Wittenberg

Yes! A record number of thirteen teams, from seven different provinces, are participating in the second leg of the Talossan Cycling Association Tour 2023. Three weeks, 21 stages, 3400 km and only one team will be victorious in the end. Will it be Cyclohexane again, or will a team from another province finally claim an edition?

The following teams are participating:

Have to admit I feel really bad about not picking Pinot this time, but I really appreciate all the teams that did.

(Also sad about not picking Sénéchal)

So we have
3 teams with Vingegaard
2 teams with Pogačar
4 teams with both
4 teams with neither

So pretty balanced, I like that.

Stage 1 Bilbao -> Bilbao

The first day was a day with ups and downs, both figuratively and literally. The peloton started in Bilbao, not for a time trial, but for a hilly stage with various short but steep climbs. A stage that could suit a variety of different riders and could potentially be won in very different ways. In the end it was the teams of the GC (general classification) favourites that started pulling on the second to last climb, and on the last climb the GC favourites went for it. It was the Yates twins, Adam (KIN/ATX/CAN) and Simon (CJO/CAN) that managed to pull away in the end, with Adam winning not just the stage, but also the yellow jersey for the leader in the GC and the green jersey for the leader in the points classification.

Pogacar (BDC/GNH/CFA/PTM/GHS/CJO) ended up winning the sprint in the group of favourites, which also included Pinot (VFL/CFA/PTM), Lafay (CJO), Hindley (GNH/MCB/GHS), Skjelmose (VFL/MCB), Vingegaard (CHX/BDC/GNH/DED/CFA/KIN/CJO), Gaudu (VFL/KIN/ATX/CAN), and Van Aert (CHX). Lafay being the big surprise there.

Earlier in the stage, however there was a crash involving Mas (VFL/KIN/MCB/CAN) and Carapaz (PTM/ATX). Mas was forced to abandon immediately. Carapaz amazingly managed to finish the stage, but turned out to have a fractured kneecap. After a first leg that was somewhat marred by several incidents I had really hoped for a slightly more fortunate start this time. Sadly this means six teams already lost a valuable GC contender on the first day, which will hurt those teams chances.

The return of Naziun Cjovani to TCAT is something some other teams may already be starting to regret as they did everything right today and got a pretty big score, due to the results of A. Yates and Pogacar, but also Lafay, who is looking very strong already for a relatively cheap rider. Yet again, that means we have a team from Benito in the lead. A very impressive start.

Els Cantzelerïă Aþletici had a very strong debut due to the scores by the Yates brothers, although they may have mixed feelings about today due to the loss of Mas. Meanwhile, sticking with Pinot paid off for Fieschā. Dead Last, however, was not very well represented in the favourites group. While they did much better than last time, they do take the spot predicted by their name after the first stage of this edition. Last editions winners, Cyclohexane also had a difficult start.

Last edition it took very long before we got some action among the GC favourites. This time we're getting it in the first stage, which was only an intermediate stage. That promises good things to come, although the abandons by Mas and Carapaz did put a damper on the excitement. Either way, this was only stage one so a lot can still happen.

Standings after stage 1:

Pos	Team	Points
1st	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	649
2nd	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	562
3rd	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	466
4th	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	443
5th	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	436
6th	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	387
7th	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	387
8th	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	343
9th	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	325
10th	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	321
11th	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	202
12th	Cyclohexane (CHX)	190
13th	Dead Last (DED)	100

Tomorrow we stay in Basque county for yet another unpredictable  hilly stage to San Sebastian. It seems less likely that GC favourites want to get involved so this might well end up being won by an early breakaway or result in a reduced bunch sprint. Possibly an ideal stage for someone like Van Aert or Van der Poel.

It looks like I am already in a position that will require a viral outbreak among my opponents for my team to mount a comeback LOL

Holy macaroni, Lafay out of nowhere!!! Iason is way too good at this game...

Stage 2 Vitoria-Gasteiz -> San Sébastián

Another hilly stage in the Basque Country, another emphatic victory for Naziun Cjovani! This time it's Victor Lafay timing a final attack to perfection, pipping a 24-rider group that included all the major contenders. Almost catching him after a late sprint, a very frustrated Cyclohexane's Wout Van Aert, and Tadej Pogačar (BDC/CJO/CFA/GHS/GNH/PTM), who enjoyed another moral victory over direct Tour contender Jonas Vingegaard (BDC/CJO/CFA/CHX/DED/GNH/KIN) by snatching a few bonus seconds on the summit of Jaizkibel, the final summit before the finish. Most of the day had been led by a three-man non-TCAT breakaway, caught on the approach to Jaizkibel itself.

Rounding out the top 5 are Tom Pidcock (ATX/CAN/DED/GHS/VFL) and Pello Bilbao (BDC), with numerous other TCAT riders in the top 20. Adam Yates keeps the yellow jersey, Victor Lafay takes over the point classification's lead (green jersey), and Neilson Powless keeps the polkadot jersey (KOM classification).

Naziun Cjovani opens up an immediate lead on everyone else, powered by their two daily victories. The rest of the current podium remains stable, but there's some big swings behind due to how tight the standings still are and how early it still is. Plenty of time for teams to catch up or fall behind.

Standings after stage 2:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1208	+559
2nd	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	855	+293
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	836	+370
4th	(+1)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	786	+350
5th	(+5)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	772	+451
6th	(+3)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	771	+446
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	713	+326
8th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	699	+356
9th	(-3)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	653	+261
10th	(-6)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	565	+122
11th	(+1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	487	+297
12th	(-1)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	454	+252
13th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	371	+271

Tomorrow, we have the first chance for sprinters to shine as Tour crosses back into France for a finish in Bayonne; however look for numerous uncategorised climbs peppered in the second half of the stage that might spell doom for some out-of-form favourites.

Tomorrow should be an interesting matchup, TCAT-wise, as teams chose a variety of very strong and interesting sprinters.

The only major sprinter to remain unpicked was, surprisingly, Fabio Jakobsen. He's also the unpicked rider with the largest ownership percentage across all Velogames teams, and one of just three unpicked riders who have an ownership percentage above 1/13≈7.7%, such that they would be expected to have been picked by at least one TCAT team (the other two being Landa and current KOM leader Powless).

TCAT Giro was won by two sprinter-oriented teams, but only two out of thirteen teams in TCAT Tour chose a second sprinter, and neither team has a truly awe inspiring pairing: Fieschă has Cavendish and Bauhaus, and Dead Last has Cavendish and Ewan. Bauhaus is promising but untested, Cavendish is at the end of his career, and Ewan is strong but not quite at the top of the sprinter tier list.

Sprinter	Team
Aranburu	GNH
Bauhaus	CFA
Cavendish	CFA, DED, KIN
Ewan	DED
Girmay	ATX, GHS, MCB
Groenewegen	CJO
Pedersen	CAN, PTM, VFL
Philipsen	BDC
Van Aert	CHX

Note how Dead Last is almost a three-sprinter team, as they have Laporte who might sprint for Jumbo-Visma, but will probably mostly be Van Aert's leadout.

Cyclohexane also has two leadouts who can sprint well on their own should their leader abandon: Alex Kirsch (for Pedersen) and Mathieu Van der Poel (for Philipsen). Look for them to rise once again to the spot of leading sprint team of TCAT should something happen to Pedersen and/or Philipsen.

Yet more teams own lesser known leadouts for their main sprinter: Laurent Pichon could also bring sprint points to Kinetic as a leadout for Mozzato; Rickaert might do the same to Cjovani, and Boivin to Fieschă. Again: if a lead sprinter gets injured, you may just find your 4-point pick turn into a goldmine of points...

Quote from: Sir Lüc on July 02, 2023, 05:38:17 PMFieschă has Cavendish and Bauhaus, and Dead Last has Cavendish and Ewan. Bauhaus is promising but untested

I must admit I chose Bauhaus because I've always been a fan of the band

Quote from: Sir Lüc on July 02, 2023, 05:38:17 PMTCAT Ortona > Roma was won by two sprinter-oriented teams, but only two out of thirteen teams in TCAT Bilbao > Paris chose a second sprinter, and neither team has a truly awe inspiring pairing: Fieschă has Cavendish and Bauhaus, and Dead Last has Cavendish and Ewan. Bauhaus is promising but untested, Cavendish is at the end of his career, and Ewan is strong but not quite at the top of the sprinter tier list.

Bauhaus second, Ewan third. Fiescha and Dead Last almost certainly scoring the most points today. I'd say this did not age well :p (Sorry Lüc)

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on July 03, 2023, 11:27:32 AM

Quote from: Sir Lüc on July 02, 2023, 05:38:17 PMTCAT Giro was won by two sprinter-oriented teams, but only two out of thirteen teams in TCAT Tour chose a second sprinter, and neither team has a truly awe inspiring pairing: Fieschă has Cavendish and Bauhaus, and Dead Last has Cavendish and Ewan. Bauhaus is promising but untested, Cavendish is at the end of his career, and Ewan is strong but not quite at the top of the sprinter tier list.

Bauhaus second, Ewan third. Fiescha and Dead Last almost certainly scoring the most points today. I'd say this did not age well :p (Sorry Lüc)

Thank you for not mentioning Cavendish P6 as well :p

Stage 3 Amorebieta-Etxano - > Bayonne

Disaster struck today! Jasper "disaster" Philipsen, that is, who won the bunch sprint after an otherwise thankfully uneventful day on what was apparently the longest stage of this edition.

