Team Wednesday's crown slips as Law Courts climb turns to lead legs

There was no disguising it: this was the day the wheels came off, at least figuratively, for Team Wednesday. Early on the way home, the Law Courts to New Bridge drag produced the slowest of nine attempts this Tour, a full 98% off the best time and over a minute-and-a-half down on the previous crack at it. For a team built around punching up short climbs, it was a strange one to fluff, and it set a heavy tone for everything that followed.

The rest of the ride never quite recovered that snap. Gibson Street itself, the Tour’s honest little test of a hill, was ridden without disaster but without fireworks either, and the legs that had looked so sharp in previous stages seemed to be running on fumes rather than form. By the time Iain reached Hedley Hammer, out near the top of the route, the slide was confirmed: the slowest run of seven attempts there, 45% off the best, a segment that usually rewards tired legs with at least some rhythm and instead punished them further.

Overall it added up to the slowest return leg of the whole Tour so far, 21.9 km/h under grey skies and a mild 14.4°C, with the wind doing Iain a favour for once, sitting behind or across rather than getting stuck in. Gulls still called somewhere off the river as he ground his way inland, but there was little else to enjoy in a leg that felt heavier with every junction.

The damage on the general classification is real. Team Tuesday leapfrogs into yellow, while Team Wednesday, riding for Team Wednesday, drops to second, now 10 seconds per 10 km down after two legs. Team Monday sit third, further back. The Puncheurs built their name on hills, but today the climbs bit back, and the Tour de Toon has a new leader heading into the next stage.