Morton rips it up at the Rás on historic day for Irish men

Bryan McCrystal leads breakaway companion Eoin Morton towards victory on the historic and longest stage of the An Post Rás (Photo: Shane Stokes)

Eoin Morton (UCD-Fitzcycles.ie) has put in the ride of his life to claim stage 2 of the An Post Rás after an epic two-man breakaway with Bryan McCrystal.

The runner up today - a Louth man riding for ASEA-Wheelworx - McCrystal started the day 57th overall just 23 seconds down on yellow jersey Taco van der Hoorn of the Join-S De Rijke team.

However, while it looked a certainty coming in the road to the finish in Charleville that McCrystal would take the yellow jersey even if Morton took him for the stage win, that has not proven to be the case.

Morton distanced McCrystal by a few seconds in the sprint and with the yellow jersey group behind closing right in on the leaders in the last few kilometres, McCrystal did not get the time he needed.

It was a disappointing end to the stage for him and a repeat of his stage 2 agony of last year when a really brave lone breakaway was foiled in the closing stages.

Today, both Morton and McCrystal rode like lions to hold off the charge of the main field.

They attacked before the 183.7km stage from Mullingar to Charleville - the longest of the race - had even reached the halfway point and at one stage their lead went over six minutes.

And as the kilometres ticked down it seemed clear that the gap was reducing, but not fast enough to spoil their day.

Eoin Morton takes an historic stage win on the An Post Rás, with Bryan McCrystal just behind and the yellow jersey group closing in fast (Photo: Inpho)

So Morton takes the stage and extends his lead in the mountains competition which he took yesterday.

McCrystal, always such a fantastic competitor, takes a brilliant runner-up spot and while he has been denied the yellow jersey he will move up overall.

In the end, Morton took the stage by 4 seconds from McCrystal, with the large yellow jersey group just seven seconds further back.

It contained most of the well placed favourites who made the winning escape yesterday.

Jack Wilson (An Post-Chainreaction) was in the group and is now 4th overall just 13 seconds down, with Conor Dunne (JLT Condor) also present and jumping up to 5th, also 13 seconds off the yellow jersey.

And young Eddie Dunbar, riding this week for the Irish team, was also in the yellow jersey group today and is now 6th overall on the same time as Watson and Dunne.

Just seven seconds behind McCrystal, Nicolai Brochner (Denmark Riwal Platform) won the sprint for 3rd place from An Post Chainreaction’s Nicolas Vereecken and Emiel Wastyn.

Aside from the winner and runner-up, Conor Dunne was best of the Irish, coming home in 10th place.

McCrystal leads the county rider classification from Ciaran Power (Comeragh), with stickybottle’s outside tip to do a ride this week Richard Maes (Kerry) in 3rd on the same time as Power, just 7 seconds back.

Dylan Kennett of New Zealand – runner-up on yesterday’s stage – retains the U23 classification leader’s jersey.

Taco van der Hoorn (Join-S De Rijke) retains both the yellow jersey and his lead in the points classification, with Morton up to 2nd in the latter contest.

How it unfolded

On this, the longest stage of the race, the riders faced 183.7km from Mullingar to Charleville with just one categorised climb; the cat 3 at Shallee after 120.3km.

The first attack of the day came from Shay Elliott Classic winner Marc Potts of the Neon Velo team but he was soon caught.

And that was the pattern that continued for many miles.

Among those to get up the road only to be recaptured after short-lived stints out front were: Damien Shaw (Ireland An Post Chainreaction), Jeremy Durrin (Britain Neon Velo) Jack Wilson (An Post Chainreaction), Sean McKenna (Cork Aquablue), Mark Dowling (Louth Asea Wheelworx) and Shane O’Neill (Tipperary Nenagh).

After about 25km of racing, king of the mountains classification leader Eoin Morton (Dublin UCD Fitzcycles) attacked and was soon joined by Daire Feeley (Galway Team iTap) and Adam Armstrong (Louth Asea Wheelworx).

Combining well, they had a gap of just under one minute with 30km covered.

Sean Lacey (Cork Aquablue) and Aaron O’Brien (Limerick Mego Raw Cycles) then jumped off the front of the bunch in pursuit of the leaders and while they were joined by Jeremy Durrin (Britain Neon Velo), they never got close to the leading trio.

And by the time the leaders had 55km covered they were caught.

They were then replaced off the front by another three-man group made up of Dexter Gardias (Britain Pedal Heaven), Timothy Mitchel (USA CCB Racing) and Damien Shaw (Ireland An Post Chainreaction).

Sean Lacey (Cork Aquablue) and Daire Feeley (Galway Team iTap) chased after them but were caught, with the leaders being reabsorbed soon after.

With around 75km covered another escape moved clear. In there were David McCarthy (Britain JTL Condor), Casper Von Folsach (Denmark Riwal Platform), Paul O’Reilly (Dublin UCD Fitzcycles), Shane Kenny (Limerick Mego Raw Cycles) and Conor Hennebry (Cork Aquablue).

But that move too was snuffed out and as soon as the race was intact again Eoin Morton (Dublin UCD Fitzcycles) surged clear once more, clearly intent on repeating his ride of yesterday when he escaped in a breakaway and took the only climbers’ prime of the day and with it the king of the mountains jersey.

And after him went Bryan McCrystal (Louth ASEA-Wheelworx), who had been with Morton in the escape on stage 1.

And once they were gone, they were gone. The bunch seemed happy to let just two riders up the road and the gap shot out to seven minutes in the space of about 25km.

Behind them Matteo Cigala (Cork Aquablue) – a former Italian U23 international who has settled in Ireland and proven a great addition to the domestic scene – went off in lone pursuit and got to within a couple of minutes of the leaders.

But over the top of the only categorised climb of the day it was Morton who led the way to extend his lead in the climbers’ classification.

McCrystal was 2nd over the top just behind him followed by Cigala, who was still chasing alone, and then Michael Storer (Australia National Team).

And while the gap between the two leaders and the peloton was still five minutes with 135km remaining, the field was splitting behind and the first section had caught the brave Cigala.

The gap continued to tumbled between the leaders and that large reduced peloton – containing the yellow jersey – but as the leaders moved inside the last 10 miles – that’s 16km – they still had over 2:30 in hand.

McCrystal then decided to attack Morton up ahead, clearly taking the view he had a better chance of holding on for the stage win if he was on his own and so free to empty the tank without being required to keep back something in reserve for a possible sprint finish.

The chase was now being led by the Australian national team but while the gap was coming down, it didn’t seem like it was reducing fast enough to spoil the day for the leading pair up front.

And with 6km remaining it was still 1:30 and it looked like the county men were about to have their day on the Rás.

And so it came to pass; the duo hanging on and Morton taking victory on the line on a day that will go down in the folklore of the race and put to rest the debate about whether county men can compete with the pros.