Lachlan Morton sets scorching pace over Tour Divide route

Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) riding the route of the Tour Divide
Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) riding the route of the Tour Divide, which ranged from icy cold wet and muddy conditions to dust and heat (Image credit: EF Pro Cycling)

On August 29 Lachlan Morton set out to take on the Tour Divide route – from Banff in Canada's Rocky Mountains to Antelope Wells in New Mexico – to see just how quickly he could do it even while including a self-imposed minimum of 12 hours rest every 48 hours. The answer, it turns out, is pretty darn quick.

EF Education-EasyPost said that Morton had covered 2,670 miles in 12 days, 12 hours and 21 minutes. The acknowledged fastest known time set by a self-supported rider has long been 13 days 22 hours and 51 minutes, a mark set by ultra-endurance behemoth Mike Hall in 2016 over a course which has altered somewhat since. It was a longer distance according to Hall's tracking data of the time, which shows a distance of 2712.8 miles.

Still, Morton was fully aware when setting out that his time is unlikely to be considered a replacement self-supported record, as not only has the course of the annual self-supported race altered over time, the presence of a film crew has also been a contentious issue in the past given its impact on a key mental element in the self-supported race, being truly alone.

Morton was confronted by a wide range of challenges throughout the 12-and-a-half days, with plenty of wet and cold weather, peanut butter mud, fire diversions, saddle sores, trench foot and a dead derailleur on day 11, which led to some bush mechanics.

Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.