Over the past few years, the former WorldTour rider has found new purpose and inspired millions with adventures like his AltTour, One Ride Away, and Tour Divide. Still competitive on gravel and dirt in events like the Life Time Grand Prix, Lachlan now approaches racing with a fresh perspective, more focused on having fun and lifting others up than gaining half a watt and riding his rivals into the gutter. As his 2024 season gets underway, we gave Lachy a call.

He answered from his new home in California. Get to know Lachlan Morton.

I don’t know! I will do the Life Time series again, which will be fun. It could be the last time I do it, so I am just going to enjoy it and race hard. That will give me a few races. And then I am going to try one of the Belgian Waffle Ride races as well. I have never done any of those before, so I am keen to go see what they are all about. I will do the one in San Diego. Beyond that, I want to do another big ride, maybe in Australia. I am looking at a few different options and routes there at the moment, but I haven’t confirmed anything yet. This year, I have tried to leave more space to pick events and rides as I go. The last few years, I committed to a lot, which has been fun, but has also meant that I haven’t been able to just see where the weather is good and go jump on my bike for a week to explore or just hear about a cool race from someone and go jump in on that. I want to leave space for that kind of thing this year and be a bit more flexible.

We’re remodeling an old house in Auburn, California, which is in the hills between Sacramento and Tahoe. It is a good spot. We have got good contractors and that so the work has all gone pretty smoothly. The instant coffee company I am a part of is just a half hour down the road in Sacramento. I was just ready for a change. Training is really nice out here. It is quiet and we could afford a spot that actually had a bit of a backyard.

I love it here in Auburn. I think that anywhere where I have enough time to explore and there is enough varying terrain that you can really get stuck into is fun. We have mountains one way and farmland the other, and then there is a whole lot of space with not many people. It’s a really nice mix of gravel riding and mountain biking and fun road riding, with endless possibilities every day and enough time to dive into it and see new things.

Lots of ways. As a kid, it was something I was good at, so it was something I used to prove my self worth. Then, that kind of grew into a way to prove my self worth, but also make my living. And then it just evolved into something I didn’t like at all, something I didn’t want any part in any more. And it has slowly just turned from that into a place to escape and be fully in something, focus wise. That is what racing has become for me. It is as much about the community and the people that you see at the races as the event itself now too.

I want to keep progressing the sport beyond purely racing and see how far I can take that and hopefully continue to show people that it doesn’t have to just be this constant pursuit of being faster. There are other ways of expressing yourself on a bike while testing yourself. In order to do that, I have to keep progressing myself, because all of the spaces that I have grown into have become competitive spaces now too. That is what I hope to continue to achieve in bike racing.

I think there is this huge disconnect that exists now between the elite level and the way 95% of people would experience riding a bike most of the time. I don’t want it to become an activity that most people cannot go and enjoy. I want to show people that you can enjoy riding bikes and even be competitive, but in a way that is less, I guess, elite. I don’t really know what that looks like. I am not the one with the answers, but that is what I see now what worries me the most in sport and cycling.

Kilian Jornet will always be an inspiration for me. I admire his abilities as an athlete, but also the way he is able to balance that with making a lot of conscious social decisions that really spread a good message. I think that is inspiring and something to try and strive towards. He is a great inspiration.

Yes. Amani is a team based out of Kenya that is focused on developing East African cyclists and using gravel racing as a pathway to the world stage. It is a great program that is purely focused on providing opportunities for athletes who otherwise probably wouldn’t get them. It is a legitimate team. It is not a charity. It is just a team that is building itself up, getting results. The riders are proving themselves every step of the way. For me personally, it is just a rewarding thing to be a part of, because they are a great group of athletes and people that I enjoy spending time with, but also because I think that what they are doing is important for cycling. The sport is only getting more elite. All of the technology just pushes the sport to a less accessible echelon, so it is cool to see a project prove that riders without the means can compete if you give them the opportunities. Cycling needs that, especially at a high level.

Huge progress. They took a big step this year with a training facility and camp being built in Kenya. I was over there for the training camp and the selection process in November and we had almost 40 riders there, all trying to get a spot on the team, which was exciting. The athletes are seeing that it is possible; there is a step that you can make that will lead to opportunities to race overseas against the best athletes. I think the fact that the riders can see that step is really important and it is very clear now. Within the group there are a lot of riders who are very ambitious, especially the younger ones. The Amani project is only going to go from strength to strength, I think.

Just have fun, I would say. Don’t focus on the racing too much. Just get a bike that you enjoy riding and go and build some jumps with your friends. Don’t specialize on any one thing, just be open minded with it and have fun as the primary driver and see where it takes you. It is not something that needs to be taken seriously. Just enjoy it.

When I don’t have anything to do and I just have an open program and I can just go and get out there and see some spots that I haven’t seen before and ride some new trails and just generally waste my day away on a bike—that is something that I always enjoy and always have. I have also been enjoying going on different group rides. There is a very strong cycling community in the Sacramento area, so it has been fun to be able to show up and do different rides with different groups of people doing different things on their bikes and just meet a new community that way. 

Thanks, Lachlan. It's going to be a fun year.