The Divide full and free: the cyclist movie of the year

At the end of August, EF Education-EasyPost cyclist Lachlan Morton faced The Tour Divide, an ultra-endurance test monster that runs through the Rocky Mountains from Canada to the border with Mexico. A totally wild experience that has been captured in the film The Divide, now available on the American team's YouTube channel.

North America from north to south. This was Lachlan Morton's The Tour Divide

There must be few cycling challenges in the world like The Tour Divide, an ultra-endurance test that has been contested since 2008 and in which, along the Rocky Mountains, passing through some of the most spectacular landscapes in the United States and Canada, alternating remote high mountain passes with forests and even desert areas, participants must complete the distance that separates the city of Banff in Canada with Antelope Weells, in the southwest of the state of New Mexico, a border city with the neighboring country.

We are talking about a route of 4,298 kilometers and 47,737 m of accumulated unevenness for which participants take a time that ranges from the almost two months that some take to the 13 days and just under 23 hours of the record that Mike Hall set in 2016, at least it was until Lachlan Morton reduced it by almost a day on September 11, setting it at 12 days, 12 hours and 21 minutes.

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A tremendous challenge according to Lachlan Morton's words in which he faced very hard days like the terrifying storm that punished him as he passed through Wyoming, having to spend three cold and soaked days or the fact of having to do the last thousand kilometers with the gear broken.

A route from which the EF Education-EasyPost cyclist highlighted the incredible variety of landscapes in the United States and direct contact with wildlife, encountering moose, wolves, snakes, luckily, the dangerous grizzly bears, wild horses did not appear on his route, of course, as the rules of these tests dictate, in complete self-sufficiency.

A real experience that you can now enjoy at home with the film that is now being published and in which Lachlan Morton has poured all his thoughts, every moment, the times of crisis, the evocation of the landscapes and, after all, the sensations that remain in the cyclist's retina during a challenge of such magnitude.

This is the Cannondale Scalpel that Lachlan Morton used in The Tour Divide

For a test of such magnitude, crossing remote places where, often, you find yourself hours from the nearest inhabited place Lachlan Morton needed a robust and reliable bike but also with features that allowed him to roll fast in search of the record of the test that he had set as a sporting objective.

Given the hardness of some terrains through which The Tour Divide runs, the chosen option was Cannondale's rigid mountain bike, the Scalpel, equipped with the characteristic and efficient Lefty Ocho fork and which provides its 100 mm of suspension travel with a really contained weight and unmatched rigidity.

As for the transmission, this was left in the hands of a SRAM XX1 AXS with a combination of developments with a 38-tooth plate and the usual 10-52 cassette. Despite being a long-distance test, Lachlan did not give up on consistent tires, opting for Vittoria Mezcal Graphene tires in size 2.35'' which he equipped with internal mousse to minimize the possibility of suffering a puncture. He also did not give up on mounting a telescopic seat post to overcome some of the complicated areas included in the route, especially when it comes to doing it with the bike loaded with everything necessary to be self-sufficient.

Also noteworthy in the equipment is the inclusion of time trial extensions since Lachlan Morton was looking for the record of the test. An accessory that allows you to gain valuable time on the endless tracks that line much of the Tour Divide route.

As for the bikepacking equipment, Lachlan Morton chose to carry a large frame bag occupying the entire interior of the main triangle. It was complemented with a rear AeroPack luggage rack on which he loaded two panniers of 10 liters capacity each, a top tube bag of 1.1 L and another bag under the diagonal tube, this one of 1.7 L. 

Cannondale Scalpel Lachlan Morton The Tour Divide

• Frame: Scalpel Hi-Mod Ultimate
• Fork: Cannondale Lefty Ocho, 100 mm
• Group: SRAM XX1 AXS, plate 38, cassette 10-52
• Wheels: FSA Gradient Off-Road i29
• Tires: Vittoria Mezcal Graphene 2.0 29x2.35''
• Handlebar: FSA KFX Carbon with FSA TT extensions
• Stem: FSA Varius Adjustable
• Seatpost: FSA Flowtron XC telescopic
• Saddle: Prologo Scratch M5