This is quite the undertaking!
“La Grande Boucle is cycling’s ultimate challenge, with the biggest audience, the toughest parcours and the most prestigious prize. From the outside, the race is a constantly moving feast of sound, colour, effort and emotion but for the racers inside the bubble, life on Tour travelling from one hotel to the next can be somewhat sterile particularly in the midst of a pandemic.
This year, for a fresh perspective on what it takes to compete at the world’s greatest bike race, Lachlan Morton is taking on his own Alt Tour. In a challenge inspired by the inaugural edition of 1903, he’ll ride every stage and every transfer completely unsupported, covering a distance of 5,500km and climbing over 65,000 metres in just 23 days. Starting just before the first stage, he’ll ride nearly double the distance and make the equivalent of an extra thirteen ascents of the Tourmalet, all with the ultimate aim of beating the peloton to Paris.
As well as a fresh perspective, Lachlan will also be riding with a new purpose. To make every kilometre he covers really count, Rapha and Education First are each donating 500 bikes to World Bicycle Relief and, with your help, we can donate even more. If you’re inspired by Lachlan’s challenge and would like to support him, you too can donate to WBR and help provide even more young people with the bikes they need to access an education.
With no teammates to shelter behind, no mechanical assistance and no rest days, the Alt Tour is Lachlan’s greatest challenge yet. How many bikes can we donate? Will Lachlan make it to Paris? And will he arrive before the peloton? There’s only one way to find out…”