Stage 2Flat stageIain, racing for Team MondayThe ride homeMonday, 7 September 2026
Team Monday wobbles up Gibson Street, still tops the Tour
Iain toiled through a triple dose of misery on the Gibson Street climb on the ride home, but Team Monday's overall lead was never really in doubt.
It was meant to be a straightforward ride home, but Gibson Street had other ideas. Iain, racing for Team Monday, hit the hill early and simply couldn’t find the legs: his slowest run up Gibson St Climb in six attempts, a full 49% off his best time there. The lights partway up decided the fate of the climb rather than the rider, and today they decided against him.
What followed was almost comedic in its consistency. The trimmed version of the climb, Gibson Street - trimmed for traffic lights, produced another season-worst — 53% off the best in seven attempts. Then the Half Climb variant delivered a third straight personal low, 56% off the best. Three different cuts of the same hill, three different ways of confirming the same story: this was not Iain’s day for climbing out of the Ouseburn valley.
The rest of the route offered little relief. Shields Road sagged badly off the best, and the long drag through Etherstone and Coach Lane never really got going either. Only the Hedley Hammer, right at the death, nudged ahead of last time by a single second — a small flicker of defiance from tired legs on a day when the south-westerly wind, blowing at 20 km/h behind or across, should by rights have been doing some of the work for him under grey Newcastle skies.
Despite it all, the general classification tells a happier tale. Team Monday leads the Tour outright after two legs, at 21.9 km/h — the only name on the board so far, and for now unchallenged. The optimists may not have enjoyed Gibson Street today, but with the yellow jersey, metaphorically speaking, still on their shoulders, there’s plenty to be cheerful about as the week gets under way.