Team Weekend crawl home yet still bag bronze on Clayton Road

Iain, racing for Team Weekend, produced the sort of ride that will never trouble the general classification and, frankly, wasn’t supposed to. Team Weekend isn’t chasing points or podiums; it’s out for the fun of it. Which is just as well, because 11.4 km/h is the slowest return leg anyone has managed this Tour, a figure that will raise eyebrows even among the most forgiving observers.

And yet, buried in that unhurried afternoon, there was real substance. On the Cycleway - Clayton Rd to Forsyth Rd segment, Iain clocked 3:11, good enough for third best ever. It’s a strange kind of contradiction: a rider dawdling his way home in the sunshine somehow finding another gear for a little over three minutes, enough to file it among his best efforts on that stretch. Everywhere else on the route the story was one of steady, unbothered pace — Down Matthew Bank almost three minutes off the best, Salters Lane Sprint the best part of that again — but Clayton Road stood apart, a flash of intent in an otherwise gentle ramble.

Conditions were kind, if nothing else: sunshine, 22.9°C, and a south-westerly wind of 21 km/h that sat behind or across him for most of the way, the kind of tailwind that should make for a rapid leg and instead simply made for a pleasant one. There was no fighting the elements today, just an unhurried trundle through the city, gulls somewhere off toward the river and the change in tyre note as wheels found different surfaces along the way.

None of this troubles the general classification, where Team Weekend sits outside the reckoning by design. Team Wednesday continue to lead after a single scorching leg at 26.2 km/h, with Team Friday and Team Tuesday jostling behind and Team Thursday still looking to find time. Team Weekend’s job today was simply to enjoy itself, and on that measure, despite the tortoise-like pace, it’s job done.