The Balearic island has been on his mind ever since he turned pro. When Lachlan first moved to Europe to race, he lived for a few months on Mallorca and fell in love with its rugged coastline, white-sand beaches, and blue, blue sea. The people he met there told him that Menorca was wilder and quieter; going there was like returning to an era before the Mediterranean had been overrun by tourists.

But in those days, Lachlan was still going by the book. He spent his days ticking intervals off of his training plan and hardly had time to explore. He limited his rides to the roads where he could do his efforts best.

That’s changed. For the past six months, Lachlan has done most of his riding on his mountain bike. On long off-road adventures near his home in Girona, he has built the near-superhuman fitness that will carry him through the coming year of racing and expeditions. Mountain-biking brings him closer to the land.

“I just feel that you get a deeper understanding of where you are,” he says. “You have to really work for all of the distance that you make, so you get a truer feeling for the terrain and where you are. And you are able to get to places that you just can’t get on a road bike. You get onto the trail, and it’s just, wow.”

Lachlan first heard about the Camí de Cavalls from some locals. It is an ancient route, which was first used by soldiers to access the fortresses and watchtowers they had built to defend their island. Now it’s used by hikers and mountain-bikers and provides access to some of Menorca’s wildest beaches. Most people complete the journey over a few days, but a few years ago, some Menorcan mountain-bikers hit on the idea of doing the whole lap in one go. They started tracking their times. From just over 24 hours, the record has since fallen to 10 hours, 55 minutes, and 8 seconds. Impressed by Lachlan’s feats at last year’s alt-Tour, they sent our Aussie adventurer a message to see if he might be keen to come and try to set a new fastest time.

Lachlan was intrigued. It would be a chance to visit a place where he had long wanted to go and sounded like just the kind of challenge that he likes. The 185-km route will demand his full concentration, with its steep, stony ascents, sand, and heart-chattering downhills.

“It looks like it has a lot of super rocky, sandy stuff,” Lachlan says. “I think that should make it really engaging, which for me is important when it is a longer effort. It’s mentally easier, when you are engaged in what you are doing the whole time, so I am excited. Any time you are riding something that long, and I imagine it will take close to ten hours, requires a lot. It is exciting to throw yourself at something like this.”

On Friday, he is going to go for it. First, he’s spending a few days on the island to get to know the terrain with his new Menorcan friends.

They expect that they will soon have a new time to beat.