Lachlan Norris: Famous last words

The best thing about my hometown Melbourne is going out for breakfast. There are a lot of cool cafes and they do breakfast really well. I like to start the day off pretty cruisy, so I'd go for a good breakfast revolving around eggs, with a couple of strong macchiatos.

My karaoke song would be ‘Take the Pressure Down' by John Farnham. It would be hard to pick a song, but that song is really well known in Australia - it's a bit of classic 1980s rock that was drilled into me as I was growing up.

My first race was a local mountain bike race in Bendigo when I was about 13. I thought it was a really serious one so I saved up beforehand and bought myself a brand new GT mountain bike for $600 or so. It turned out it wasn't all that serious!

I'm always looking for recommendations from people about good books to read. I'm currently reading Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open. I've just got to the bit where he weaselled his way out of getting caught for crystal meth and is trying to get back on the straight and narrow. He'd just got rid of his hair, too.

I always thought that I'd end up being a park ranger. I did a degree in botany so I'm really interested in environmental issues and that sort of stuff.

My ideal job, apart from cycling, would be as a journalist for National Geographic magazine. That's still a dream of mine; I reckon it could be in the pipeline for when I stop riding my bike!

You do need a beard to do that job, which is frowned upon by management. I guess it will have to go on hold for now, but when I've retired there will be plenty of time to grow one.

I've been to so many cool places, but my favourite was probably southern New Zealand. I went hiking and did some mountain biking so as an overall package. That part of the world is a pretty cool place to go.

I'd like to visit Alaska and Nepal. There is no way I could climb a mountain right now, but maybe some time in the future I could be capable of it! I'd definitely need a beard for that.

My motorbike is probably the most expensive thing I own. It's a red Suzuki 250cc. Beyond that my bike collection must be worth a bit. I've got four or five mountain bikes, a cyclo-cross bike, a couple of road bikes, a BMX bike and a city bike. One for every occasion!

This article was first published in the June 13 issue of Cycling Weekly. Read Cycling Weekly magazine on the day of release where ever you are in the world International digital edition (opens in new tab), UK digital edition (opens in new tab). And if you like us, rate us!