“It’s not a holiday,” says Lachlan Morton, an Australian professional cyclist more than one-third of his way through an epic quest to cycle around Australia.
More than a century ago, in June 1899, Arthur Richardson left Perth to ride the circumference of the Australian continent. He returned 245 days later. Richardson’s epic journey was part of a movement of long-distance cycling, known as “the Overlanders”, which flourished at the turn of the century.
In the 125 years since, dozens of Australians have attempted to ride around the country. The current record stands at 37 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes, set by Queenslander David Alley in 2011. But almost two weeks into his own quest, Morton – who rides for professional team EF Education–EasyPost – is on track to blitz that time.
“It’s good,” he tells Guardian Australia by phone during a brief rest stop. “Tough, obviously. But we’re having a good time.”
The 32-year-old set off from his home town of Port Macquarie earlier this month. Last weekend, he reached Darwin (his progress can be followed via an online tracker). By Tuesday he had passed Kununurra and was heading south-west towards Broome – almost 6,000km into the journey.
The rules for official attempts around Australia provide that cyclists must cover at least 14,200km, and pass through six locations: Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Broome, Perth, Esperance, Adelaide and Melbourne. Otherwise, riders can set their own route – although they typically ride anti-clockwise, to take advantage of prevailing tailwinds. Last year, Lesa Ashford became the first woman to complete the lap.
Morton was a promising road cyclist in his early career and rode for several years on the World Tour, winning the Tour of Utah and contesting the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia. But the Australian has always had an adventurous streak.
In 2014, Morton and his brother Angus rode from Port Macquarie to Uluru – a 2,500km ride – and turned the journey into a documentary, Thereabouts. It was a hit within the cycling world, and led to equivalent documented rides around the world.
“It’s wildly different,” Morton says of his switch from racing to these long-distance epics. “This is such an individual and mental thing. The demands on the body in doing something like this are far greater. You have to be able to push yourself when things are less than ideal – whereas in a professional environment, everything is set up to be quite ideal.
“You’re sharing the road with someone who might be going to work, or is at work,” he says. “The real world is going on around you. I think I prefer this kind of thing, to be honest.”
Morton says he is trying to take “the day as it comes at you”. He is sleeping about seven hours in the afternoon and evening, before leaving in the early hours and riding through the night. Morton is followed by a support crew in a caravan; they typically join him for breakfast after daybreak, before the rider powers on (his biggest day saw the cyclist cover almost 600km).
“Once I’m done I try to relax, kick back for an hour with the crew, maybe grab a beer,” he says. “And then I’m off to bed, doing it all again in the morning.
“The morning comes quick,” Morton concedes. “It’s a lot of pedalling mate.”
Morton is raising funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (supporters have already donated over $30,000). He says he chose the charity after planning the route and appreciating the challenges of travelling through such remote areas. “It felt fitting to work with an organisation that is helping kids deal with those unique challenges,” he says. “Everyone deserves to have access to a good education – and books are the basic cornerstone of that.”
If he keeps up his present pace, Morton will have no difficulty breaking the record. But he is likely to contend with more challenges, and much of the route’s 44,000 metres of elevation, in the weeks ahead. Perhaps epitomising the distinctly Australian nature of Morton’s odyssey, he collided with some local wildlife near Mt Isa.
“I fully hit a kangaroo,” he chuckles. “I was on top of it before I’d even noticed it. I felt for sure I was about to have a big crash. But he was all right, and I was all right.”
As he rides, Morton sometimes listens to music or podcasts. But he says he spends most of the time just soaking in the scenery. “It’s an incredible way to get a real feel for the country,” says Morton. “You’re travelling over it with your own power. You feel every hill, you feel the burn of the sun, you notice the wind. All these things that you don’t get if you travel in other ways.”