Eoin Morton’s joy at taking the race leader’s pink jersey at the AmberGreen Energy Tour of Ulster turned to despair yesterday when he lost it in cruel circumstances (Photo: Jerry Rafferty)
By Brian Canty
Eoin Morton is licking his wounds today after he came agonisingly close to winning the AmberGreen Energy Tour of Ulster.
The UCD CC man lost the pink jersey in one of the country’s biggest stage races when Mark Dowling (DID Electrical Dunboyne) pick-pocketed him in the closing kilometres, taking back the three seconds he trailed by starting the final stage and winning by that same slender margin.
Morton was philosophical about it all but knows the scars of this one will linger a good while yet.
“Life goes on, it’s not the end of the world,” he said.
Advertisement
“There’s another race next Sunday and then we’ve the Rás so I haven’t time to feel sorry for myself.”
Plenty will feel for the Swords man, however, because he and his band of brothers at UCD CC rode a near perfect race.
“We rode out of our skins, Ian Richardson was absolutely unbelievable yesterday,” lauded Morton of his teammates.
“We rode it intelligently but that last little kicker (where Dowling went); I hadn’t the legs to do it and that was the end of that…”
Sixteen riders were within a minute of the leader’s jersey starting yesterday’s final stage so Morton knew he needed to conserve his energy for as long as possible.
“I didn’t have to see the front for a long time yesterday. The game plan was to let everyone else race it, I’d sit back and if it came to a bunch sprint then happy days.
“A big group got away but that was good because there were too many GC hopes in it for it to work.
“I relaxed and waited for it to come back. I had to go to the front a bit but it came back.”
Morton said when Laverack suffered a puncture, his JLT Condor team stopped controlling the front of the bunch and the defence of his leader's jersey became a lot more difficult (Photo: Jerry Rafferty)
The plan was working very well for UCD CC as the race progressed, particularly as the Cheshire JLT Condor team also rode at the front, trying to set up their main GC hope, Ed Laverack.
“Once the (big) group came back together I started to think we were okay,” recalled Morton.
“The JLT Condor guys were controlling the whole bunch once the group had come back and I was delighted because I had spent a bit of energy bringing it back.
“I was delighted, in my element. But then Laverack punctured with around 15k to go and that meant they stopped for him and I had to control it, or try to.
Related News
“Once he punctured it was up to us but we hadn’t the riders" lamented the eventual runner-up.
“I knew then it’d be really difficult. I knew going into the last two uncategorised climbs it was touch and go; those climbs are much more difficult than the KOH’s we did previously.”
And as expected, Dowling did what Dowling does best; one bullet and he was gone.
“I knew Dowling would do what he did so I had to try and ride within myself but someone let the wheel go and I couldn’t close the gap myself and that was day done.
“That was horrible,” continued Morton is reference to see Dowling ride away.
“I saw him go and I went ‘shite, that’s that’. As much work as I did, whoever let the wheel go was as bolloxed as I was.
Morton's 2nd place on Sunday's stage 3 behind Laverack put him into the race lead, but unfortunately he could not hold onto it yesterday (Photo: Jerry Rafferty)
“There was no malice or any tactics, that’s that nature of a bunch. Mark weighs 58 kilos, I weight 74 so it was advantage him.”
Even when Dowling did go, Morton gathered himself and rallied, with the help of men who are normally trying to better him.
“I had riders from Stamullen, Liam Dolan was riding for me, Lakeside Wheelers, lads from Navan.
“I was getting pushed from the lads at AAA, (Damien) Shaw sheltered me from the wind, everyone in the race wanted me to win the race.
“If we had one more rider on the team who was able to get to the front it would’ve been fantastic, we would’ve been able to control that last 15k.
“Am I disappointed? Massively. Am I going to lose sleep? Not at all.
“I’m disappointed I couldn’t send it home for other people. Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles) went to the front in the last kilometre and gave me a push as my legs came off.
“I think a lot of people wanted me to win but I couldn’t keep the groups together. Getting the appreciation from the rest of the bunch is a huge thing.
“As great as winning is, there’s not many times when people give you the kind of help I got.
“The opposition are helping you, I don’t think many riders get that and I tip my hat to those people; just a pity I couldn’t finish it off.”
Topics