The peloton left Spanish Basque Country today and entered French Basque Country. The Pyrenees loom large to the east, but today that went mostly unnoticed as despite some hills the peloton managed to get to the finish more or less complete. Before that Pichon (KIN) made it to the break and actually spend more than 30 km soloing after dropping his fellow attacker halfway through the stage. This attacking spirit wasn't rewarded though as the sprint teams never gave the break much of a chance.

Philipsen (BDC) won the sprint ahead of Bauhaus (CFA) and Ewan (DED), with Van Aert (CHX), Cavendish (CFA/KIN/DED), Groenewegen (CJO) and Pedersen (CAN/VFL/PTM) also in the top 10.

As a result Fiescha had a very strong day, gaining the most points and making a big jump in the standings. Dead Last also did well, handing the red lantern to the Cabana Boys after a disappointing performance by Girmay (ATX/GHS/MCB). Naziun Cjovani is still comfortably in the lead, followed by the two Cézembrean teams desparate to prevent a fourth Benitian TCAT victory.

Standings after stage 3:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1437	+229
2nd	(+1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1216	+380
3rd	(+3)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	1095	+324
4th	(-2)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	1017	+162
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	894	+122
6th	(-2)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	882	+96
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	854	+141
8th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	821	+122
9th	(+1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	802	+237
10th	(-1)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	791	+138
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	711	+224
12th	(+1)	Dead Last (DED)	698	+327
13th	(-1)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	549	+95

Tomorrow we move away from the coast, towards the Occitanian town of Nogaro. Another flat stage that seems to favour a bunch sprint. Some of the sprinters that missed out today will definitely be looking for revanche.

Stage 4 Dax - > Nogaro

Absolutely nothing happened for most of today. The peloton took it easy and it took a long while before anyone even bothered to attack, knowing the inevitable result of the attempt. There was no chance the sprint teams were letting this opportunity get away. So we did get a sprint again and the result looked very similar to yesterday. Philipsen (BDC) won again, helped a lot by Van der Poel (CHX) who acted as a leadout again and guided Philipsen to the perfect position. (The team leadership of Banqeu da Cézembre is most grateful to Cyclohexane for their assistance). Van der Poel did hinder Girmay (ATX/GHS/MCB) during the sprint however and was relegated by several places as punishment.

Behind Philipsen, Ewan (DED), Bauhaus (CFA) and Cavendish (DED/CFA) proved their performance yesterday was not a fluke, by ending 2nd, 3rd and 5th, respectively. Van Aert (CHX), Pedersen (CAN/VFL/PTM), Groenewegen (CJO), and Girmay (ATX/GHS/MCB) disappointed again. As a result of his win Philipsen will be taking over the green jersey from Lafay (CJO) tomorrow.

As a result, the sprint teams won again, but this time it was Dead Last who came Dead First, jumping to fifth place in the standings with Fiescha and BdC further closing the gap between them and Naziun Cjovani, although Cjovani does stay in the lead.

Standings after stage 4:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1612	+175
2nd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1585	+369
3rd	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	1439	+344
4th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	1169	+152
5th	(+7)	Dead Last (DED)	1102	+404
6th	(+3)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	1043	+241
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	979	+125
8th	(-2)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	973	+91
9th	(-4)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	967	+73
10th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	930	+139
11th	(-3)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	901	+80
12th	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	881	+170
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	601	+52

No more sprinting tomorrow, as we head into the Pyrenees for the first mountain stage. We've already almost had more GC action in the first two stages than in the first two weeks of the giro. Still, the real test starts tomorrow, and involves three climbs, including the Col de Soudet. However, as most of the climbing happens halfway through the stage, it is likely we will see the stage winner come from a breakaway while the real GC battle happens on the Tourmalet on thursday.
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Stage 5 profile
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Col de Soudet

It's alright Boys, there's still a long way to go before it's over!

Stage 5 Pau -> Laruns

In the first true mountain stage of TCAT France 2023, today was always going to be consequential for the general classification. And so it was, in two major ways.

The first was Jai Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) being allowed to join a very large breakaway -- remember, the larger the breakaway, the more chance it has to be successful. And successful it was! Hindley was the lone rider to survive until the end, taking his first stage win at Tour *and* the yellow jersey to boot. He stayed put on today's toughest climb, Col de Soudet, but attacked together with a comparatively more spent Felix Gall (GNH) on the last summit, Col de Marie Blanque, dropping him easily and riding solo for the last 20kms. Gall can console himself by taking third place today, together with the lead of the KOM classification.

The second major way in which the GC fight changed is the more consequential. Alarm bells are sounding in the UAE/Pogacar camp: the Slovenian rider (CJO/CFA/GNH/BDC/PTM/GHS) was rather easily dropped by his direct rival, Jonas Vingegaard (CJO/CFA/KIN/GNH/BDC/CHX/DED), when the Dane and teammate Sepp Kuss (CHX/PTM) upped the tempo of the chasing peloton, culminating in an attack on Marie Blanque. Vingegaard went on to furiously catch by himself the remnants of the breakaway, a three-man group including Gall and Giulio Ciccone (CAN/ATX/BDC/MCB/DED); the latter winning a reduced sprint for second place, 32" behind Hindley.

GC-wise: Hindley gets yellow from Adam Yates, who was never going to be keeping the jersey for much longer anyway, seeing as he's working for team leader Tadej Pogacar. Vingegaard is 47" behind, which is not as important as the fact he's now almost a minute in front of direct rival Pogacar. The Slovenian and his team will have much to prove tomorrow, or the hope of contesting Tour at level pegging with Vingegaard might be over before it's even begun.

Coming to TCAT: Gagnheirs makes the most of holding Hindley, Gall, Vingegaard and Pogacar for a daily haul of almost 750 points. MCB will be very pleased about a definite reversal in their luck so far, also benefitting from Hindley and Ciccone to bring home second place. Rounds off the podium Banqeu de Cézembre -- they do just enough to pip Cjovani at the top of the standings, for the first lead change of TCAT France 2023.

Standings after stage 5:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+2)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	1945	+506
2nd	(-1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1922	+310
3rd	(-1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1869	+284
4th	(+4)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	1722	+749
5th	(-1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	1634	+465
6th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	1542	+440
7th	(+2)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1403	+436
8th	(-2)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	1333	+290
9th	(+2)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1310	+409
10th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1304	+374
11th	(+2)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1276	+675
12th	(-5)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1184	+205
13th	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	1153	+272

More mountains to come in stage 6, with the famous Tourmalet, preceded by Col d'Aspin and this year's first summit finish at Cauterets-Cambasque. More GC excitement - and daring breakaways - in store.

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Quote from: Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat on July 06, 2023, 01:58:10 PM(https://media2.giphy.com/media/Ez5he37FS045W/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47b8eljf037ec436b68emr4hees3d36cgrbt0fkq14&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)

Welp, I'm sorry for getting your hopes up and immediately shattering them the next day 😭

Stage 6 Tarbes -> Cauterets-Cambasque

What a stage once again! Tadej Pogacar (CJO/CFA/GNH/BDC/PTM/GHS) needed an emphatic response to Jonas Vingegaard's (CJO/CFA/KIN/GNH/BDC/CHX/DED) attack yesterday, and he duly delivered.

Much like yesterday, a large breakaway formed, led by Wout Van Aert (CHX), who ended up heroically pulling for his group for most of the day, and also including Neilands (GHS), Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED), Shaw (GNH) and Van der Poel (CHX/ATX). The breakaway started losing pieces on Col d'Aspin, today's first climb, but made it mostly unscathed to world-famous Col de Tourmalet.

On Tourmalet, Van Aert started pulling like crazy, with just Shaw and three others holding on; while in the main peloton, Vingegaard's team proceeded to methodically spend each of its riders in a furious acceleration resulting in today's first attack by the Dane. Pogacar managed to hold on, but yellow jersey Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) did not, ultimately reforming in a larger peloton behind the leaders including most of the other GC outsiders.

After Tourmalet, Van Aert fell back to help Vingegaard catch back up; they duly caught the leaders, and began the final climb all together. Once Van Aert was spent, Vingegaard attacked, but again Pogacar managed to hold on, the duo gradually shedding all other riders in the lead group until remaining alone. It is here that - surprise - it was Pogacar who attacked with 2.7km to go, and the indomitable Vingegaard who couldn't keep up!

Pogacar took the stage win, and a significant 28" gain on his rival - though it is Vingegaard who will wear the yellow jersey by 25", considering the Slovene had a sizable gap to overcome. We're just at stage 6, and we've seen attacks and counter-attacks from the top contenders as if we were in the final week already!

This translates into another stage win for Gagnheirs, and similarly strong performances by Cjovani and Fieschă, all holding both of the leaders. Banqeu de Cézembre's Ciccone and Bilbao underperforming in comparison to Cjovani's S. Yates and Alaphilippe, though, sees the Benitian team regain the lead of TCAT in a tight affair that sees these four teams separated by just around 150 points.

