When Matt met Lachlan

Record-breaking ultra-endurance rider Lachlan Morton took time out from his adventure calendar to go for a ride with presenter Matt Stephens. Here's a snippet of what they talked about

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Lachlan Morton is a hard man to tie down. The Australian rider began his career in traditional fashion, leaving home to race in Europe and America, building a palmarès that included victory at the Tour of Utah in 2016 and appearances at the Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia. However, the pro race scene didn't really suit him. Morton was happier taking on less formal but more gruelling solo challenges that captured the imagination and built a loyal following of fans.

His team, EF Education-EasyPost, was quick to spot the value of this so released Morton from standard racing duties to concoct a calendar of gravel races, ultra-endurance events and record attempts that it called Far Beyond.

Morton found himself flying around the world, pursuing an intense schedule of challenges that required him to ride lots and sleep little. These included the 320km Unbound in Kansas (which he won last year), the 2,000km GBDuro race from Land's End to John O' Groats (which he won in 2019), the 4,418km Tour Divide race across America (for which he would have achieved the Fastest Known Time but his effort wasn't recognised owing to the presence of his film crew), as well as numerous other events from South America to Africa to Asia.

Last year Morton set a new record for riding around Australia, completing 14,200km in 30 days, nine hours, 59 minutes. The feat was captured for a film called The Great Southern Country and is on YouTube. And this year Morton met up with ex-pro and presenter Matt Stephens in northern California to go for a ride and produce another video (also on YouTube) as part of Sigma Sports' Cafe Ride collection. This is an edited extract from that film.

Matt: So when was the last time you did a ride like this?