Lachlon Morton Sprints to Stage 5 Success at the Tour of Utah

EF Education First Morton adds another professional win since the 2016 Tour of Utah outsprinting breakaway companion Hayden McCormick

"I’m not really one to look at the finish, but I just had a feeling, so five minutes before the start I just went down and rode the last 300 metres," Morton said. "I’m not an amazing sprinter. My sprint is always the same. I could do 30 hard races and my sprint would be the same."

"So I thought if I just committed through the last corner, the only chance to come around would be in the last 50," he said. "It turns out it was about a metre too late for Hayden but very perfect timing for me. I’d like to say I planned it, but sometimes luck just falls that way and you win." 

The day's breakaway was made up of Morton, Huffman, Velasco, Rice, Canola, McCabe, Boardman, Sunderland, McCormick, Font Mas and Zimmer, the last break before Huffman retires.

18 miles to go with 4m 35s gap, the break came into penultimate categorised climb of the day. Hayden McCormick attacked to take the lead in the KOM jersey.

 Well, the gaps are like this... McCormick and Morton with 2km to go... 10" to Sunderland, Velasco and Huffman, 20" to the rest and 1'30" to the peloton.

Dylan Sunderland attacked for Bridgelane with around 7 miles to go, and the remaining breakaway riders refusedd to work together until Lachlan Mortopn attacked taking Hayden McCormick with him.

They caught and passed Dylan Sunderland just after Phil Gaimon's Cookie Corner past the Winter Olympic bobsleigh track.

 In the trailing peloton, Tvetcov attacked with Murphy following the move.

In the break, Evan Huffman was trying to lead the chase to Morton and McCormick! They're close to catching Sunderland firstly. McCabe isn't too far away either.

3 miles to go for Morton and McCormick and in the peloton Piccoli attacksed amd were are only 1'30" behind the two leaders as McCormick pushed for the KOM points.

In the final hundred yards, Morton and McCormick sprinted with Morton winning by a tyre's width.

Behind, Craddock and Almeida attacked, but Piccoli was pulling everything back and then Ben Hermans attacked and got a small gap before crossing the line to dominate the race lead.

The final Stage 6 presented by Utah Sports Commission brings back the overall finish to Park City on Sunday, which features 78.2 miles (125.9 km) and 10,000 feet of climbing. The route will pass down Browns Canyon and encounter a Sprint line in the town of Kamas. Then an aspen tree-lined, 2.1-mile KOM follows in the private community of Wolf Creek Ranch, a Category 2 climb that reaches a maximum pitch of 22 percent. A technical descent into Wasatch County will allow the riders to regroup through Heber City before the final sprint line in Midway. Then an all-out assault for the climbers will take place on the six-mile climb along Pine Canyon Road, with pitches from 10-20 percent gradient. The Hors Category summit of Empire Pass is the final KOM and the highest point of the race for the week at 9,700 feet above sea level.

A blistering descent down Mine Road leads to the finish in front of historically massive crowds along Upper Main Street in Park City.

VIDEO: 2019 Tour of Utah Stage 5

2019 Tour of Utah Stage 5 Top 10

1 Lachlan Morton (Aus) EF Education First 3:05:54 
2 Hayden McCormick (NZl) Team BridgeLane   
3 Simone Velasco (Ita) Neri Sottoli–Selle Italia–KTM 0:00:18 
4 Macro Canola (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane   
5 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally UHC Cycling   
6 Dylan Sunderalnd (Aus) Team BridgeLane 0:00:26 
7 Michael Rice (Aus) Hagens Berman Axeon 0:00:29 
8 Samuel Boardman (USA) Wildlife Generation Pro p/b Maxxis   
9 Matt Zimmer (USA) DC Bank Pro Cycling 0:00:31 
10 Bernat Font (Spa) 303 Project 0:00:49

2019 Tour of Utah GC after Stage 5

1 Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Cycling Academy 15:34:34 
2 James Piccoli (Can) Elevate-KHS 0:00:46 
3 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:10 
4 Kyle Murphy (USA) Rally UHC Cycling 0:01:48 
5 Joe Dombrowski (USA) EF Education First 0:02:08 
6 Joao Almeida (Por) Hagens Berman Axeon 0:02:34 
7 Peter Stetina (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:47 
8 Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Education First 0:03:10 
9 Rob Britton (Can) Rally UHC Cycling 0:03:53 
10 Matteo Badilatti (Ita) Israel Cycling Academy 0:04:15