EF’s Lachlan Morton’s First Go At The Three Peaks. A film by Rapha

Lachlan Morton, a pro road racer for UCI team, EF Education First seems to have a fairly benevolent and understanding employer. Given that his day job involves racing road bikes, he has been given leave to compete in a bunch of rather more ‘fringe’ events, something that he seems to be absolutely loving. With a Rapha film crew documenting his moves, he has recently taken part in events as disparate as Colorado’s Leadville 100 mountain bike race, the Dirty Kanza and the inaugral GBDuro – the self-supported Land’s End to John O’Groats stage race.

The cyclocross forums were buzzing with the news that Lachlan Morton would be racing at the 2019 Three Peaks Cyclocross race and everyone wondered how well the 27 year old would do, given that the iconic event comes with its own unique terrain and skillset needed to survive the 38 mile course, let alone to do well at it.

A day before the event, Lachlan was given a bit of a taster of the terrain in the company of previous winners like Paul Oldham and Nick Craig. To say that he was excited/nervous/overawed would be an understatement, but there’s a real sense that Lachlan Morton is a cyclist’s cyclist. As he says in the video, his idea of a great day off is being able to ride his bike all day. He’s keen to give it his best, despite the lauded company on the start and what follows in the film is the story of his race, but it’s also a unique view of the Three Peaks with camera angles, especially from drones, that have rarely if ever been seen from the event.

Along with interviews with the likes of 11-time winner Rob Jebb, organiser Mark Richmond and race founder John Rawnsley, there’s some great archive footage from a classic cyclocross race (even though it doesn’t look to be the Peaks, it’s still worth the watch…)

We’ll let you watch your own film, but here we reckon that Rapha – and Lachlan Morton have done a great job of getting over the atmosphere and grandeur of this still-intimate event. Chatting to him afterwards, he was filled with enthusiasm about the event and admitted that it’s a race that you can’t just do the one time… so will he be back? Let’s hope so.