'This wasn’t just chasing a new record; it was chasing a legend' – Lachlan Morton rides 648km in a single day to break record for Auckland-Wellington
Update: Corrects previous record holder and adds Rapha apology for 'not recognising Brian Lambert’s record-breaking rides and the place he holds in this history'
Ultra-endurance racer Lachlan Morton has broken the record for the fastest time from Auckland to Wellington, a distance of 648km.
The EF Pro Cycling rider completed the route, spanning the full length of New Zealand's North Island, in 18 hours and 28 minutes. In doing so he knocked one hour and 32 minutes off the previous record, which had stood for more than 40 years.
The record had last changed hands in the early 1980's. Brian Lambert first dropping the mark below 25 hours in 1982, with a time of 23 hours which was then beaten by Brian Fleck, a post office worker who was 43 years old at the time, and who clocked a time of 20 hours and nine minutes over the distance that most professional cyclists wouldn't complete in a week.
Hearing of Fleck's attempt from a close friend, Hayden McCormick, had inspired Morton to take on the effort and perhaps at the time also inspired Lambert to go back and drop the time even further, which he did in 1984, leaving a fastest known time for Morton to beat of 19 hours and 59 minutes.
"This wasn’t just chasing a new record; it was chasing a legend. Attempting to bring the past into the present," Morton said.
"To me these kinds of records are fascinating. A pure test. To see how far and how fast we can go on a bike in one day."
Morton has built a cult following around his feats of ultra-endurance riding.
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Last year the 33-year-old set a new record for circumnavigating Australia by bike, completing a full circuit in 30 days, nine hours and 59 minutes. The previous mark, as outlined by the Road Record Association of Australia as the time to beat, had been set in 2011 by David Alley and was 37 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes.
In 2019, Morton was the first to finish the GBDuro, a 2,000km ride spanning the entire length of the UK, from Land's End to John o' Groats, and in 2014 he rode 2,500km from Port Macquarie to Uluru in Australia.
The film on the latest ultra-endurance feat focussed on the 1983 effort by Fleck – an endurance club rider who fit in training before and after work – who also featured in the video.
The film didn't mention Lambert's 1984 bettering of the mark but after the release Rapha issued an apology for "the error in this narrative."
"In this film, we focused on Brian Fleck’s story due to Hayden McCormicks’ connection with him and his personal memory of that record, however, in hindsight we regret not recognising Brian Lambert’s record-breaking rides and the place he holds in this history," Rapha said in an Instagram post and update.
Back in the 1980's the riders covered the Auckland-Wellington distance without a bike computer to monitor speed or any of the modern technology available to Morton and riders today.
Fleck, rode a steel bike and had to be informed of his time by his support van, but Morton's ride had the benefit of modern equipment and the latest kit, and full updates from friend and fellow rider Hayden McCormick in his own support van.
In a video of his experience, Morton said he only stopped once, for less than a minute, and struggled especially in the final 200km with the fatigue and headwinds.
"That's a savage ride," an exhausted Morton said at the finish, as he was informed of his new record - and was congratulated over the phone by Fleck himself.
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