First, he will go to Kenya for the Migration Gravel Race. Then he will take on the Evolution Gravel Race in Tanzania, before returning to the States for a summer of racing and backcountry adventures.

Lachy is coming off a third-place finish at Unbound and is excited to get out there on the dirt and play with the form he has worked hard to build. In Africa, he’ll be competing against his good friends from Team AMANI and hundreds of like-minded cyclists from around the world. He loves what those races are doing for cycling on the continent.

“I think they are the most important gravel races in the world at the moment,” Lachlan says. “Not only do they create an opportunity for east African countries, with big events at home, they help to fund Team AMANI, a team out of east Africa that provides opportunities for local riders to develop their potential and race worldwide. They are not just bike races. In the short time that they have been around they have done a lot of growing and provided a lot of opportunities to riders that traditionally haven’t had them, so I am excited to go again to support the races. They are just amazing experiences, ones that are very unique. You are with a great group of people, racing hard, but then you get to share a camp every night and just have an experience that goes beyond bike racing. I am super excited.”

Migration and Evolution will be formidable challenges for everyone who takes part. Migration is a four-day stage race across the Maasai Mara wildlife reserve in Kenya. The 650-km course follows single track, game trails, and gravel roads through big-game country on the savannah. Evolution is even more of an endurance contest. The 850-kilometer ultra takes riders from the Ngorongoro Crater to the Swahili Coast in Tanzania, across plains and rainforest, and through local villages under Mt. Kilimanjaro. This year, it will follow a unique format, which Lachlan helped design. The race will be split into two stages with a mandatory 12-hour stop between them, to allow riders to get some sleep, while maintaining an even playing field. The first rider to make it to the Indian Ocean wins.

Contributing to the growth of such events makes racing more meaningful to Lachlan. So does his work with Team AMANI. He wants to help create racing opportunities for east African cyclists.

“All I can do is share my experience,” Lachlan says. “Most of that happens off the bike, either with riders individually or with the management trying to figure out what races they could do. I help with training, that kind of thing, I just share the experience that I have in cycling. My motivation for being involved is just trying to grow the sport. I think there is a lot of good that could come from access to bikes and a cycling culture in developing countries, so that is kind of the ultimate goal. It is not necessarily that we need to have a Kenyan win the Tour de France. That would be a great outcome, but for me it would be cooler to see a thriving cycling scene at all levels in east Africa would be the dream outcome. The thing I like about their program is that they are empowering people to do it their way. It is not a European based team; it is not an American based team; it is an African-based team. They are working out how they are going to do it their way.”

Racing is just part of that mission. It is still Lachlan’s favorite part. He’s going to have fun racing for the win at Evolution and Migration. It won’t be easy.

“The field gets better every year, as more international riders get excited to come race. Of all the gravel tours out there, it is probably one of the most competitive. They have proven that they can put on world-class events and also provide an experience that people in this genre of cycling are looking for. More and more local riders are turning up and being able to compete, too. If you look at the small timeframe that they have had, the growth is pretty remarkable. I think it will be exponential. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, you will be able to point back to that and say that was kind of the start of the cycling movement in east Africa.”

After his adventures in Kenya and Tanzania, Lachlan will come back to the USA to test his legs in another set of burgeoning bike-race events.

“I’ll race Crusher in Tusher, about a week after I get back from Africa, and from there I have just set my sights on Leadville,” Lachlan says. “That is a big goal for me. I have been close there in the past and I am hoping to get a good result. I’ll do Leadville, Breck Epic, and Steamboat, back to back, which will be a really full challenge and just an epic week of racing up in the mountains, and then beyond that, I am going to finish out all of the Life Time events. I am really enjoying that racing circuit. It is definitely getting super competitive now, and each race is a unique challenge.”

Lachlan is up for them all. He is in the best shape he’s had for years. He is stoked to duke it out at the front of so many fun bike races, before he turns his attention to the journey he’s got planned for later this year. We’ll be able to tell you more about that one soon...