Standings after stage 6:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2549	+627
2nd	(-1)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	2464	+519
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2448	+579
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	2392	+670
5th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	1938	+304
6th	(+1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1929	+526
7th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	1877	+335
8th	(+4)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1754	+570
9th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	1753	+420
10th	(-1)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1621	+311
11th	(+2)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	1598	+445
12th	(-2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1573	+269
13th	(-2)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1484	+208

Sprint is again on the menu for stage 7. Prepare for an assured mass sprint, and for a stage result resembling more what we saw in stages 3-4. Can Philipsen (BDC) make it 3/3?

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LOL The MCB can't catch a break...

Cav is pissed about the finish, by the way. I guess he's claiming he had shifting issues. If Cav doesn't win a stage, I riot.

Stage 7 Mont-de-Barsan -> Bordeaux

The inevitability of a mass sprint in Bordeaux meant today was another stage were nothing happened for most of the day. Most of the break gave up before we even got to the halfway point. Girmay (ATX/GHS/MCB) showed good form by coming second in the intermediate sprint. Nans Peters (BDC) was one of those attacking after the halfway mark to join the break, but it was an adventure that was doomed from the start. Peters was caught with 7 km to go. Van Aert (CHX) was not gonna contest the sprint as he was dropped from the peloton, possibly to save his legs for tomorrow. Ciccone (CAN/ATX/BDC/MCB/DED) also lost time.

The sprint itself was on a narrow parcours with various turns. Thankfully there weren't any crashes this time. Cavendish (CFA/KIN/DED) came very close to winning a record-breaking 35th tour stage, but was outsprinted by Philipsen (BDC) who takes his third stagewin this TCAT. Girmay got boxed in by Philipsen trying to find the wheel of Cavendish, but still managed to finish third. Groenewegen (CJO), Bauhaus (CFA), and Pedersen (CAN/VFL/PTM) also made the top 10.

Cézembre Fieschâ won the most points for the second time this edition and takes the lead in the standings! Their Cézembrean rivals from BDC also did well and got into second place. It's still very close at the top of the leaderboard with only 55 points separating the top 3 and Gagnheirs not far behind. Meanwhile, Van Aert not participating in the sprint meant Cyclohexane had a pretty rough day and dropped to last place again, with the Cabana Boys just a single point ahead.

Standings after stage 7:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+2)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2817	+369
2nd	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	2783	+319
3rd	(-2)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2762	+213
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	2522	+130
5th	(+1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2208	+279
6th	(+1)	Dead Last (DED)	2159	+282
7th	(-2)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	2096	+158
8th	(+1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2028	+275
9th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1894	+140
10th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1887	+266
11th	(+1)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1751	+178
12th	(+1)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1698	+214
13th	(-2)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	1697	+99

Tomorrow is the last stage in the southwestern region of Aquitania, moving northeast towards the central massif. The stage is flat at first but then moves into slightly hilly terrain. An uphill finish ensures there won't be a bunch sprint. Not a stage for the GC favourites. Instead this looks like a good opportunity for a breakaway or some late attack. Perhaps we'll finally see the legendary rivalry between Wout van Aert (CHX) and Mathieu van der Poel (CHX/ATX) play out, which would be great news for Cyclohexane. But to be honest it's a really unpredictable stage with loads of potential winners.

Heck yeah! MCB is bouncing back baby!

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Quote from: Audrada Roibeardet on July 07, 2023, 12:54:21 PMCav is pissed about the finish, by the way. I guess he's claiming he had shifting issues. If Cav doesn't win a stage, I riot.

I guess the script writers probably need him to do it in Paris.

Unlike previous edition we got a lot of GC action in the first week. This already gives us a  pretty good sense of where the tour is heading, although nothing has been decided yet, especially the fight for the yellow jersey, which promises to be a pretty exciting battle. A good moment to have a first look at how many final points the teams might get and what that means for the overall TCAT standings.

The general classification (GC, green jersey) looks to be a duel between the same riders as last year, with Vingegaard currently ahead by 25 seconds of Pogacar. Behind them, Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) is currently best of the rest on 1'34". A large group is currently between 3 and 5 minutes behind on Vingegaard including Simon Yates (CJO/CAN), Rodriguez (VFL), Adam Yates (KIN/ATX/CAN), Gaudu (VFL/KIN/ATX/CAN), Bardet (CFA/PTM/MCB/ATX), and Pidcock (ATX/CAN/DED/GHS/VFL).

In the points classification (PC, green jersey), it is Philipsen (BDC) who already has a big lead after three stage wins (215 points against 127 for the number 2). The King of the Mountains classification (KOM, polkadot jersey) is still mostly undecided, with Gall (GNH) the TCAT rider with the most points (28) so far.

If these classifications didn't change, the teams would receive the following end-of-tour classification points:


Gagnheirs 1860
Cjovani 1645
Fiescha 1635
BdC 1565
GHST 1460
Kinetic 1325
Cantzeleria 1230
Dead Last 1180
Port Maxhestic 1130
Cyclohexane 1115
Velociposse 1080
Averatxeirs 1000
Cabana Boys 780

Perhaps unsurprisingly its the four teams that picked both Vingegaard and Pogacar that are ahead both in the current score and in the expected classification points. Of course its still very early and a lot can happen, but for now I would say these four teams are the favourites to win this edition.

Of these, Gagnheirs is probably strongest in the mountains, with Hindley as the current number 3 in GC and Gall doing well in the KOM classification.

Fiescha meanwhile is the only team that has two sprinters (Bauhaus + Cavendish).  Their team also includes Pinot, who did great in the previous edition and will surely be looking to win a stage.

BdC also performs well in the sprint with Philipsen winning all three so far, but unlike the other teams lacks a strong third GC option. Losing his position in GC might give Ciccone the freedom to go for stage wins or KOM points however.

Cjovani could do well in sprints with Groenewegen (although he has maybe disappointed a bit so far), in the mountains with Simon Yates, and in intermediate stages with Alaphilippe and the surprise of this edition so far, Lafay

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0hNUrVWAAAxxLg?format=jpg&name=large)

Not like this :(

Oof, that's rough. Such a sad ending to a legendary career. Commisserations to the Cavendish teams :(

Cav looks absolutely gutted in that photo.

Stage 8 Libourne -> Limoges

Sadly, as I already anticipated earlier, Mark Cavendish - the greatest sprinter of all time - is TCAT France 2023's third abandon, due to a freak crash in the peloton. Absolutely not how we all hoped his last Tour would end, especially looking at how close he came to a record 35th Tour win yesterday.

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on July 07, 2023, 01:18:55 PMAn uphill finish ensures there won't be a bunch sprint.

Yeah, so that was a f'in lie. We all wanted an exciting breakaway and instead we got just three people who were caught easily enough. Besides, the profile turned out not be that prohibitive for even pure sprinters at all, as Philipsen and Groenewegen's result proved.

We did get an uphill mass sprint after all, won by Mads Pedersen (CAN/VFL/PTM) over Jasper Philipsen (BDC), Wout Van Aert (CHX) and Dylan Groenewegen (CJO). This ensures a Port Maxhestic stage win, also thanks to Pogacar's P10 and Bardet's P15, with the other five teams rounding out the top six.

We also get another lead change at the top of the TCAT overall standings, as Banqeu de Cézembre regains the top spot off their daily second place.

Standings after stage 8:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	3144	+361
2nd	(+1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3064	+302
3rd	(-2)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3015	+198
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	2740	+218
5th	(+2)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (CAN)	2444	+348
6th	(-1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2362	+154
7th	(+2)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2281	+387
8th	(-2)	Dead Last (DED)	2269	+110
9th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2140	+112
10th	(+1)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2091	+340
11th	(-1)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2000	+113
12th	(+1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	1978	+281
13th	(-1)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1815	+117

Tomorrow we round out the extended first week with a hilly approach to Puy de Dome, a highest category climb with a summit finish (actually, the hardest summit finish for this year). Likely to feature another GC battle between Pogacar and Vingegaard, but perhaps a breakaway has a chance at a stage win considering there's no Tourmalet and Aspin on the way, like there was in stage 6? Definitely a stage worth watching either way.

As mentioned by Lüc, today's finished is on Puy de Dome, a dormant volcano/lava dome which has a road that spirals around it to the top rather than the typical hairpin turns you would get in most summit finishes. The top also contains the ruins of a Roman temple. A very nice location for a finish. The last time Tour de France used this particular finish was in 1988. If we're lucky we'll get not one, but two battles here today, one for the stage win by the breakaway and one between Vingegaard and Pogacar (and other favourites) for time in the GC.

I am thinking of streaming the finish on discord. Lüc probably won't be there sadly, but if anyone is interested in watching, the finish is expected around 18:18 CEST (11:18 TST) and I may be streaming from  about 17:00 (10 am TST).

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Puy_de_D%C3%B4me_near_Clermont-Ferrand_in_Auvergne_in_France.jpg)
Puy de Dome

(https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/pp-et9-puy-de-dome-web-1500-px/45652/0:0,1500:2061-960-0-90/faa0d)
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MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT:

I made a big mistake when assigning a three letter code to els cantzelerïă aþletici. I went with CAN, but obviously that should have been SOS. I'm a bit disappointed nobody has pointed out this missed opportunity. Beter ten halve gekeerd dan ten hele gedwaald though, so we're changing it to SOS.

Stage update later today. Sadly a large break without many TCAT riders resulted in a fairly low-scoring affair.

