'I'll still be riding, just not in the pink anymore' – Lachlan Morton reveals he’s leaving EF Education-EasyPost
Ahead of another big announcement, the Australian maverick explains why he chose a niche English event as his final race for the team he has been a part of for seven years
Seemingly cut from a completely different cloth to every other elite cyclist in the modern era, former WorldTour-rider Lachlan Morton has always ridden a unique path, combining wins at major events such as Unbound with original endurance challenges and extreme record-setting rides, often raising funds for charities such as World Bicycle Relief.
But this week, talking to Cycling Weekly after winning the 3-Peaks Cyclo-cross race in Yorkshire, the Australian dropped a bombshell, revealing that he is about to leave EF Education-EasyPost, the team he has been part of since 2019, and that something new is looming on his horizon.
“The 3-Peaks was like my last time pinning on a number with EF,” he told CW. “It was a cool place to do it.”
When we spoke, he couldn’t reveal his exact plans (more about that below), but did give us a little teaser. “I'm doing an endurance ride, starting next Monday. I can't say exactly what it is, but it'll be a long multi-day ride here in the U.S. And then yeah, that will be it.
“I'll still be riding, just not in the pink anymore.”
Even when he was a WorldTour rider, competing in Grand Tours including the Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, Morton rode in a range of rough and tough off-road races around the world through EF Education First's alternative calendar.
It was during this period that he was exposed to some very British events, including the GBduro (a race he won in 2019) and the 3-Peaks, a challenge Morton didn't win in either of his first two attempts, in 2019 and 2025, but which kept calling him back.
"It's just one of those races that gets under your skin, so I've been back a few times since," he explained. "Every time you do it you learn more, and you realise things you could do differently or better, and that rings true even when you win.”
Morton became completely captivated with British bike racing culture, which led to him doing his last race in the distinctive pink livery of EF Education-EasyPost right here in England.
“I love the UK scene,” he says. “People get very passionate about very specific disciplines and events, and the history of those events and disciplines. And it feels like everything grows from a strong local place, and branches out from there, from club runs and the local racing scene. And experience is passed down from older riders to riders just getting into it.
“This is something I find fascinating, and it's similar to the environment I grew up in – except the British go way harder for the niche element, like hill climbing, and get really passionate. And I think that's very cool.”
Despite his success and popularity, Morton, who now lives in California, has maintained his easy-going Australian attitude to life, and he evidently enjoys the fact that even people with celebrity status in world cycling don’t get special treatment at local bike races in the UK.
“I like that it’s a scene you have to prove yourself in,” he says. “There's always a healthy amount of banter, or people hanging sh*t on you. When you turn up, you really have to earn your spot there. It's like a funny but rewarding thing to go through.
“And it's also a beautiful place to just go and ride. That's always my struggle, going over for the 3-Peaks. I just want to go and do all the riding I can around Yorkshire, because it's so beautiful. I end up riding more than I should before the race.”
Keen-eyed spectators at the 3-Peaks might have noticed Morton had a slightly less hirsute look than we've become used to, with a neatly trimmed 'tache and beard, but he denies that this is part of his new direction.
"My wife drops hints every now and then - she prefers me clean shaven, so every now and then I have a reset… I'm in the reset phase," he explains. "I'll be back to my shaggy-looking self in a couple weeks time. That's how it tends to go. Same with my hair I like grow it until it annoys me and then it just shave off and start again.
So at least we know he's not going corporate. And Morton promises that, whatever his future holds, he’ll be coming back to defend his 3-Peaks crown. “It's not a matter of 'I've done it now', because it's just such a great event,” he tells me. “I'd love to go back as many times as possible.”
And he has no shortage of plans for future adventures, all over the planet. “I'd really love to ride in Pakistan,” he says. “I've been looking at northern Pakistan, where the terrain looks like it lends itself to really crazy adventures.
“Papua New Guinea would be a cool place to go and see on bike. And then in South America I really want to go to Ecuador.”
Right now, though, it seems the Wild West of America is where he is heading for his next adventure.
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Since we spoke to him, Morton has revealed that his very last adventure with EF Education-EasyPost will be a multi-day ride across the American West along the route of the legendary 19th-century postal service, the Pony Express.
Starting on 5 October, he will attempt to ride the 1,966-mile (3,164km) route faster than the horsemen who carried mail from St. Joseph in Missouri to Sacramento in California, passing through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada en route.
Founded in 1860, the horsemen of the Pony Express service were tasked with delivering mail across the decidedly untamed West in 10 days or less. It was an extremely perilous journey and the service only last 18 months, after which time it was replaced by the telegraph, but the heroism of the riders made it a legendary part of the American story.
The fastest time was set in 1861, when Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address (which is credited with helping to persuade California to remain in the Union as the Civil War simmered) was carried across the distance in seven days and 17 hours, with horses being changed every 10 miles (16km) and riders changing every 75 to 100 miles (120 to 160km).
Can Morton do it quicker?
He plans to travel light, resupplying and switching bikes from a truck, also carrying his brother Gus, who will be filming the trip.
"The idea is to mimic how they used to switch out horses," says the Australian adventurer. "I'll be swapping between a gravel bike, a road bike, and a mountain bike depending on the terrain. The route I've put together tries to get as close to the original as I could. I'm excited because it'll use all the different disciplines I've raced."
"You start on the plains, essentially, coming across Kansas, then across the basin through Wyoming, into Utah," explains Morton. "The real crux is the Nevada section — the stretch from Salt Lake City across to Carson City – because it's incredibly remote and very exposed. There's a lot that could go wrong there, and you're very much on your own. That's probably the hardest part.
"Then you cross the Sierra Nevada on the southern side of Lake Tahoe and drop through the foothills, which I know well because I live out there now, and finish in Sacramento.”