Slane ace makes his mark in Ulster

Seven of the riders in this leading break maintained their advantage over the entire field and went on to fight out the finish, with Darragh O’Mahoney from the Waterford Racing Team picking up a great win from Matteo Cigala (Aqua Blue Sport Academy team) and Chris McGlinchey from Cycling Ulster, with Morton in fourth place.

Sunday’s 90-mile second stage was extremely tough, with five major climbs to be negotiated, including the dreaded climb of the Spelga Dam, just outside Rathfriland in Co Down.

With Morton setting out in second place in the KOM competition, he had a tough decision to make - gamble and go for the yellow jersey of race leader or the KOM competition. But being the very aggressive rider that he is, he threw caution to the wind and decided to try for multiple jerseys and see how the day would pan out.

On the climb of the Spelga Dam, the race was blown apart and by the time it got to the next climb up Rathfriland, Morton and Robert Jon McCarthy from Team Monaghan were clear of the main field. Here they hit out for home, with a 19-man group in hot pursuit.

As they entered Moy for the grand finale, Morton blasted his way across the finish line to capture a magnificent win, his best and most prestigious victory of the season so far in a time of 3hr 41min 3sec. His breakaway companion McCarthy finished second on the same time, with Mark Dowling from Strata3-Velorevolution winning the sprint for third, 1min 40sec further back.

Morton’s gamble really paid off and going into the final 70-mile stage on Monday he held the lead in the general classification, along with the KOM Jersey and overall leader in the Points Classification table.

Liam Dolan from Cuchulainn CC in Dundalk was another rider who was involved in all of the crucial moves on the first two stages of this Tour of Ulster and he has been displaying really good form in all the races to date.