Lachlan Morton

The Australian climber, born January 2, 1992, redefined his pro cycling career when he moved from being a prodigy in road racing to a trailblazer in adventure cycling. 

At the age of 18, Lachlan Morton turned heads with victories in time trial and road stage victories with the overall title at the 2010 Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada. He had tried triathlons, but did not like to swim when he was younger, growing up in New South Wales, Australia. 

In 2011 and 2012 he rode with the development squad for Team Garmin, and moved to the WorldTour team through 2014. During that time raced on multiple continents, winning a stage at the Tour of Utah and taking podium spots at Touor Guadeloupe, Giro Valle d’Aosta Mont Blanc and USA Pro Challenge.

At 24 years old, he walked away from the WorldTour due to burnout of the travel and racing schedule. Then he signed with a US-based Continental squad, Jelly Belly, to race with his brother Angus Morton in 2014 and 2015, and it reignited his road career. On the second season with the smaller team, he won two stages and the overall at the Tour of Utah and one stage GC at Tour of the Gila.

The WorldTour came calling again, so in 2017 and 2018 he raced with Team Dimension Data, where he competed in his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España and continued to put up top 10s at Tour of California and Tour of Oman. 

He continued at the top level for three-and-a-half more seasons at EF Education-Easypost, the outfit where he had started in the U23 ranks.
While in 2019 he won another stage at the Tour of Utah and in 2020 completed the Giro d’Italia, Morton began gravel racing and pursuits of off-road adventure. In 2019 he took part in the Unbound Gravel 200 event in Kansas, finishing one spot off the podium behind his teammate Alex Howes, and Leadville Trail 100 MTB, where he placed third. There was now a fresh spark to cycling for Morton.

In 2020, when the cycling calendar was disrupted by the coronavirus global pandemic, Morton began to focus on an alternative racing programme, like the Cape Epic mountain bike stage race and Kokopelli Trail adventure, and his EF Education team supported the transition. In fact, Morton seemed to carve out a whole new category when it came to long-distance, self-supported efforts on a bicycle. 

In 2021, he completed his Alt Tour of 5,509km and 225 hours of riding over 18 days, which saw him cover the same terrain - racing plus transfers - as the competitors in the Tour de France. The next year both he and Howes stepped away from the pro road scene to focus on gravel and adventure riding. He won a stage of Migration Gravel Race, ridden 1,000-plus-kilometres to raise awareness and funds for Ukrainian refugees and completed a 2,670-mile Tour Divide endurance test with a broken derailleur. He has competed twice in the Life Time Grand Prix off-road US series, his best finish fifth overall in the 2023 men’s standings.

Key Results

2024

🥇 Unbound Gravel

2023

🥇 One stage at Migration Gravel Race

🥇 Wild Horse Gravel

🥇 Evolution Gravel

🥈 GC at Migration Gravel

🥉 Unbound Gravel 200

2021

🥈 Leadville Trail 100 MTB

2019

🥇 One stage at Tour of Utah

🥉 Leadville Trail 100 MTB

Fourth Unbound Gravel 200

2017

🥇 Youth classification at Tour of California

2016

🥇 Two stages and GC at Tour of Utah

🥇 GC at Tour of the Gila