First AJ, then Cedrine, probably Carapaz, now Lachy - what is even happening at EF?
Everyone fun to watch is leaving…who’s next Naomi? What’s the plan Vaughters?
If it keeps going like this I’ll be watching Owen Blandy teaching me to make overnight oats from a Visma trailer.
Maybe it’s a sign they are running tight on money for contracts?
Maybe a good thing for US Cycling. EF has never been so little represented in US world’s team, and yet they won
Afraid that may be the case sadly. Wish someone would “get the band back together” - they were my favorite team to watch lose to UAE/FDJ
And now Lachlan Morton is leaving too. But to gain Luke Lamperti, that’s something. Boy will I miss Carapaz.
I think all teams are getting more multi-cultural now. EF is less American and Decathal Chumma Chugum is less French.
I view Lachlan leaving as a great thing. Why would the actual team waste any money on him when he doesn’t race?! Crazy that relationship lasted as long as it did but I guess they thought there was some influencer value to it?
This makes sense to me, even tho I really enjoy Lachlan. If it means more winning I could get behind that - that said, losing Richie and Cedrine can’t be helping w/ the winning.
The team, and their sponsors, get more exposure from Lachy than 90% of the rest of the squad. He’s great for business.
He was their most valuable rider by a country mile. The next most valuable guy is not even in the same league.
Who is the next most valuable rider? I have no idea.
I’m super intrigued by this. To me, this is a World Tour race team. Your most valuable rider should be your best World Tour racer (and hence likely Carapaz). If your most valuable rider is an influencer, why even have a race team? The fact that they do tells me that they don’t define value as just impressions or eyeballs (though notably they do seem to be going that way in MTB…but I guess that’s just Cannondale standalone and not actually EF).
I was also curious objectively what the difference might be, so I took a look at YouTube and Instagram. On YT, it’s pretty stark—top 2 videos are Lachlan at 851k and 519k (followed by Rigo’s retirement at 430k and a rice cake video at 320k—maybe they could cost effectively replace him with more food content?!).
On Instagram, it’s less clear - and there are large swaths of time with no Lachy posts whatsoever (if they didn’t highlight the recent Pony Express and 3 Peaks, you could scroll for a while without any Lachlan content, which seems to undercut the value).
Maybe all of this would be good to cover in an interview with Vaughters? Feels like he’s always speaking to the media but I can’t recall if EC has ever done an interview with him on the site.
The director of their dev team delivered the mens U23 and elite titles though.
I kind of figured Lachy would eventually jump after Rapha stopped sponsoring them. He seemed to be tightly associated with them. However, now that we do not know what is going on at Rapha…
Referring to Lachy as an influencer is a pretty huge disregard for his cycling skillset. He won Unbound in 2024. 3 Peaks just last week along with a plethora of ultra FKTs and other insane ultra challenges. He’s an incredibly good bike rider. The World Tour is not the only cycling discipline.
An analogous reference to this is pro surfing. Where some do the global competitive circuit, while other talented surfers travel to famous breaks and innovate the sport on their own terms and develop exposure via their own channels and partnerships.
Is Lacky an influencer, in the social media sense? I don’t think so. He’s not putting himself onto social media, other people are (I.e. EF marketing team, sponsors, etc), and he’s simply embraced the opportunity that has given him in order to lean into the whole alt calendar thing.
Where is the line between a sports person doing the whole media thing because it’s a key part of their job and being a influencer?
I’m pretty sure Vaughters touches upon it in this episode of The Cycling Podcast, basically saying that the financial viability of the team hinges on positive exposure for their sponsors and that Morton provides this in spades (by doing superhuman things on a bike): Spotify
For those who don’t understand how Lachlan provides value, I suggest you read this article. Women’s cycling teams have a blank sheet of paper. Here’s how we’d use it.
Teams are a marketing vehicle. They provide eyeballs and engagement. Wins are one way to do that, but not always the most effective way and also very hard to be consistent (unless your name is Pogacar). Smart teams are doing both. And Lachlan is very good for engagement.
Also agree with this assessment - as someone who works in advertising/marketing as an agency owner, I completely understand his value - which is not to say as a fan I wouldn’t get behind EF winning more races.