The Tour de France we see today is not exactly how it started out back in 1913. The original concept thought up was to make the Tour so difficult there would only be one finisher who would therefore be the winner. Racing started in the early hours of the morning with riders having to fix their own bikes and feed themselves covering more than 300 miles per day. The one famous story is that of a cyclist receiving help from a blacksmith fixing his fork resulting in disqualification. This was all about being on your own and were allowed no assistance.
This year Lachlan Morton a pro rider with EF Education is doing the old tour raising money for the World Bicycle Fund. The goal is to raise enough to purchase 500 bikes and he has already raised over $200 000.
Lachlan is currently 2 stages ahead of the Tour riders which is roughly a 600 mile buffer. His race is so different though as he rides each stage and then has to ride to the next starting point of the next stage. The teams obviously don't do that as they transfer between stages using busses and planes.
There is a huge difference in the total distance ridden by the time they get to Paris. Lachlan will have ridden over 5500 km compared to the Tour riders 3383 km. The pressure of having to stay ahead is forcing Lachlan to ride during the night as well as covering the 300 miles per day is the bare minimum. What is in his favor is he has no rest days unlike the teams and should be able to stay ahead. 21 days and 5500 km sounds easy enough, but realistically this is a monumental challenge he has taken on.
His challenge started 1 hour after the first stage started knowing that over the next 3 weeks he will most likely be riding for 12 hours every day at an average speed of 25km/h. He has to stop to buy food and water as he has no support looking after him.
The one thing that made him do this was to learn and understand more about France. When you are in a race you don't get to see much as you are whisked away to hotels between stages and have no time to explore. Sleeping rough and going back to how the Tour was originally formatted will give him a different insight and understanding. He has quite a following now as people are coming out to find him and give him encouragement along the way.