Stage 9 St-Léonard-de-Noblat -> Puy de Dôme

Not too many TCAT riders in the break today, with the exceptions of Boivin (CFA), and Abrahamsen (GNH). Neither of those managed to keep up on the final climb. After the stage win was decided it was of course Pogacar and Vingegaard who were the fastest in the group of favourites, dropping all other GC riders for another duel, which this time was won by Pogacar who gained another 7 seconds back.

Behind them, some of the losers were Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB), who kept his third place in GC, but lost time on his direct competitors for the final podium spot, Gaudu (VFL/KIN/ATX/SOS), who dropped to 8th in GC and O'Connor (GHS) who lost a lot of time and dropped 7 spots. Instead, it was Simon Yates (CJO/SOS), Pidcock (ATX/CAN/DED/GHS/VFL), and Rodriguez (VFL), who managed to lose the least amount of time on the two favourites, with Pidcock gaining two spots in GC and Yates and Rodriguez closing in on the final podium spot.

The result was a very low scoring affair, with no changes in the standing. Like in previous mountain stages els Gagnheirs scored the most points. They are still in fourth place, but by having three riders on the podium and many more mountain stages to go they are very well positioned to win the edition after final classification points are awarded. This will depend on Hindley holding on to the podium however, so him losing time today may be cause for concern in the Gagnheirs camp.

Standings after stage 9:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	3302	+158
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3231	+167
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3196	+181
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	2959	+219
5th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	2583	+139
6th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2514	+152
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2394	+113
8th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	2383	+114
9th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2257	+117
10th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2212	+121
11th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2094	+94
12th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2088	+110
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1866	+51

After an exciting first week the peloton will finally get its first rest day tomorrow. The day after that will be a hilly stage through the Central Massif, which feels like potentially a good day for a succesful early attack.

I had no idea how you came up with the abbreviation so I didn't say anything.

Stage 10 Vulcania -> Issoire

Hope everyone had a nice rest day! The peloton hits the midway point of Tour with a stage that had breakaway written all over it, but whose initial stages were frantic and full gas, with multiple groups attempting to form at various points only to be foiled and reabsorbed. At one point, Vingegaard and Pogacar themselves were in the breakaway!

Ultimately, the race settled on a 12 man breakaway with a large TCAT representation that included Neilands (GHS), Perez (GHS/CJO), O'Connor (GHS), Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED), Asgreen (CJO/GNH/MCB), Bilbao (BDC) and Skjelmose (VFL/MCB). Neilands attacked on the last climb, hoping to ride the last 32kms solo, but was foiled by a pursuing quintet including Bilbao and O'Connor that efficiently took turns pulling to reel him in.

Indeed, it was Bilbao who took the stage win in the six-man sprint, with O'Connor third and Neilands fourth. Skjelmose and Alaphilippe's quartet did not manage to catch up in time and finished 30" behind, with the bulk of the peloton arriving 2'53" from the front. Bilbao's win and sizable lead from the group of favourites nets him a whopping 6 places in the GC, where he's now fifth and definitely in contention for the podium. O'Connor finally gets a break after struggling in week 1, but even just the top 10 is still a whopping 5' away.

As for TCAT, we have two high scorers, GHST and BdC, and the other eleven teams enclosed in little more than 100 points. Which essentially means BdC pulling away from Cjovani, and GHST regaining P5, best-of-the-rest of the teams without both Pogacar and Vingegaard. Some other minor adjustments owing to small points differences between teams, but essentially a wash for everyone else.


Standings after stage 10:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	3659	+357
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3390	+159
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3293	+97
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3144	+185
5th	(+1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2924	+410
6th	(-1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	2687	+104
7th	(+1)	Dead Last (DED)	2528	+145
8th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2486	+92
9th	(+1)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2395	+183
10th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2392	+135
11th	(+1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2225	+137
12th	(-1)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2176	+82
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2058	+192

The Massif Central swing continues tomorrow with Clermont Ferrand -> Moulins, a stage that might favour breakaway riders who don't like much climbing (think Cort and Bettiol), but that will likely end in a sprint anyway. All depends on how large is the breakaway, and who ends up in it.

Who wants to party with the MCB at the bottom of the list!?

(https://media.giphy.com/media/WjaAEljrq3dR3URvnf/giphy.gif)

Stage 11 Clermont Ferrand -> Moulins

The early attackers weren't given a chance today. It was only a small group that broke away from the peloton and they were never given more than 3,5 minutes, with the sprint teams strictly controlling the race. Amador did score some breakaway and int sprint points for els Gagnheirs.

The bunch sprint itself was again won by Philipsen (BdC). His fourth stage this edition already! Groenewegen (CJO) got his best result yet, but still came up short. Bauhaus (CFA) got third place again, with Pedersen (SOS/VFL/PTM) in the top 5 and Van Aert (CHX) in the top 10.

Banqeu da Cézembre got the most points today due to the effort by Philipsen, further extending their overall lead. Most other teams will be happy that we will likely have no more bunch sprints for at least a week from here on.


Standings after stage 11:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	4000	+341
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3672	+282
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3552	+259
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3300	+156
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3046	+122
6th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	2889	+202
7th	(+1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2680	+194
8th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	2628	+100
9th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2598	+203
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2477	+85
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2390	+165
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2281	+105
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2139	+81

Tomorrow we move east towards wine country as we get closer to the Alps. It's a transitional stage featuring a lot of climbs. The tour has been rough so far on puncheur type stagehunters, with GC favourites canibalising breaks and sprint teams not missing a single chance, even when the finish is uphill. That leaves loads of riders, including some big names like Alaphilippe, Van Aert and Cort Nielsen, without a result so far. For many of these riders tomorrow might be the last chance at a stage win. As a result, expect a big fight to get in the breakaway, which might take a long time to settle. Could be a fun stage to watch, with a finish that's hard to predict.

Quote from: Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat on July 12, 2023, 08:50:39 AMWho wants to party with the MCB at the bottom of the list!?

(https://media.giphy.com/media/WjaAEljrq3dR3URvnf/giphy.gif)

The way things are going, I'll meet you at the bottom. Haha!

Stage 12 Roanne -> Belleville-en-Beaujolais

Another crazy breakaway stage, with over an hour and a half passing until a stable attack was allowed to form. Not many TCAT riders found themselves in the breakaway: Tiesj Benoot (VFL) and Thibaut Pinot (CFA/PTM/VFL) were the only ones who made it to the end, while Mathieu van der Poel (CHX/ATX) and Julian Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED) also featured in it but were eventually dropped.

Velociposse wins the day and jumps to sixth overall by virtue of holding both Benoot (P4) and Pinot (P6), while the other two Pinot teams, Fieschă and Port Maxhestic, round off today's top 3. Fieschă also reaches second place overall, but leaders Banqeu da Cézembre still enjoy a healthy lead and a good daily result thanks to Van Gils (P11), in addition to the usual Pogacar (P12) and Vingegaard (P16). Adam Yates, who at one point looked in serious trouble of losing substantial GC time, ultimately got back to the main peloton and is the last TCAT rider to get stage points (P18).

Standings after stage 12:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	4208	+208
2nd	(+1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3828	+276
3rd	(-1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3821	+149
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3492	+192
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3169	+123
6th	(+3)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3023	+425
7th	(-1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	3021	+132
8th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2964	+284
9th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	2713	+85
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2582	+105
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2520	+130
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2388	+107
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2180	+41

Tomorrow is Bastille Day! Just one categorised climb, but it's the hardest kind possible: a Hors Categorie summit finish on Grand Colombier. Very likely to see breakaway attempts from the get-go, and act four of the Pogacar/Vingegaard GC fight on the 18 km final climb.

Stage 13 Châtillon-Sur-Chalaronne -> Grand Colombier

A lot of people wanted to be in the break today, although it didn't take nearly as much time to form as yesterday. We did end up with a big group, including Van Gils (BdC), Shaw (PTM), Bettiol (PTM/CHX), Asgreen (CJO/GNH/MCB), Petit (CFA), and Wright (SOS/MCB). They never got much time on the long flat stretch of the stage however. At the foot of the 17 km climb to the Grand Colombier the break was about 3'50" ahead of the peloton.

Even so the winner did come from the break, with Van Gils also managing to stay ahead of the favourites and Shaw ending in 7th place, being only overtaken by four of the GC favourites: Pogacar, Vingegaard, Pidcock (SOS/VFL/ATX/GHS/DED), and Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB). Pogacar won another couple of seconds on Vingegaard, but not enough to take over the lead in the general classification. The difference between them is only 9 seconds now, but the coming days could potentially lead to much bigger timegaps. We just don't know in whose favour. Simon (CJO/SOS) and Adam (SOS/KIN/ATX) Yates also ended up in the top 10 and both gained a spot in GC. Many of the other GC riders disappointed and lost time compared to their competitors.

Sadly, along the way there was some bad news for Dead Last, as Caleb Ewan gave up, knowing he wasn't gonna be able to make the time limit. For pure sprinters like him it's always a bit of a question whether they will make it through the mountain stages. Still, this is a big miss for Dead Last, as he would almost certainly have scored points in the final days of the tour if he would have managed to survive the next couple of mountain stage as well.

The most points were scored by BdC today due to the strong performance by Van Gils, with Gagnheirs also getting a good result, still . The other two teams with both Pogacar and Vingegaard (Cjovani and Fiescha) also scored well of course, but lost valuable ground in the race for the top spot. GHST solidified their fifth place, and Port Maxhestic climbed to 6th place. Despite the heat, the Cabana Boys had another bad day.

