Team Thursday trudge home as tailwind goes to waste

There was a gift on offer this evening: a 30 km/h westerly sat behind or across Iain for the whole leg home, the kind of wind that should have made Team Thursday fly. Instead it was a leg of personal worsts, and the story was written out along Byker to Four Lane Ends, where Iain posted his slowest run in five attempts, a full 145 seconds off his best there. It is a long, exposed stretch, and even with the wind at his back the legs simply weren’t playing along.

It didn’t stand alone. Cote de Four Lane Ends went the same way, slowest of six attempts and 146 seconds down, while back at the start of the leg both halves of Gibson Street told an identical tale — slowest of fourteen goes on the trimmed section, slowest of fourteen on the half climb too. Gibson Street is meant to be over in a minute and felt for ten; today it felt like it never really ended, lights or no lights.

The only mercy was the crossing of Byker Bridge, where the wind did at least push rather than fight, gulls wheeling over the drop into the Ouseburn valley as the deck rattled underneath. But a favourable gust cannot fix a day where the legs won’t turn, and Iain, racing for Team Thursday, ground his way home rather than raced it, heart rate ticking over at 137 bpm for reward that flattered nobody.

In the general classification, none of this changes the picture at the top: Team Friday still lead the Tour at 24.35 km/h across their two legs, well clear of the chasing pack. Team Thursday remain rooted in fifth, 122 seconds per 10 km down, and this ride does nothing to close that gap. Stubborn as ever, Iain gets the result in the bank — but the tailwind, for once, did all the work that the legs wouldn’t.