Lachlan Morton just broke the tour divide record by a lot. It seems like one of his main strategic innovations was properly sleeping/resting. Amazing no one else thought to try this before and insteaad tried to do it all while massively sleep deprived. Many other records could be broken with sleep.
by geo_jam
11 Comments
[https://www.instagram.com/p/CxCkNoTOwuF/?img_index=1](https://www.instagram.com/p/CxCkNoTOwuF/?img_index=1)
>Finish | Antelope Wells, New Mexico | Mile 2,670
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>12;12;21. 2,670 miles (4,296 KM) ridden. 192,000 Feet (58,521 meters) climbed. Two countries visited. Five states and 1 province crossed. Four storms weathered. Wild horses, wolves, elk, moose, deer, eagles, antelope, chinchillas and coyotes spotted. Unknown amounts of candy bars and gallons of milk consumed.
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>Lachlan unclipped from his pedals at the US border with Mexico in Antelope Wells at 9:24pm Mountain Time. 12 days 12 hours 21 minutes was his time. His time from Canada to Mexico along the Divide will be talked about for a long, long time. To own a record, though, was never the point.
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>Lachlan wanted to experience the big point-to-point in a mentally and physically sustainable way, at least for him. **He pushed massive days in the saddle, but he also stopped to sleep and rest for 12 hours out of every 48. He was curious how fast he could go with such a plan. Now we know: Fast.**
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>Thank you to those along the way who cheered and who helped Lachy out when he rolled through town. And thank you to those who donated to Adventure for All — we’re at $20,050 raised, and you can still contribute.
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>There’s more to come from this journey in the form of a full film with [@hereorthereabouts](https://www.instagram.com/hereorthereabouts/) , so stay tuned. Thank you for following the dot. We hope Lachlan’s ride inspires you to explore the world on two wheels.
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>Now, time to get some rest.
>”I am really interested to see with this approach, how fast you can really go and if it would be competitive with people who have really pushed that sleep element,” said Morton before setting out.
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>While not directly equating to sleep time, the data on Morton’s tracking dot put his stopped time at 30 per cent of his total, which equates to a little over seven hours a day, and was higher than the percentage of stopped time shown in the tracking data of both Hall in 2016 – at around 24 per cent – and 2023 Tour Divide winner Ulrich Bartholmoes – at over 23 per cent.
[https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lachlan-morton-sets-scorching-pace-over-tour-divide-route/](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lachlan-morton-sets-scorching-pace-over-tour-divide-route/)
Really remarkable. And while I get it will always be asterisked because he had a film crew wth him, it doesn’t diminish the achievement in my eyes. Just amazing riding.
Makes Mike’s time even more impressive.
The sleep thing is just to distract others from the fact that this is Lachlan Morton, who was going to annihilate the record either way, so that future riders feel like there was some strategy to it other than being a cycling wonder
Fuck this guy, I’ve been asking this question for a year now ever since I started watching ultra endurance races.
Should have been me
That, and he is also a World Tour level professional cyclist at the peak of his racing career with the full support of a pro cycling team 😆
Amazing ride and amazing accomplishment. He seems like a very rad dude.
I’m racing the AZT 800 in October, and I fully intend to sleep 6hrs every night.
Time to recalibrate my training. 😤
Sleep? Rear panniers? Blasphemy.
>Amazing no one else thought to try this before
What an idiotic take. You obviously know very little about this sport OP. Of course people thought to try this before but they can’t ride at the same speed as a world tour professional, so they have to make up time by sleeping less. Ted King was attempting a similar strategy this year but pushed his body too hard. Yeah Sofiane, Ulrich, Lael and all are super fit, but world tour pros are on a totally different level of training, diet, coaching, and support.