Standings after stage 13:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	4887	+679
2nd	(+1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	4330	+509
3rd	(-1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	4283	+455
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	4097	+605
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3715	+546
6th	(+2)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3418	+454
7th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	3413	+392
8th	(-2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3336	+313
9th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	3090	+377
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2898	+316
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2828	+308
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2678	+290
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2381	+201

We aren't leaving the alps anytime soon. Tomorrow we have a challenging mountain stage, with 3 category one climbs and another hors category summit as well followed by a downhill finish. Only very strong climbers will have a chance tomorrow. The question is what the GC favourites will do. Will they strategically wait until the final climb to attack or will one of try to break the other much earlier than that. In the latter case, tomorrow may well decide the tour.

Oh, and we're watching the finish on discord tomorrow (around 17:00 CEST/10:00 TST), so be there!

Time for a quick update on projected end-of-tour classification points:

Gangheirs 1930
BdC 1710
Fiescha 1640
Cjovani 1610
GHST 1510
Port Maxhestic 1230
Kinetic 1200
Cantzeleria 1170
Velociposse 1170
Cyclohexane 1070
Dead Last 1025
Averatxeirs 915
Cabana Boys 635

The teams with both Vingegaard and Pogacar are still expected to get the most bonus points at the end, since they are the current 1 and 2 in the standings. Of those four teams, only Gagnheirs also has the current number 3, Hindley. This puts them in a great position. The final points alone won't be enough to win (although enough to overtake Naziun Cjovani), but it is also a great starting point for scoring more points in the coming mountain stages. Of course that does depend on Hindley keeping his third place, which became more likely today, but isnt at all guaranteed. Also, BdC has the big advantage of having Philipsen to score point in the final couple of days.

Big crash (20-ish riders) at the start.

Abandon Meintjes (GHS) :(

Van Gils (BDC), Petit (CFA) continuing but not looking great either.

Abandon Bardet (CFA/PTM/ATX/MCB)

Shaw (PTM) also crashed. Not sure if he'll continue. Edit: No :(

What's happening today???

Are there always so many crashes that take people out? Seems like there were a lot in the last leg too.

Cycling is an unpredictable sport. There is always a few crashes, a couple of mechanicals, maybe some illness. This year has been weird and we still have Spain to get through.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 15, 2023, 05:04:43 PMAre there always so many crashes that take people out? Seems like there were a lot in the last leg too.

Last leg we definitely had way more dropouts than normal. I think so far this tour had relatively few dropouts (still some pretty unfortunate ones), but then yesterday was really bad.

Sorry about no update yesterday. No point in writing the recap and implications for TCAT now, since the update for today is coming, but a few additional words on abandons:

Meintjes (GHS) abandoned after a freak mass crash in the opening stages, due to a broken collarbone. Petit (CFA) was also involved but heroically got to the finish.

Bardet (CFA/PTM/ATX/MCB) and Shaw (PTM) also abandoned due to a subsequent crash with each other. As far as I understand, both suffered a concussion but no other injuries thankfully.

Standings after stage 14:
                                                           

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	5553	+666
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	4909	+579
3rd	(+1)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	4868	+771
4th	(-1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	4812	+529
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4163	+448
6th	(+1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	3891	+478
7th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3872	+454
8th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3813	+477
9th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	3512	+422
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	3402	+504
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	3346	+518
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3062	+384
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2590	+209

Stage 15 Les Gets les Portes du Soleil -> Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc

Second rest day today, so I hope you all don't mind if I do yesterday's summary a bit later than planned.

Yesterday we got another alpine mountain stage. No hors category climbs, but still plenty of ups and downs including a nasty steep section with percentages up to 17% near the end.

Unlike saturday the break did get plenty of time today, unfortunately helped by a crash in the peloton caused  by some colossal idiot trying to take a selfie and turning around to take down a rider with his arm. No further riders dropped out because of that thankfully, but it did result in the peloton pretty much giving up the chase for the time being.

The break itself was very big, including Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED), who actually was ahead for a bit, being the only TCAT rider to score breakaway points, Ciccone (SOS/ATX/BDC/MCB/DED), who managed to get enough summit points to take the lead in the King of the Mountains classification and wear the polkadot jersey tomorrow, Van Aert (CHX), Pinot (CFA/VFL/PTM), Amador (GNH), Cort (SOS/PTM/ATX/GHS/MCB/DED), Skjelmose (VFL/MCB) Peters (BDC), Van der Poel (ATX/CHX), Aranburu (GNH), Neilands (GHS), and Abrahamsen (GNH).

Heading towards the final two climbs there were only four left in front, including Van Aert and Neilands. However, in a deeply unfortunate turn of events, Neilands crashed. He was able to continue but wasn't able to play a role in the race for the stagewin. Van Aert got second place. Pinot got fifth, Skjelmose seventh, Aranburu 12th, Ciccone 14th. The others were not able to stay ahead of the favourites.

In the favourites group again neither Pogacar nor Vingegaard managed to break the other. They finished in the same time, meaning Vingegaard advantage stays at 10 seconds. Just like saturday, Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) did not do well, losing time on Rodriguez (VFL) and Adam Yates (SOS/KIN/ATX), and dropping to fifth place in GC.

For TCAT, the result by Van Aert meant that Cyclohexane scored the most points and improved to 9th in the standings. Velociposse and Cézembre Fiescha also did well. GHST had a pretty awful day, partly because of the Neilands crash. For els Gagnheirs and Naziun Cjovani this was a missed opportunity with neither team reaching the targets they need to achieve to continue contesting the overall victory.


Standings after stage 15:
                                                           

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	5769	+216
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	5090	+181
3rd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	5073	+205
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	5060	+248
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4248	+85
6th	(+2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4124	+311
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4095	+223
8th	(-2)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	4047	+156
9th	(+2)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	3745	+399
10th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	3731	+219
11th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	3584	+182
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3195	+133
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2758	+168

Tomorrow we get the first and only time trial of this edition. It's nothing like Mt Lussari, but there's still enough uphill parts to ensure this will most likely not go to flat time trial specialists. The big favourites are probably Vingegaard, Pogacar and Van Aert. None of the regular stages so far have caused a big time gap between the two favourites, but they will not be able to cling on to each other tomorrow, so tomorrow could be a big day in determining who wears the yellow jersey in Paris.

As this is the final restday of this leg of Talossan Cycling Association Tour, it might be a good moment for another overview of classifications.

Individual classifications

Current standing in the general classification (yellow jersey):
1. Vingegaard (CJO/CFA/KIN/GNH/BDC/CHX/DED)
2. Pogacar (CJO/CFA/GNH/BDC/PTM/GHS) +0'10"
3. Rodriguez (VFL) +5'21"
4. A. Yates (SOS/KIN/ATX) +5'40"
5. Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) +6'38"
6. Kuss (CHX/PTM) +9'16"
7. Bilbao (BDC) +10'11"
8. S. Yates (CJO/SOS) +10'48"
9. Gaudu (SOS/KIN/VFL/ATX) +14'07"
11. Gall (GNH) +14'39"

Everyone else is already more than 15 minutes behind. The gaps are already quite big, with only Vingegaard and Pogacar realistically still in the race for the overall win. Between the two of these the difference is negligible however, so nothing is decided yet. The winner gets their team 600 points in end-of-tour points, a full 100 points more than the runner up.

Current standing in the points classification (green jersey):
1. Philipsen (BDC) - 323 pts
2. Pedersen (SOS/VFL/PTM) - 179 pts
4. Van Aert (CHX) - 139 pts
5. Pogacar (CJO/CFA/GNH/BDC/PTM/GHS) - 129 pts
7. Groenewegen (CJO) - 92 pts
8. Girmay (ATX/GHS/MCB) - 90 pts

This one isn't particularly close, Philipsen is comfortably winning here (not surprising after 4 stages). The race for second place is still open however.

Current standing in the king of the mountains classification (polkadot jersey):
1. Ciccone (SOS/ATX/BDC/MCB/DED) - 58 pts
3. Vingegaard (CJO/CFA/KIN/GNH/BDC/CHX/DED) - 54 pts
4. Pogacar (CJO/CFA/GNH/BDC/PTM/GHS) - 48 pts
5. Van Aert (CHX) - 47 pts
6. Gall (GNH) - 32 pts
7. Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) - 31 pts

Ciccone has the smallest of leads here, but this is far from over. Just this wednesday it's possible for a rider to take home another 65 points, which means lots of riders could still potentially compete here. However, it seems very likely that the eventual yellow jersey winner will also take this one in the end.

Expected end of tour points

So what would these standings mean for the extra points the teams get at the end, if the standings remain unchanged?

Gagnheirs - 1870
BdC - 1840
Naziun Cjovani - 1585
Fiescha - 1510
Cyclohexane - 1380
Kinetic - 1350
GHST - 1180
Cantzeleria - 1180
Port Maxhestic - 1170
Velociposse - 1155
Dead Last - 1100
Averatxeirs - 875
Cabana Boys - 495

Team prospects

Gagnheirs are still projected to get the most end of tour points, but their lead has shrunk significantly, partly due to Hindley not keeping up. In addition they didn't really score as many points as expected in the previous two alpine stages. As a result, it seems increasingly unlikely they will catch up with BdC. Despite the new name, the BdC runners up seem on course for their first TCAT victory, although it is by no means guaranteed yet.

