This Lachlan Morton guy loves riding a bike, doesn’t he?
After setting a monstrous record for his Around Australia ride, completing the 14,210km lap around the island in 30 days and 10 hours and beating the previous record by over a week, the Aussie rider has now broken the Auckland to Wellington ride by cycling 648km from New Zealand’s biggest city to its capital in 18-and-a-half hours, after Kiwi rider and his friend Hayden McCormick proposed the idea to him.
But wait, there’s a new twist to the tale — a bizarre controversy has popped up over Rapha’s Instagram video of the EF Education–EasyPost rider’s historic ride, after the cycling clothing company failed to mention Brian Lambert’s achievements of the record, with fans swarming the replies critical of the omission, instead showcasing Brian Fleck, McCormick’s coach.
Fleck himself had set the Auckland-Wellington record in 1983 across 20 hours on the bike, beating Lambert’s 1982 record. However, it was beaten once again in 1984 by — you guessed it — Lambert, who set a time of 19 hours and 59 minutes, which stood for over 40 years until Morton’s effort.
The criticism was charged by none other than Brian Lambert’s son James, who disappointingly wrote: “Amazing to see my father Brian Lamberts record taken after 40 years.”
He also added: “I like the part where Fleck mentions the actual record is 19hrs 54 minutes but fails to mention that it wasn’t his time or his record.”
“The real story of the man who set the time of 19hrs 59minutes. The official public record ratified by CNZ in 1984 and the official record holder that Lachlan bettered the time of. Gold mining, goat farming bookie would have made a much better film.”
Rapha has now apologised for its mistake, writing under the post: “Thank you to those who have highlighted an error in this narrative. In this film, we focused on Brian Fleck’s story due to Hayden McCormicks’ connection with him and his personal memory of that record, however, in hindsight, we regret not recognising Brian Lambert’s record-breaking rides and the place he holds in this history.
“Brian Lambert broke the Auckland to Wellington record twice, first in 1982 and again in 1984, fulfilling his ambition of breaking the 20 hour barrier by finishing the 650km ride in an incredible 19 hours, 59 minutes and 27 seconds. He held this record for over 40 years, until Lachlan’s ride in January 2025 in 18 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds.
“Challenges like this are life-defining, and we have the utmost respect for all who go out to set them and shape what true human endeavour looks like.
“We would like to sincerely apologise to Brian Lambert’s family, friends, and fellow riders for this omission.
Would it be safe to say that the BBC, having presumably reached its quota of traffic culture war stories in the UK, has now found fertile grounds just across the Channel?
Because the murder of Paul Varry, the Parisian cyclist who was run over by a road rage SUV driver, seems to have launched a new “war on roads” in the city, according to the BBC, with “drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians trying to navigate the new balance of power”.
It’s true that the local authorities of the French capital, led by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, have done their due share in laying down improved cycling infrastructure and implementing policies that disincentivise motorists to drive in the city. However, the murder of cyclist and active travel campaigner Varry, described as “sickening” and “unprecedented”, has shown the war, if there is one, is really lopsided in terms of power dynamics.
BBC’s latest coverage of the incident, through a written feature as well as a Radio 4 show titled ‘Road Wars: Cycling in Paris’, hosted by the foreign correspondent Anna Holligan who rose to fame for her ‘Bike Bureau’, a mobile broadcasting studio in a cargo bike in the Netherlands, has now come under scrutiny for insinuating the same.
The summary of the show reads: “On 15th Oct 2024, a 27-year-old cyclist was killed in a bike lane in Paris. His name was Paul Varry. He was run over by a car after an argument with a driver. What happened to Paul was extreme, but it resonated with many Parisians.
“For Paris is undergoing a cycling revolution. The city has created a vast network of bike lanes, introduced new restrictions for cars. The number of cyclists has soared. But there have also been conflicts, as cars, bikes and pedestrians try to navigate the new balance of power. So is Paris’s plan working? Is this transformation the future for other major cities? Anna Holligan goes to Paris to find out.”
Former West Midlands cycling and walking commissioner Adam Tranter posted a screenshot of the BBC’s show, captioned: “The BBC’s claim of a “war on our roads” between cyclists & drivers is exhausting.
“Cyclists are vulnerable road users, and framing it as a battle is false equivalence.
“If it were a war, one side would have assault rifles & body armour - the other, people cycling: water pistols.”
He added: “To be clear, I don’t really have an issue with the programme, Anna Holligan is a great reporter and very clearly understands the issues that face people cycling. But the constant hyperbole and framing by editors is troublesome, for me.”
One person replied to the tweet saying: “That's nonsense. How many car drivers have been killed by a bike? The death toll is only on cyclists.”
road.cc reader Rendel Harris also commented: “Doesn't seem very promising for an unbiased programme, does it? As ever, substitute ‘a gay man’ or ‘a black man’ for ‘cyclist’ , would they even think for a second of saying ‘A black man was killed after an argument. What happened to him was extreme but it resonated with many Parisians’?”
The show itself tries to take a surface-level neutral and balanced approach at the overall situation in Paris, featuring both cyclists and active travel campaigners, but as we’ve seen so many times in the past — the counterpoints are provided by disgruntled shop owners who claim they are losing business because their customers cannot drive to the city centres, as well as a very agitated and persuasive member of a motorists’ lobby group, titled ‘Ligue de Défense des Conducteurs’, translating to Drivers’ Defence League.
This is far from the first time the BBC has tested the culture war territories, framing road safety as a cyclists versus drivers versus pedestrians situation. Recently, the public broadcaster was in hot waters for the Adrian Chiles Panorama show on e-bikes, leading to outrage from both cyclists as well as the industry.
In October, there was another instance of backlash, not much dissimilar to the current Paris one, with British road safety campaigners claiming there was “no war between cyclists and drivers”, as the BBC apologised for “inappropriately” describing a camera cyclist as a “vigilante”.
How many times are we going to see more of the same this year? Pogačar gets off his saddle, digs deep, passes everyone, and then sits back down and carries on to build a gap to all his pursuers on a climb like it’s nothing.
Well, that’s exactly what happened yesterday, as Lidl-Trek’s Giulio Ciccone, winner of the mountains jersey at the 2023 Tour de France, tried all he could but couldn’t reign in the Slovenian world champion as he went on to win the final stage of the UAE Tour with a 7.8km attack, and ultimately finished ahead of Ciccone in the general classification by 1:14.
Here are the unbelievable power numbers he put up while doing so. At an approximate weight of 67 kilograms, calculate the VO2max numbers at your risk…
It was a weird weekend in Cardiff — Saturday was weirdly sunny, but yesterday was a return of the usual Welsh downpour. So your live blog host was back in his cave writing up some news, and here’s a round-up of that, plus all the other great cycling stuff that was on our website this weekend…
> Will the radical Morpheus Reppit change the direction of aero road bike design?