Lachlan Morton, with a spoke in his derailleur, breaks Great Divide record

At 9:24pm on Sunday, September 10, Lachlan Morton arrived at the US border with Mexico, marking the end of his record-breaking attempt of the Great Divide mountain bike route.

He completed the 4296km mountain bike route in 12 days, 12 hours and 21 minutes, unofficially breaking the long-held record of 13 days, 22 hours and 51 minutes set in 2016 by ultra-distance legend, the late Mike Hall.

This fastest known time (FKT) attempt may remain unofficial for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Morton was accompanied by a film crew, which could discount the validity of this record as an 'unsupported' ride, even though Morton was self-sufficient en route.

Secondly, the route itself has undergone various changes in the seven years since Hall claimed the FKT, making it difficult to compare attempts. Hall's ride was 4366km – almost 70km further than Morton's recent attempt.

Read more: Lachlan Morton's Great Divide bike check

The route begins in Banff in Canada's Rockies and follows the Continental Divide south through the Rocky Mountains until it hits the US/Mexico border. It's one of the most iconic long-distance off-road routes in the world and was first mapped by the Adventure Cycling Association back in 1997.

As expected for a route that laces its way through a mountain range, it's extremely hilly; Morton accrued 58,521m of elevation gain during his attempt.

© Ryan Hill (Instagram: ryanhill)

Lachlan Morton rests on day 10

Morton approached this attempt differently from most ultra-athletes. Rather than riding with as little sleep as possible, as most record-breaking ultra athletes tend to do, he planned to get 12 hours of rest every 48 hours. As a result, he didn't necessarily have his sights on the FKT, predicting at the start: "It's going to be around two weeks, maybe more."

Remarkably, Morton managed to break the record despite being stationary for a little over seven hours each day. In fact, it seems likely that he broke it because he spent so long resting. Whether Morton's approach influences the world of ultra-distance more broadly remains to be seen.

Read more: Lachlan Morton's predictions ahead of his Great Divide attempt

The ride wasn't without its hiccups. On day 11, his derailleur stopped working. Morton did everything he could to resolve it, telling his film crew that evening: "I kicked it as hard as I could and then it started working again."

Alas, within five minutes it was off again, and for the rest of the day, it was temperamental. To make it to the finish, Morton bodged the derailleur with a spare spoke, shoving it into the mech so he could manually shift between the gears.

© Ryan Hill (Instagram: ryanhill)

Lachlan Morton's spoke bodge

Given he was averaging around 343km and 4680m climbing each day, fuelling Morton's record took an almighty amount of calories. However, as this was an unsupported attempt, Morton was forced to find all the food he needed in gas stations and stores along the way.

Subsequently, Morton lived off a bizarre mix of junk food, milk and beer during the ride, living up to his reputation for stomaching truly gruesome combinations.

Read more: Beer, milk, and pickles – the method to Lachlan Morton’s nutritional madness

Morton has used the ride to raise funds for Adventure for All, with the total so far at over $20,000, and donations still coming in. EF Education-EasyPost say that the ride will be documented in an upcoming film released by Thereabouts - the company pioneered by Lachlan's brother, Gus Morton.

To date, Thereabouts have released three feature-length films documenting Morton's exploits.