Similarly, Naziun Cjovani may just be too far behind to catch up, although being more competitive in the sprints means they could still hang on to second place, despite the classification advantage of Gagnheirs. Maybe they could still pull of another stunt and get their second win.

Fiescha meanwhile is being weighed down by the unfortunate departures of Cavendish and Bardet and will need a change of fortune to finish on the podium. (Some more good scores from Pinot and Bauhaus maybe?)

After the four teams with both Pogacar and Vingegaard there is a bit of a gap. GHST, Velociposse, Port Maxhestic, Cantzeleria (who are having a strong debut and are boosted by the results of the Yates brothers) and Cyclohexane could all realistically still compete for 5th place, although Port Maxhestic has been hindered by dropouts more than most other teams, which might make it difficult to hang on to their current seventh place.

Cyclohexane are currently in 9th but are likely to gain a couple more spots due to end of tour points, having no dropouts yet and Van Aert in particular being on good form.

Kinetic Racing also would be projected to gain spots based on their classification standings, but that gain might be limited because they won't be competitive in the remaing sprint stages without Cavendish. Of course Dead Last might be in an even more difficult position having lost not one but two sprinters.

Finally, I'm afraid it's hard to see based on this how the Cabana Boys could recover from their current last place given they really have only one rider competing in the top of the GC. Their best hope is some poor performances from Yates and Gaudu and strong performances from Hindley and Skjelmose, which might help them compete with Averatxeirs for 12th place.




Six stages to go!

(https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/peloton-2/50661/0:0,1200:799-1000-0-70/20ea1)
TCAT riders trying to break away from the peloton, with obligatory Banqeu da Cézembre/Cézembre Fiescha  supporters flying Cézembre flags. (From Letour.fr)

I'd like to commend Glüc and Lüc for their in-depth coverage of the Tour. I'm immensely enjoying it this year (some of you may know what I've been through lately, so this has been a pleasant diversion.) (I've just been following their posts, and the re-cap videos on YouTube.) Team Cjovani has been doing better than I expected, given that everybody I picked besides Pogacar and Vingegaard were totally random!

Stage 16 Passy -> Combloux (ITT)

The lone time trial of TCAT France 2023 is over. Many speculated that having only 22kms of time trial in the entire Tour would make it barely count, drowned out by the many opportunities to make up time by attacking in the regular stages.

Boy, were they wrong. Jonas Vingegaard pulled a stunning 1 minute, 48 seconds gap over Tadej Pogacar, himself racing a strong time trial that saw the third place finisher, Wout van Aert, a further 1'13" (!!!) back. And this, again, was over the span of a mere 22 kilometres. (Remember how Evenepoel won the 35km Savignano-Cesena ITT by just one second in TCAT Italy 2023?)

Banqeu de Cézembre claims a second stage victory, pretty much sealing their win in TCAT France 2023. Unlike in Giro, there is just no conceivable way in which a new Cyclohexane might come from behind to steal a last gasp triumph. At this point, the fight is among Cjovani, Gagnheirs and Fieschă for the two remaining podium positions, and look out for the 5-team fight for fifth place too, to decide who's going to be best among the teams who didn't pick both Pogacar and Vingegaard. Only 56 points separate 5th and 8th, with Cyclohexane in 9th place on the up and up who will likely benefit by a larger boost from post-Tour points.

Standings after stage 16:
                                                           

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	6415	+646
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	5716	+626
3rd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	5629	+556
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	5536	+476
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4485	+237
6th	(+2)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	4476	+429
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4438	+343
8th	(-2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4429	+305
9th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	4216	+471
10th	(+1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4029	+445
11th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	4008	+277
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3405	+210
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2899	+141

With a lead of two minutes over Pogacar, Vingegaard is now a strong favourite for the overall win. It's not over, but if Pogacar is to claim the yellow jersey, a major attack has to happen tomorrow, in this Tour's queen stage. Stage 18 is for sprinters, stage 19 is probably for a breakaway, and stage 20 doesn't seem hard enough for a last gasp attack to gain much time back.

(https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/pp-et17-loze-courchevel-web-1500-px/45658/0:0,1500:1360-960-0-90/c66f5)
Tomorrow's finish...

Stage 17 Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc -> Courchevel

"I'm gone. I'm dead" - Tadej Pogacar, July 19th, 2023, through his team radio, about 4 km from the summit of Col de La Loze.

The queen stage of this edition of the Talossan Cycling Association Tour started with two first category summits. We got a massive break, including several riders who are high placed in GC. Gaudu, Pinot, Gall, O'Connor, Peters, Simon Yates, Neilands, Skjelmose, Ciccone, Alaphilippe, Benoot, Bilbao, Cort, and Mühlberger were among the names represented. Ciccone, managed to score the most King of the Mountains points in the first half of the stage.

There was some bad news for Cézembre Fiescha, as Bauhaus abandoned after being dropped from the peloton early. Not sure what happened there. Maybe he was just exhausted and didn't see a path to finishing within the time limit. Either way it's yet another blow to Fiescha who are now missing both sprinters in the final sprint stages.

The second half of the stage focused on the terrifying Col de la Loze, a relentless 28 km climb with some ridiculously steep sections. Felix Gall (GNH) was the strongest in the break, scoring loads of KOM points on the summit and winning the stage. Out of the break, Simon Yates (CJO/SOS), Bilbao (BDC), and Gaudu (SOS/KIN/VFL/ATX) also did well, finishing in the top five on a day where big time differences were made in GC.

Behind them the real spectacle happened. Until yesterday Vingegaard and Pogacar had been neck and neck, but it is clear now that Vingegaard has survived the grueling three weeks better than Pogacar, whose energy reserves turned out to be empty today. He was dropped from the group including Vingegaard (who ended in fourth place today) on the Col de la Loze and started falling behind so quickly that at one point even his second place in GC looked shaky. Pogacar finished 7'37" behind Gall and 5'45" behind Vingegaard. As a result Vingegaard has a comfortable lead now. If he makes it to Paris, he will win the tour.

With the General and Points classification basically decided, only the fight for the King of the Mountains classification remains close. Ciccone is in the lead with 88 points, but Gall and Vingegaard are close behind with 82 and 81 respectively. There is one mountain stage to go, on saturday, which will likely decide which of these three gets to wear the Polkadot Jersey in Paris.

As for TCAT, Els Gagnheirs won the most points today, but not enough to threaten BdC for the final victory. The battle for second place will still be interesting though as Els Gagnheirs now lead Naziun Cjovani by a single point. Els Gagnheirs are likely to get more end-of-tour points, but Naziun Cjovani will score more points in the sprint stage that are about to come, so this could go either way.

The results by Yates and Gaudu meant that els cantzeleria also had a great day, regaining fifth place in the standings. GHST meanwhile had another poor day and drop back to 7th place, which interestingly enough means they are exactly tied with Cyclohexane now. Talk about family rivalry...

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	6928	+513
2nd	(+1)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	6207	+578
3rd	(-1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	6206	+490
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	5838	+302
5th	(+1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	5013	+537
6th	(+2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4753	+324
7th	(-2)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4608	+123
7th	(+2)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	4608	+392
9th	(-2)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4589	+151
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4511	+482
11th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	4312	+304
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3707	+302
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3033	+134

Tomorrow we finally leave the Alps, heading to the northwest for a stage that is only slightly hilly and seems well suited for a bunch sprint. Of course, quite a number of sprinters including Ewan and Bauhaus did not manage to get across the alps, which reduces the number of candidates for the stage victory, but maybe opens up a very slim possibility for a break to pull of an upset, as there will be fewer teams chasing. Still a bunch sprint seems the most likely option. We'll have to find out if five challenging alpine days have affected the form of the remaining sprinters.

Stage 18 Moûtiers -> Bourg-en-Bresse

In a TCAT 2023 that seemed to be inexorably marching towards inevitability - specifically Philipsen (BDC) as the dominator of sprint stages, and Banqeu da Cézembre as the all-but-certain winner - we are still getting a few surprises along the way!

Specifically, a trio made up of non-TCAT Vincent Campenaerts and Gagnheirs duo Jonas Abrahamsen and Kasper Asgreen (also CJO/MCB) pulled away as the seemingly doomed small breakaway of most flat stages destined for a bunch sprint. Not this one, though! After being joined by Pascal Eenkhoorn with 25km to spare, the breakaway actually barely made it to the finish line over a charging peloton, largely due to Campenaerts's heroic effort pulling in front for over a kilometer before the final stretch.

Ultimately it is Asgreen who prevailed, over Eenkhoorn and Abrahamsen. Philipsen had to settle for fourth, with Pedersen (SOS/VFL/PTM) fifth. The result is a huge win for Gagnheirs, who make up over 300 points on Banqeu da Cézembre on the latter's turf thanks to Asgreen and Abrahamsen, and may have suddenly swung TCAT wide open again. (Incidentally, ending up 17th!!! out of 30501 Velogames users! This has to be one of the best performances in TCAT history when compared to the whole Velogames playerbase.)

By the way, two TCAT riders didn't start today: Anthony Perez (CJO/GHS) and much more importantly, Wout van Aert (CHX), who is back to Belgium to be by his wife for the birth of his second child. This leaves Gagnheirs and Banqeu da Cézembre as the only complete rosters.

