This week, the Aussie adventurer will take on Cape Epic with former World Cup mountain biker Andrew l’Esperance. The pair will go up against some of the best mountain bikers on the planet over eight days of racing across 707 kilometers of wild, mountainous terrain in South Africa’s Western Cape. Cape Epic is raced in teams of two to help keep riders safe in the backcountry. Lachlan is blunt about the strengths and weaknesses that he and the Canadian former national cross-country champion bring to their team.

“I’m capable on the mountain bike,” Lachlan said. “I have worked on it a lot, but if you grew up mountain biking, you always have a technical edge from picking up the skills earlier. Andrew's definitely stronger in that regard. He is also a physical beast. So, he's got me covered everywhere. I bring a good attitude. I'm pretty good at hurting myself. That's an important thing. When you're in a partnership, whoever is the weaker rider is in for a very big week of suffering, because you're going to be riding at your limit all day, every day. That's a strong suit of mine. I’ll be using it to full effect.”

Getting to compete with, and against, the best mountain bikers is one of the big draws of Cape Epic for Lachlan. This will be his fourth time at the race. Scorching down rugged singletrack on the wheels of World Cup winners and trying to follow them up and over sandstone mountains under the blazing African sun forces Lachlan to up his game.

“Every time I get the chance to do it, I want to do it,” Lachlan said. “I’m just happy to be back. The level of competition is super high. It's very cool to get the chance to race against really elite mountain bikers. They're just incredible athletes, and to be out there, trying to mix it up with them, is a lot of fun.”

Lachlan’s own mountain bike skills have improved drastically since his first foray to South Africa. He has set records on the Tour Divide and Colorado Trail and finished on the podium at the Leadville Trail 100 three times thanks to all of the practice he’s gotten in, ripping around his home trails in California. Cape Epic is a much more technical test. Lachlan is excited to embrace the challenge.

“The Cape Epic course always changes and there are no GPX files or anything released before the race, so it is always a bit of a mystery until you get out there,” Lachlan said. “It’s a very cool mix of new trail networks and rough, raw, rocky terrain, as well as sand and mud. You encounter all aspects of mountain biking throughout every stage. There's always something coming at you.”

What Lachlan loves most about Cape Epic is the time spent around camp with all of the athletes who travel across the world to tackle the race. He feeds off their energy, especially towards the end of the week, when his whole body is tired and the going really gets tough.

“That's a big part of this race,” Lachlan said. “Everyone is going through a similar challenge. It puts it into perspective very quickly when you have riders who are finishing in double your time. You get to go see them coming in and cheer them on, and you're like, ‘Wow. There are a lot of people out here.’ It’s quite inspiring when you see people with regular jobs, who have managed to fit in training around the rest of their lives and then show up and still do this incredibly challenging course. It's a cool thing to witness.”

Lachlan and Andrew’s ambitions for Cape Epic are still unknown. They don’t want to put a number on their aspirations. For now, they are just having fun riding together and pushing hard on the South African dirt. Lachlan is going to take all of the lessons he’s drawn from his previous experiences at the race and try to put together his best Cape Epic performance yet.

“It’s very easy to get caught up in the energy and the chaos of the first few days, but if you can look after yourself a bit, obviously race hard, but ride to your abilities and keep the air in the tires, and try to approach it in a more measured way, that seems to serve you better over the whole week,” Lachlan said. “That is easier said than done, because once you get into the chaos of a race, you just want to let it all hang out. In theory, that's what I'll take from the previous editions. In a field this deep, it's really hard to know where you will stand. I just want to extract everything that I've got over the course of the eight days and try not to be a burden. If I know that I took the things I learned from the races before and applied them well and didn’t leave anything out there or ever tap out, it would be a positive outcome. After the first couple of days, as a pair, we’ll come up with some objectives.”

First objective: enjoy it. Wish Lachy and Andrew luck!