IN BRIEF
EF Pro Cycling announces that Lachlan Morton has beaten the Pony Express record by bike, the horseback mail service that crossed the American West. Setting off from St. Joseph, Missouri, on 5 October, the EF Pro Cycling rider reached Sacramento, California, on the evening of Sunday 11 October, after 6 days, 21 hours and 15 minutes. Velo calculates that he finished 19 hours and 45 minutes ahead of the relay of riders that carried Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address in 1861. Morton covered 3,217 km, with several bikes and a support crew.
The challenge was announced, and it has been met. Lachlan Morton completed the Pony Express route in 6 days, 21 hours and 15 minutes, and his team, EF Pro Cycling, writes that he beat the record set on horseback 160 years ago along the old express mail route across the American West.
The Pony Express record falls by nearly 20 hours
Morton set off on 5 October from St. Joseph, Missouri. After 3,217 km across the western half of the United States, he rode into Sacramento at 23:19, Velo reports. The American site puts him 19 hours and 45 minutes ahead of the horseback relay that brought Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address to California in 1861.
Those riders went through around 197 horses, changed at regular intervals. Morton rode the whole way himself, with several bikes and a support crew. Velo reports that he found the last day “the hardest”. A storm was coming in from the Pacific; slightly lost, he found his way back to the Sacramento road via a gravel track around Lake Tahoe. For the technical sections of the Sierra Nevada, he switched to a Cannondale Scalpel.
“I just don’t know how they did it”
At the finish, Morton above all said he was happy, in the interview published by his team:
“It’s great, man. I had an amazing time. I wasn’t desperate for it to end, which was odd. I was really just having a great time. It was something I’d been dreaming about for years, so it’s great to be here.”
Lachlan Morton, EF Pro Cycling rider
Of the original riders, he remains in awe: “It’s still unfathomable. I just don’t know how they did it.” And he thanks his support crew: “Without them, a ride like this would be impossible.”
Morton is no stranger to such long-distance adventures. In 2022, EF recalls, he rode the 853 km of the Colorado Trail solo, a high-altitude mountain bike route, in 3 days, 10 hours and 15 minutes.
