Privateer Story. Tour de France the hard, original way. But in this year's race...

From the WSJ article. Yes he is on a team. But not riding with any support per the author.

The Australian cyclist Lachlan Morton is amid a throwback Tour de France—an old-school version of the race in which he rides alone, repairs his own bike, seeks out his own food, and pretty much fends for himself all the way around the countryside to Paris.

Morton’s professional cycling team, EF Education-Nippo, calls Morton’s feat the “Alt Tour,” and the ride, which is also raising money for World Bicycle Relief (a charity that donates bikes to communities in need), is a celebration of the Tour’s early, do-it-yourself, slightly-unhinged roots. Morton’s got himself a flashy Cannondale bike and plush Rapha threads, but the creature comforts pretty much stop there. The other night, as his EF teammates in the actual Tour de France slept in a quiet hotel, Morton tossed and turned in a sleeping bag because a rave was thumpathumpthumping nearby.

Link issues with WSJ - here is article:

The Business School Lesson at the Tour de France. A professional rider is attempting a do-it-himself race through the mountains and onto Paris. Is this a model for the future of sports?


The Australian cyclist Lachlan Morton is amid a throwback Tour de France—an old-school version of the race in which he rides alone, repairs his own bike, seeks out his own food, and pretty much fends for himself all the way around the countryside to Paris.

Morton’s professional cycling team, EF Education-Nippo, calls Morton’s feat the “Alt Tour,” and the ride, which is also raising money for World Bicycle Relief (a charity that donates bikes to communities in need), is a celebration of the Tour’s early, do-it-yourself, slightly-unhinged roots. Morton’s got himself a flashy Cannondale bike and plush Rapha threads, but the creature comforts pretty much stop there. The other night, as his EF teammates in the actual Tour de France slept in a quiet hotel, Morton tossed and turned in a sleeping bag because a rave was thumpathumpthumping nearby.

The Journal’s Joshua Robinson wrote about Morton’s race as it started, and as the cyclist approaches two weeks in the saddle, it’s clear the endeavor is capturing the imaginations of race fans. I think it’s potentially bigger than that. It’s possible that they’ll be talking one day about Lachlan’s ride in business schools, as an example of how a modern sports operation can widen its ambitions and grow its audience.

I know that sounds a bit cuckoo. But here’s my case (look at me, a sports hack writing a biz column in The Wall Street Journal!):

This is where the sport is heading. Like a lot of sports, cycling finds itself (pun intended) at a crossroads. The sport’s traditional structure feels stagnant—while glam events like the Tour will always get attention and snazzy stars like Tadej Pogacar and Mark Cavendish, much of the consumer energy in cycling is heading over to the “adventure” category, as riders both amateur and professional seek out challenges a bit more exotic than finishing first on a paved road. This shift has been under way for a while, but it surged during the pandemic, which eliminated much of the race calendar and triggered a bike boom in which cyclists turned to socially distant riding. Some of it is also a byproduct of safety, as cyclists fed up with distracted drivers are turning to off-road riding to reduce risk.

“I don’t want to say it’s a war, but there’s a split in cycling right now in that there are tons of people who want the Iliad and the Odyssey, the grand adventure,” says EF boss Jonathan Vaughters. This is precisely the sort of riding Morton enjoys, and the team has cultivated it by encouraging the 29-year-old to do ultra-endurance events like the Kokopelli Trail (a 142-mile ride from Utah to Colorado) and feats like “Everesting,” in which a rider repeats a hill climb until the elevation gain matches the 29,035 feet of the world’s highest mountain. (Morton briefly held the “Everesting” record.)


It’s crisp social media storytelling. Lunatics like me will happily watch a four-hour Tour de France stage on TV, but that’s a big ask for busy people in 2021 (or honestly, in any year). Morton’s stunt has a sharp tag (the guy’s riding the Tour like they did in 1903!) and tension (can he beat the race to Paris?) and it’s easy to follow via social media and a website tracking his progress. See where Morton is on GPS! Learn what Morton ate Tuesday for lunch (“steak frites”). Find out how he repaired a recent flat (MacGyver-style, with an air mattress repair kit).

The cycling audience is swooning. While the Tour benefits massively from daily TV exposure, EF reports that its social media posts from Lachlan’s ride are outperforming posts from the actual Tour de France by a 2-to-1 margin.

You or I could do it. Well, at least you could. I would need to lay off the steak frites for at least two years. But part of what’s driving the fascination with Morton’s feat is that, unlike a turbocharged Tour de France stage, a long, self-guided ride is at least within the realm of possibility for a dedicated civilian rider. Please know: I’m not saying that what Morton’s doing is easy—it’s definitely not—but it’s less fantastical to a weekend warrior than being recruited to a World Tour team. “They could conceive of doing it,” says Vaughters. “In some little part of your brain, you could dream of that…whereas doing a time trial at [32 miles per hour]—that’s never going to happen.”

It challenges the orthodoxy, which is always good. Professional sports are stubborn. There’s a way things are done, and it’s usually because they’ve been done that way for a long, long time. Even a volatile sport like pro cycling—a sponsor-driven marketing exercise in which humans are logo-plastered like Nascar vehicles—gets skittish about experimentation. The appeal of Morton’s stunts is that they aren’t the same old, same old; in fact, they’re an existential rebuke of the idea that winning needs to be the only thing. It’s caught on, and it makes me think that, within a few years, every pro team will have a Morton type rider on its roster.

And why stop there? There’s no reason that other sports—eager for engagement in a crowded marketplace—can’t borrow from this idea. Why does a sports team have to be so narrowly defined? Why shouldn’t every stock car outfit have a Lachlan-type driver doing off-road style adventures? What about a barnstorming 3-on-3 team formally affiliated with an NBA outfit? Or an NFL adjunct that plays flag football?

I know this all sounds funny, but there’s a cherished ritual in business: First they laugh at you, then they copy you.

I should add an important caveat here: Lachlan Morton is one of one. He’s a talented road racer who’s leaned fully into this career shift, which not every pro rider would embrace or be capable of doing. This is an optimal mind-meld between an eccentric team and an eccentric rider, and anyone looking to imitate it will have to dig deep to find the proper personnel to pull it off.

But smart sports will look to go off the beaten path. Lachlan Morton is riding to Paris, and it’s likely to go further than that.

Mr.Moderator,

I care.

BTW, there are links between MX and the Tdf. Can you tell us what they are?