport for people to move from villages to towns to gain education and employment.

Click the image below to find out more about Lachlan’s challenge and the World Bicycle Relief charity he’s riding for…

(Image by EF Education NIPPO)

To follow Lachlan’s progress with the Alt Tour live tracker, click the image below…

 

UPDATE: July 13.07.21 Click the link below to read more on Lachlan’s amazing achievement…

After setting off from Brittany just over two weeks ago we’re happy to confirm that Lachlan has succeeded in his amazing challenge to complete this year’s Tour De France route AND all of the transfer miles (that the pros who are racing the Tour complete in the team buses or on a plane when it comes to the final transfer from the Pyrenees) beating the Peloton to Paris by six days! After riding for 17 consecutive days, taking on a gruelling route that included climbing the Alps and the Pyrenees mountains, carrying all of his own camping equipment and sleeping as and when he could at the side of the road Lachlan arrived in Paris at 5.30am this morning 13.07.21

Congratulations Lachlan!

Lachlan receives a hero’s welcome in the early hours of Tuesday morning in Paris…

 

Written by Johnny Dodgin

 

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