Team Friday screech home fastest all Tour, keep grip on yellow

No hanging about on this one. Iain, racing for Team Friday, put together the fastest return leg the Tour de Toon has seen yet, 9.42 km done at 24 km/h with 105 m climbed and barely a moment to catch breath along the way. Four personal bests were banked in the opening exchanges of the leg, a run of quickfire climbs ticked off one after another before the ride had even properly warmed up, evidence of a rider with fresh legs and somewhere to be.

A nibble was lost on the Byker Bridge Sprint, a single second down on last time and seven off the best, but the bridge did its usual trick of asking a question the legs did not entirely want to answer, with nothing to hide behind on that exposed deck. The westerly breeze sat behind or across for most of the leg, and it showed: the Shields Road climb came in 25 seconds up on Iain’s last visit, and the Chilli Road Dash Reversed produced third best ever, 91 seconds quicker than last time out.

But it was the stretch from Byker to Four Lane Ends where the day was made. Iain took the Local Legend there in 7:56, 32 seconds off his own best and, crucially, enough to see off all comers on that stretch for the standing crown. It is the sort of scalp that gets talked about longer than the finishing time, taken as the Metro rattled up out of its cutting nearby and the park-and-ride filled behind him.

In the general classification, Team Friday’s late charge is emphatic: top of the table at 24.35 km/h across two legs, with Team Tuesday next up but 90 seconds per 10 km back. The Opportunists have gatecrashed this Tour and, on this evidence, are not planning on leaving.