“The truck driver actually tried to kill me”: Lachlan Morton forced to “bail off the side of the road” as lorry driver “kept going directly at me” and “didn’t move his truck one inch” during monster ‘Lap of Australia’ effort

Among the hundreds of things Lachlan Morton has to worry about while attempting to set the fastest ever lap of Australia, the “big bad trucks” that frequent the country’s Nullarbor Plain have proven to be the most dangerous, after a lorry driver forced the pro cyclist off the side of the road during one especially close pass at the weekend.

The EF Education-EasyPost pro, now on his 25th day and with just 2,000 kilometres to go in his attempt to break Dave Alley’s around-Australia ride record by completing the mammoth 14,200km lap in under 35 days, is set to finish the record ride even faster than his original stated goal, having averaged a whopping 472km a day so far.

However yesterday, he posted a video on social media detailing his continuous efforts to dodge dangerous truck drivers in southern Australia, and how one lorry driver “actually tried to kill” him, as he was forced to get off the road and come to a dead stop at the weekend.

The video started with him standing on the side of the road as a lorry passed him, the bow wave of the truck lasting for several seconds. Morton said: “The most spectacular view to wake up to. Got a bit of that morning nausea back, dead straight roads, big bad trucks and inclement weather.

He added: “I just had the first truck driver actually try and kill me. He just kept driving directly at me, until I realised he wasn't going to move. So I bailed off the side of the road. He didn’t even flinch, didn't move his truck one inch.”

 

 

 

 

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He later talked about the welcome tailwinds and the mesmerising sunset, as he called it a wrap on day 24, saying goodbye to the Nullarbor Plain — the long, straight stretch of road across southern Australia.

“All good things come to an end, but the trucks seemed to have quieted down a bit… Basically I just get off the road when they come. There’s no shoulder and it’s just not worth taking the risk,” he concluded.

> Lorry driver who killed Davide Rebellin reportedly got out of cab, looked at dead cyclist, then drove off

Concerned fans swarmed to his social media to express their best wishes, and even pointed out that the Eyre Highway near Madura is notorious for being unsafe for cyclists. In March this year, a truck driver was charged with manslaughter over the death of 62-year-old cyclist Chris Barker on the same stretch of road.

One person wrote: “The sad reality of Australian roads and our drivers who can’t fathom the carnage they can so easily reek on cyclists trying to share the road.”

Another person warned: “Please, please don’t take the Highway from Pt Augusta to Adelaide. Detour to Wilmington, Melrose, Clare to Adelaide along the back roads. Major roadworks and heavy traffic on the Highways.”

Thankfully for Morton, and all those keeping track of his ride, EF Education wrote that the “roads ahead will be quiet” and Morton will push on in the early-morning hours in the dark.

> Is this the new Cannondale Synapse? After Lachlan Morton's most astonishing 'Lap of Australia' effort yet, here's what we know about his new bike so far

After day 25, the team shared the update that he stopped at night, just outside Port Germein on the Augusta Highway and will ride into Adelaide tomorrow. The team added: “Right now, Lachy is on pace to smash the Around Australia Record. He is over 80 per cent of the way around the country, heading for Victoria. He has raised $68,300 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.”

The 32-year-old rider, who also held the Everesting world record, completing the feat in 7:29:57 in 2020, is far from the first pro rider to have faced the danger of close passes from lorry drivers. Last year, Wout van Aert was “almost killed” after receiving a punishment pass from the horn-blaring driver of a concrete mixer lorry, just days before the Tour of Flanders.

Retired pro and the Belgian’s training partner Jan Bakelants, said: “Suddenly I heard the horn of a concrete mixer, which drove past us. As befits a true road hog, the driver of the concrete mixer closed the door on us while honking.

“Wout had no choice but to ride Daan Soete into the side. Otherwise, our wild benefactor [a reference to Van Aert’s decision to “gift” 2023 Gent-Wevelgem to Jumbo-Visma teammate Christophe Laporte] would probably have ascended to heaven.

“Wout was almost dead. He was literally almost under the concrete mixer. It was really harrowing.”

The shocking incident came just under four months after retired pro Davide Rebellin was killed in a hit-and-run collision involving a lorry driver, while in February last year, up-and-coming 18-year-old Spanish pro Estela Domínguez was also killed by a hit-and-run truck driver during a training ride.

> British cyclist to miss Tour of Britain after being hit by driver who tried to "squeeze huge 4x4 past at high speed" on country lane blind bend before returning to "verbally abuse and threaten" female rider

In June this year, British pro cyclist for Lifeplus Wahoo Kate Richardson, who won the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix and was set to compete at the Tour of Britain Women, was forced to drop out after she was hit by an impatient 4x4 driver who tried to overtake at “high speed” on a blind bend in a narrow country lane.

According to her Strava, she had been training near Holmfirth in Yorkshire yesterday morning when she was hit by the motorist and suffered a refractured scapula, road rash and an “incredibly bruised and swollen right hip”.