We are now accustomed to races with extreme distances, endless racing days that spark debates inside and outside cycling, but there are those who have made long distances and feats a true profession. Lachlan Morton, a 33-year-old Australian, decided a few weeks ago to pedal between the two extreme points of New Zealand in a single day. The result? 648 km covered in just under 18 and a half hours with an average of 35 km/h.

Morton was a professional cyclist from 2012 to 2022, riding for top teams like Garmin, Dimension Data, and EF, participating in the Giro and Vuelta. But after retiring from professional cycling, a new life began for him. Initially, he dedicated himself to gravel, then started becoming passionate about true ultra endurance challenges. In 2019, he had pedaled over 2000 km across the United Kingdom, while last October he set the record for a complete bicycle tour of Australia in 30 days, 9 hours, and 59 minutes. This time, his new feat, entirely on New Zealand territory, was not just a way to challenge himself, but to pay tribute to Brian Fleck, one of the pioneers of this type of challenge.

It all started shortly after finishing the Australian tour. Through a friend, Morton learned about the incredible adventure of Brian Fleck, a postal worker who in 1983, at the age of 43, had pedaled almost 650 kilometers across New Zealand. It was an extraordinary feat, especially considering the means of the time, but even more extraordinary was the fact that no one had ever talked about it. Lachlan thus decided to pay homage to the now eighty-year-old man by taking on the same challenge himself. As he recounts in an emotional short film available on YouTube, the goal was to honor the feat by trying to replicate it as closely as possible. He spoke at length with Fleck, trying to understand his story and how he had prepared for the adventure. "Replicating the same conditions of 1983 was not possible, but I started to think like Fleck, who pedaled out of passion during work breaks, had decided to challenge himself. To be as close as possible, I decided to start without specific training, nor even a nutrition plan. I just wanted to throw myself into this adventure - Morton said. I would have liked to have more time, but I felt the need to start, to challenge myself. It would be just me and the length of an island. I didn't want to just pay tribute to a legend but to bring the past into the present."

Lachlan Morton started at exactly 4:09 AM from an Auckland completely wrapped in darkness, accompanied only by a small support van. Pedal after pedal, he crossed towns and cities, saw the sun rise and then set, always in the saddle of his bike. He stopped only once for just a minute, but about 200 km from the finish, he encountered headwinds that greatly complicated his feat, which was documented by truly evocative footage. He arrived in Wellington at 10:36 PM, welcomed by many fans and his family after 18 hours and 28 minutes, improving the previous record by about an hour and a half. His average was over 35 km/h. Exhausted and emotional, one of the first things Morton wanted to do was call Brian Fleck, who congratulated him on the feat.

Crossing New Zealand is certainly something grandiose, especially for the celebratory value it carries, but Morton has no intention of stopping. There are many new adventures awaiting him. In fact, today the Transcordilleras began, an 8-day gravel stage race in Colombia. The Australian will pedal self-supported from Choachi to Jardin for a total of 1000 km.

(photo by Dan King for Rapha)