(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/725A/production/_130447292_8b01a85ca9ba8998d6b55b5c141c3b539b368637.jpg)
LTR: Abrahamsen, Asgreen and Eenkhoorn, with the peloton a mere ten meters behind


Standings after stage 18:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	7204	+276
2nd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	6815	+608
3rd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	6578	+372
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	5930	+92
5th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	5218	+205
6th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5030	+277
7th	(+2)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4792	+203
8th	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	4710	+102
9th	(+1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4695	+184
10th	(-2)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4675	+67
11th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	4472	+160
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3778	+71
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3315	+282

We're left with two likely breakaway stages, one hilly and one mountainous, and the Champs Elysees sprint finale on Sunday. With Gagnheirs stronger in the mountains and Banqeu de Cézembre being favoured on the flat stuff, might this come down to whom between Felix Gall (GNH) and Giulio Ciccone (BDC et al.) wins a very tight race for the King of Mountains classification? Or will TCAT be decided by another instance of either team overperforming on what are supposed to be the other's strong points?

Stay tuned to find out!

In previous editions, I tried to pick an all-around team.  My guess was that I'd be more likely to win by picking overlooked folks instead of the high-point stars.  I thought that would maximize the circumstances needed to get lucky: don't try to pick the best of the best, since I have no ability to distinguish cycling talent, and instead just roll the dice with people who wouldn't be on other rosters.  This didn't turn out to be the case, since even when my picks did do better than expected, someone else usually picked them too.  I kept finishing in the middle of the pack.

This time around, I did the opposite, and went with powerhouses.  There wasn't a clear rationale here (beyond "Well hell, I might as well try something very different").  It's turning out well, and hopefully we're going to be making a "run on the bank" very soon!

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 20, 2023, 07:09:49 PMIn previous editions, I tried to pick an all-around team.  My guess was that I'd be more likely to win by picking overlooked folks instead of the high-point stars.  I thought that would maximize the circumstances needed to get lucky: don't try to pick the best of the best, since I have no ability to distinguish cycling talent, and instead just roll the dice with people who wouldn't be on other rosters.  This didn't turn out to be the case, since even when my picks did do better than expected, someone else usually picked them too.  I kept finishing in the middle of the pack.

This time around, I did the opposite, and went with powerhouses.  There wasn't a clear rationale here (beyond "Well hell, I might as well try something very different").  It's turning out well, and hopefully we're going to be making a "run on the bank" very soon!

Good insight! Spending big on both favourites definitely pays dividends at Tour, where Vingegaard and Pogacar are just on a whole different planet AND they often go for stage wins too, which boosts their score even further.

Tour is also front loaded, especially this year, so you get an immediate clear picture very early, which means the bulk of Velogames daily classification points goes to the ultimate winners, not to randos who happen to get lucky.

Compare this with Giro, where both Roglic and Thomas didn't win a single non-TT stage; Evenepoel dropped out when he was the lone real favourite; and the really tough mountains, where a grand tour is won or lost, only come from the mid-second week onwards. Recall how we got "randos" Leknessund and later on Armirail in pink each for multiple stages, while in Tour Vingegaard claimed the yellow jersey on stage 6 and never let it go.

So yeah, it's a little bit unclear if going for both favourites is as important at Giro and Vuelta, and I don't think you can even really narrow down the field to just two dominant riders like at Tour this year. I personally think this makes it rather exciting and unpredictable, and should lead to more variety in team choices. We'll see how it goes!

Of course, spending big on the favourites means potentially missing out on exciting picks, which is why ultimately decided to go for Hindley instead and not miss out on personal favourites Meintjes, Cort and Girmay.

Then Hindley faded away, Meintjes broke his collarbone, Cort never got involved in breakaways, and Girmay never got a real chance to contest a sprint out in front. O'Connor built on a third place at Dauphiné and an 8th at Vuelta last year by... never really being a factor. Pidcock's fabled stage hunting and downhill riding abilities never materialised. And while Neilands is currently the best 4-credit rider of Tour, he squandered a stage podium in stage 15, crashing with a service bike that was handing him water.

It is what it is 🙃

On my side, I picked the 4 names Boivin Petit Galopin Pinot, because in french they mean "drink wine"; "small"; "small glass of wine", "pinot wine", a semantic field close to my heart stomach. Fun at the time, but not really paying off. At least "Bela Lugosi's dead"'s Bauhaus brought me some unexpected points

Stage 19 Moirans-en-Montagne -> Poligny

If anyone thought TCAT was over, they were sorely mistaken.

This stage had enough vertical meters to have a strong chance of a break succeeding, so a big break was formed, including Benoot (VFL), Alaphilippe (SOS/KIN/CHX/DED), and Pedersen (SOS/VFL/PTM). However, there were plenty of teams who had no intention of letting Pedersen get away with the stage that easy, including Abrahamsen and his GNH teammates, who kept the gap small all day, and when the time came for the intermediate sprint, Philipsen (BDC), made the jump, taking Abrahamsen, Asgreen  (CJO/GNH/MCB), O'Connor (GHS), Laporte (KIN/VFL/DED), Groenewegen (CJO), Van der Poel (ATX/CHX), Bettiol (PTM/CHX), Pidcock (SOS/PTM/ATX/GHS/MCB/DED), Wright (SOS/MCB), and Neilands (GHS) with him.

Just before the group reached the bottom of the third category climb, three riders, including O'Connor and Asgreen jumped away, and they managed to stay away (probably helped by poor organisation in the chasing group). Asgreen was the first TCAT rider across the line, followed by O'Connor. Philipsen won the sprint in the chasing group, before Pedersen and Laporte.

Velociposse gained the most points, due to its strong representation in the chase group. Naziun Cjovani also did well. Gagnheirs managed to further eat into the lead by BdC, not by a large margin, but because of the big gains yesterday and additional gains in the classification standings they are now fewer than 300 points behind in the virtual standing. BdC still holds a significant advantage, especially because they also have good odds to do well on Champs Elysees with Philipsen, but considering how fast the advantage has shrunk in the past few days and with one mountain stage still coming up, this is not over yet.


Standings after stage 19:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	7479	+275
2nd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	7126	+311
3rd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	6921	+343
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	6021	+91
5th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	5559	+341
6th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5471	+441
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	5115	+323
8th	(+2)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4963	+288
9th	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	4949	+239
10th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4938	+243
11th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	4754	+282
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3939	+161
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3558	+243

Tomorrow the peloton heads north for a short, but explosive mountain stage in the Vosges mountain range. 37 KOM points are still up for grabs on 6 summits, so the battle for the Maillot à pois (polkadot jersey) is still wide open. Ciccone currently has a lead of only 6 points on Gall and 8 points on Vingegaard, so expect both Ciccone and Gall in the breakaway trying to score points on every summit. If Gall were to take the jersey from Ciccone, the lead of BdC over Gagnheirs would shrink even further. The final podium spot in GC might also be contested, with Rodriguez, Simon Yates,  and Bilbao all still potentially within range if Adam Yates, who is currently in third, has a really bad day.

Final update on expected end-of-tour points:

Gagnheirs - 1995
BdC - 1930
Cjovani - 1775
Fiescha - 1530
Kinetic - 1420
Cantzeleria - 1330
Cyclohexane - 1140
Port Maxhetisc - 1110
GHST - 1095
Dead Last - 1090
Velociposse - 1080
Averatxeirs - 870
Cabana Boys - 445

I'm not going to the same head to head as last edition, partly because a number of spots have already pretty much been decided, whereas there is a large cluster in the middle still in the race for more than two different outcomes.

Anyway, some analysis:

BdC seemed safe before, but with the gap becoming a lot smaller in the last couple of stages, els Gagnheirs still has a slim possibility of an upset, especially if Gall and Hindley do well tomorrow and Philipsen for whatever reason doesn't partake in the sprint on Champs Elysees.

Naziun Cjovani is pretty much guaranteed of the third place unless something big happens.

The same goes for Cézembre Fiescha in fourth. The last few days have been horrible for them, but the end of tour points provided by Pogacar and Vingegaard should be enough to stay ahead of the current number five,

cantzelerïă aþletici, who in turn seem headed for fifth place. The gap with Velociposse Florencia isn't big, but the Velociposse is not doing too well in the classification standings. In fact Velociposse will need Rodriguez, Gaudu, or Pinot to improve their standing tomorrow not to lose their sixth place.

One possible contender for sixth is Kinetic Racing, who are currently in tenth, but might profit from the results of Vingegaard and Adam Yates. They need another good result tomorrow however, as they won't be able to count on Cavendish on the Champ Elysees. They have a decent replacement in the form of Laporte however, who may be contending in that stage.

Port Maxhestic need to defend their current 7th place, which will be difficult now that Pogacar is out of the race for the yellow jersey. Pogacar did announce that he wants to go for a stage win tomorrow, which would be a great help. Pedersen also seems to be in good form for the final stage.

Cyclohexane are likely to overtake GHST in the provincial family battle, but it's very close, especially now that Van Aert has left. GHST has also suffered from an unfortunate dropout and some poor performances lately. Like Port Maxhestic they too will root for a Pogacar stage win tomorrow. For both teams anything between 7th (if Kinetic underperforms) and 11th seems like a plausible outcome.

