Fiona Meade says winning the nationals still hasn't sunk in and couldn't have been further from her first outing in the race (Photo by JimmyMcElroy.com)
Fiona Meade is getting used to the fact she’s the national women’s road race champion after taking the gold medal in stunning fashion at Saturday’s rescheduled title decider in Co Westmeath.
The Cork woman, riding for Blarney CC, beat off the challenge of former winner Olivia Dillon (Colavita Fine Cooking) and Louise Moriarty (Look Mum No Hands) after 95 kilometres of racing.
She said being champion may take some time to sink in.
Meade has enjoyed a glorious couple of weeks and winning the national crown goes alongside her stage and points category victories in the recent An Post Rás na mBan.
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“It’s absolutely unreal, it’s amazing, I can’t believe it’s happened,” she told stickybottle.
“When I won the stage of Rás na mBan last week it seemed to happen in slow motion and I remember each moment. But (winning the nationals) just happened so quickly and I’m in shock.”
Meade recalled the final few frantic moments of her winning ride: “Olivia was in front of me and was riding close to the barrier on the right. My wheel was already to the right side of her so I knew I had no choice but to risk squeezing through.
“I thought ‘oh no, I’m not getting through here’. But I took the chance and just said I had to pull through. It worked and I just powered on and I think I won by about a bike length.
“I feel very good; I think if it was hillier I might have struggled because I'm not so good there.”
Winning a stage in An Post Rás na mBan; an event that seemed to polish her form and give her the momentum she carried into Saturday's title race (Photo: Lorraine O'Sullivan)
While pulling away in some good escapes, she was reeled in each time and it became clear a sprint from a group was in the offing.
She believed the way the race panned out, in not really splitting up, played into her hands.
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“There were moments we could recover because it was kind of stop, start,” she said.
The title race saw just one rider really hit out, with Orwell Wheelers rider Ciara Kinch going away on the first lap and staying away until the next one. However, with Kinch left out there alone, her effort always seemed doomed.
“It was great for her, she rode so well,” said Meade.
“Just when Ciara was reeled back in, Olivia had a mechanical and we were wondering was it the time to make a go. But we said we’d keep it steady until she got back on. And then it stayed steady for that lap but on the third lap a couple of us got clear.
“It was a very strong break and I thought ‘if this doesn’t stay away, none will’. But we got caught and it stalled for a while. On the next lap, four of us got away. We were going up and over hard but we got caught again and so I knew at that point it would come to a sprint.
Meade said after her ride at Rás na mBan she was confident she could do well in the championships.
“I said whether I was in a break or a bunch, I can sprint,” she said.
And while she would emerge the victor, she believed Eve McCrystal (Garda CC) and Lydia Gurley (Team Jewson) had ridden very well in some of the escapes and were unfortunate not to feature in the medals.
She acknowledged a number of top riders were missing from the race, including twice winner Melanie Spath, Lydia Boylan and Caroline Ryan.
“I had to take my chance,” she added.
“I’m cycling nine years and I got so badly dropped in my first nationals that I reached back to take the numbers off my jersey thinking I was no longer on the race circuit. I thought I must have missed a turn!
“The next year I came back and I came fourth. The next year I was ninth, then third. It’s always something that every girl in this sport in Ireland wants; you always want to do well at the nationals so to win, it’s surreal.”
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