Tuesday, June 29, 2021

The Alt Tour (de France)


From Axios Sports:

Lachlan Morton, an Australian adventure racer, is attempting to ride the Tour de France alone, supported only by what he can carry with him.

Driving the news: The Tour de France peloton set off from Brittany on Saturday. Morton rolled away from the same line an hour later and will attempt to complete his "Alt Tour" in parallel with the official race.

Track his progress.

Details: While Tour competitors recover in luxury hotels and ride buses between stages, Morton will sleep on the ground and pedal between stages, making his route over 60% longer (3,424 miles vs. 2,102 miles).

  • The goal is to beat the peloton to Paris, which will require Morton to race roughly 12 hours per day and occasionally at night.
  • He aims to sleep in his sleeping bag for at least eight hours a night and will stop at cafés and gas stations for food and water.

What he's saying: Morton is hoping to capture the original spirit of the Tour, in which riders raced through the night, slept outside, ate where they could, and rarely even finished.

"There's a part of me that thinks I would have been a lot better suited to that era," Morton told WSJ (subscription). "It wasn't necessarily a profession to them. It was just ... a chance to do something epic."

Morton came up along the traditional path of development teams, but he quickly grew tired of the monotony of elite-level racing. "Of all the cycling you can do, it's the closest to a desk job," he said.

The big picture: Morton has essentially spent his life preparing for this moment, having undertaken numerous extreme solo challenges over the years, including a 44-hour race through Spain with no sleep.

Yes, but: Nothing compares to the Alt Tour, which will take over three weeks. Even Morton acknowledges, "I'm not even sure if it's possible."

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