STEPHEN O'SULLIVAN of the Bray Coors team held on to win the Tour of Ulster yesterday but he had to fight back towards the end of the final stage at Enniskillen to survive by five seconds from Nathan Beard of Midlothian with Ian Chivers (Cyprus) third another two seconds behind.

circuit of 82 miles, he led in Tommy Evans with Karl Donnelly third but O'Sullivan was safely in the main bunch with all his closest rivals 51 seconds later and he retained the top position after a total of 241 miles in four stages.

Moriarty, Evans, Donnelly and David O'Loughlin broke away and when their lead grew to over three minutes O'Loughlin was leader on the road but after 40 miles he could not hold his position and dropped back with 15 miles to go.

That left Evans ahead on the road but the advantage of the trio in front was gradually reduced on the runin to Enniskillen and their priority was switched to trying to hold off their pursuers.

Moriarty's spell out in front also earned him the King of the Mountains award but the overall honours went to 23 year old O'Sullivan.