Fiona Meade (Munster Blarney) is celebrating her first ever win in the National Dairy Council Points Classification of An Post Rás na mBan after a recheck of stage results resulted in a change in the finishing order on Monday afternoon (15th September).

Meade, who scored a win, two thirds and a fourth place finish from the the five massed start stages was initially adjudged to have finished second in the NDC Points competition to overall winner Tayler Wiles (DID Cycle 4 Life RT) at the conclusion of the five-day event in Ennis on Sunday. However, it emerged the following day that a computer data entry glitch had resulted in an incorrect tally from Saturday’s fifth stage.

Wiles finished second on the last day and looked to have overhauled Meade by the narrowest of margins when the latter could manage only tenth in the final dash to the line, her lowest road race finishing position of the week coming at seemingly the worst possible time.

Ruing her apparent missed opportunity, the Cork University Hospital physiotherapist found herself totting up the stage points tallies on Monday and discovered that she had actually beaten Wiles by three points.

In actual fact, Meade took to the start line for the final stage unaware that she already had an insurmountable total in the points competition.

Naturally, Meade’s initial disappointment turned to joy when the results were amended in her favour and she described the success as “the best result I’ve had in cycling.”

“The whole week was like a dream. It couldn’t have gone better,” said Meade. “To win the NDC points against the calibre of rider that was in Rás na mBan this year is just amazing.

“I was third in the national road race championships before and I won a stage and wore the leader’s jersey in Rás na mBan three years ago but I would never have dreamt that I would have the week I had.”

As well as her points success, Meade also took a convincing third consecutive win in the classification for home based riders, the Clare County Council Best Irish Rider category and will go to the national road race championships in Westmeath next week brimful of confidence.

For her part, Wiles was not too disappointed at the news, given she had scooped two stage wins, the An Post overall classification and the IVCA Wicklow 200 Queen of the Mountains in a superb display.

“It’s been a really great week at Rás na mBan and I’m happy that Fiona has won the points competition. She really deserved it,” said the Specialized Lululemon pro rider.

National Dairy Council Points Competition – Final Results

  1. Fiona Meade (Munster), 34 points;
  2. Tayler Wiles (DID Cycle 4 Life), 30;
  3. Femke Van Kessel (WV Breda-Manilieu.nl), 26;
  4. Olivia Dillon (Ireland), 18;
  5. Ines Klok(WV Breda-Manilieu.nl), 16;
  6. Melanie Woering(Rytger), 16;
  7. Frida Knuttsson(Rytger), 15;
  8. Anne Ewing(WV Breda-Manilieu.nl), 13;
  9. Rebecca Nixon(Meadowlark)13;
  10. Henriette Woering (Rytger) 12.