Team Weekend potters off-piste at 7.4 km/h and nobody minds

There was no yellow jersey at stake today, no bus lane sprint, no traffic light lottery — just Iain, out for Team Weekend, ambling through a stage that counts for nothing and asks for even less. At 7.4 km/h it was the slowest other leg of the entire Tour, a pace that suggests a rider in no hurry whatsoever to get wherever he was going.

This was a breakaway in the truest sense: off the usual road entirely, which means the stage does not count towards the general classification. No segment times to pore over, no Local Legend to chase, just 2.34 km covered in a leisurely 19 minutes with 67 metres of climbing thrown in almost as an afterthought. The heart rate monitor barely stirred — 91 bpm average — confirming what the speed already told us: this was recovery, not racing.

Overhead, the sky stayed overcast and a westerly wind of 21 km/h pushed from behind or across, at a mild 20.1°C. Comfortable conditions for a rider who, for once, wasn’t fighting the clock or the wind, just enjoying whatever the guest team offers on a Saturday outing. Riding for Team Weekend means Iain gets to sample a bit of everything the Tour de Toon has to offer without any of the pressure — no crosswind battles on the bridge deck today, none of the usual traffic-light gambles that decide a proper leg.

With none of this troubling the standings, the real Tour ticks on regardless. Team Friday still leads at 24.35 km/h across two legs, holding station ahead of Team Tuesday and Team Wednesday, who remain locked in their own quiet scrap for the podium places. Team Thursday and Team Monday prop up the order, still searching for the turn of speed to trouble the top three. Today changes nothing there — Team Weekend’s excursion was always going to be a footnote, a Saturday spin while the real contenders wait for Monday to come round again and the serious business resumes.