For that last result to happen, Dead Last will need an upset comeback however, as without both sprinters, and without many end-of-tour points predicted, improving beyond their current 11th spot will be difficult.

Els Averatxeirs and the Maricopa Cabana Boys are pretty much guaranteed to end up 12th and last, respectively, I'm afraid there simply doesn't seem to be a path for a different outcome there.

Stage 20 Belfort -> Le Markstein

The last mountain stage of Tour had one big open question - the KOM polkadot jersey classification battle between Giulio Ciccone on 88 points, Felix Gall on 82 and Jonas Vingegaard on 81.
Ciccone had to cross all of the (comparatively easier) first four climbs in first place to have the mathematical certainty to stay in front no matter what happened on the last two (harder) climbs; which he did, thanks in no small part to teammates Mads Pedersen and Matthias Skjelmose.

Afterwards, attention turned to Thibaut Pinot, on his last appearance in a Tour de France mountain stage. Pinot attacked on the climb towards Petit Ballon, the penultimate of six summits, and while he enjoyed a long solo ride among large crowds turned out to cheer him before retirement, he was caught with 13km to spare by Vingegaard, Pogacar and Gall, all hoping to get a second stage win: Vingegaard to seal his supremacy, Pogacar and Gall as a consolation prize for falling short in the general and KOM classifications. Ultimately, it was Pogacar who came out on top, in a five man sprint including Gall, Vingegaard and both Yates twins. Pinot had to settle for seventh, riding along with Bilbao and Barguil.

Gagnheirs wins the day, but they only make up 100 points on Banqeu da Cézembre, which means that the Cézembrean team enters the last stage with roughly 200 points to spare when accounting for end-of-Tour points. Something major has to happen to Jasper Philipsen for BdC to lose this.

(https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/07/22/19/AFP_33PP2PJ.jpg)
Thibaut Pinot among the crowds on Petit Ballon

Standings after stage 20:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	8141	+662
2nd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	7888	+762
3rd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	7572	+651
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	6642	+621
5th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	6008	+449
6th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5825	+354
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	5574	+459
8th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	5354	+391
9th	(+1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	5351	+413
10th	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	5290	+341
11th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	5083	+329
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	4201	+262
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3685	+127

So, all four classifications are decided. Eyes turn to the final sprint showdown in Paris on Champs Elysées: Vingegaard will lead the way to the closed circuit among the traditional champagne toasts and picture taking, then riders will be free to race the remaining 64km, 8 laps of the circuit.

Short guide to tomorrow's stage.

Teams and their remaining sprinters, arbitrarily rated out of five stars by yours truly:
- BdC has Philipsen (★★★★★);
- Cjovani has Groenewegen (★★★/★★★★);
- Gagnheirs has Aranburu (★★);
- Cantzeleriă, Port Maxhestic and Velociposse have Pedersen (★★★★);
- GHST, Averatxeirs and MCB have Girmay (★★/★★★);
- Kinetic, Velociposse and Dead Last have Laporte (★★★);
- Cantzeleria and MCB have Wright (★★), who *should* sprint in lieu of withdrawn Phil Bauhaus.

So everyone bar CFA and CHX has at least a sprinter, with Velociposse having two for sure, and Cantzeleriă and MCB likely two. These three, along with BdC because of Philipsen's dominance, are favoured to get a last stage win or at least to score comparatively high.

In addition, but very unlikely:
- Cyclohexane and Averatxeirs have van der Poel (★★★/★★★★), if he is allowed to sprint instead of Philipsen;
- Asgreen (★★/★★★) *might* sprint for Gagnheirs, Cjovani and MCB, but likely it will be Mørkøv who will sprint for Quick Step.
- Some teams do have leadouts (like Cjovani who has Rickaert), but it's so arbitrary whether they manage to win a few pennies by ending in the top 20 that I'm not going to mention them.

What each team needs to do in terms of stage points tomorrow to improve their position, when accounting for end-of-Tour points:
- Gagnheirs needs about 200 points on BdC to win TCAT France;
- Kinetic is virtually 7th, and needs about 80 points on Velociposse to get 6th;
- There's a three-way race for 8th-9th-10th between Port Maxhestic, GHST and Cyclohexane. GHST needs about 50 points on PTM, while CHX needs about 70.

All other teams are pretty much assured of finishing where they stand now.

Quote from: Sir Lüc on July 22, 2023, 02:56:31 PM(https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/07/22/19/AFP_33PP2PJ.jpg)
Thibaut Pinot among the crowds on Petit Ballon

Sign says "I have a sign" 😁

Party at Banqeu da Cézembre HQ!

Before the official final results and the celebration of the winning teams, a  great thanks to Sir Lüc and Glüc for the organisation, the detailed comments and TCAT progress updates everyday and the sharing of their contagious passion.

Personally, I think TCAT is the greatest thing to happen in Talossa. I'm very pleased to be part of this.

Stage 21 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines -> Paris

As expected, not much racing happened during the first half of the final stage on sunday. Jersey winners celebrated their achievements, champaign was drunk, photos were taken, etc, while the peloton moved at a leasurely pace towards Paris. Once the tour arrived at the famous Champs Elysees for the first lap, however, things started to get serious as there was still a stage (and potentially even the overall team victory in TCAT) to be won. Several riders tried to win by attacking, most notably including Tadej Pogacar, who may have come second overall, but also made the tour really fun to watch due to his attacking style.

All these attempts ended nowhere however and the peloton geared up for a sprint. Philipsen (BDC) missed out on the stage win and got second place. Groenewegen (CJO) came in third, followed by Pedersen (SOS/VFL/PTM), with Girmay (ATX/GHS/MCB) finishing in sixth place. BdC scored the most points of the stage due to Philipsens result. Of course, even if BdC hadn't done well, els Gagnheirs would have had to score big here to overtake them.

Standings after stage 21:
NOT INCLUDING END-OF-TOUR POINTS!
(These points actually will cause the final order to change, so stay tuned for the final results)
   

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	8466	+325
2nd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	8060	+172
3rd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	7862	+290
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	6756	+114
5th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	6245	+237
6th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	6051	+226
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	5823	+249
8th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	5556	+202
9th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	5455	+104
10th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	5390	+100
11th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	5165	+82
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	4377	+176
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3836	+151

The stage was of course followed by award ceremonies and celebrations. In the end, Vingegaard managed to do the full 3406 kilometers in 82 hours, 5 minutes, 42 seconds. That is 7 minutes and 29 seconds faster than Pogacar. Of the 9 * 13 = 55 TCAT riders, 44 finished the race. That includes Adrien Petit (CFA) , who managed to finish despite crashing hard in stage 23, taking only 5 hours, 42 minutes longer than Vingegaard, the slowest of all TCAT riders but still an impressive performance.

(https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/podium-maillots/52189/0:0,1200:800-1000-0-70/6b651)
The winners of the four jerseys on the podium in paris:
Vingegaard (CJO/CFA/KIN/GNH/BDC/CHX/DED), yellow jersey, general classifcation
Philipsen (BDC), green jersey, points classification;
Ciccone (SOS/ATX/BDC/MCB/DED), polkadot jersey, mountain classification
Pogacar (CJO/CFA/GNH/BDC/PTM/GHS), white jersey, young rider classification

(Or in other words, a BdC team photo ;) )

(https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/louvre-2/52092/0:0,1200:799-1000-0-70/3b74f)
TCAT at the Louvre

(https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/peloton-10/52118/0:0,1200:800-1000-0-70/45b1e)
TCAT peloton gearing up for the final sprint.

All photos from letour.fr

I'm sorry I wasnt able to post the stage 21 result yesterday. I was both busy and not feeling too well. Stay tuned for the full results. It may take a few days to post all these.

In the meantime, many thanks to everyone who participated and also to everyone who posted here to share their thoughts. Knowing that people are following and are invested in this really makes this fun to do and makes all the effort worth it.

And of course, many thanks to Lüc again for sharing hosting duties with me and for his many other contributions.

(As a sidenote, I hope the centraseira we recorded before the start of this edition still gets released at some point, even if its maybe a bit less relevant now. It was fun doing it anyway.)

RESULTS OF THE TALOSSAN CYCLING ASSOCIATION TOUR 2023 LEG 2: BILBAO -> PARIS

13:


Team:
Hindley 1483
Ciccone 697
Skjelmose 594
Asgreen 531
Girmay 406
Bardet 317 [ab: stage 14]
Wright 206
Cort 20
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The tour started out bad for the Cabana Boys, with Mas crashing. However, where other teams recovered from a bad start, the Maricopans never really got going. Asgreen winning a stage and Ciccone winning the polkadot jersey were some late highlights, but by that time it was already clear the Boys would be carrying the red lantern in Paris, especially since Bardet dropping out and Hindley underperforming in the final week and dropping to 7th in GC meant that not too many end-of-tour points were going to be scored either

12:


Team:
A. Yates 1868
Pidcock 940
Gaudu 866
Ciccone 697
Girmay 406
Bardet 317 [ab: stage 14]
Van der Poel 165
Cort 20
Carapaz 0 [ab: stage 1]

Bonus points to els averatxeirs for sticking to the smallest stdev strategy and making the competition more interesting. Scorewise, it did not work out however. There were a lot of similarities to the performance of the Cabana Boys here, except it was Carapaz who dropped out in the same crash as Mas on the first day. The difference that stopped Averatxeirs from being last this time mostly came from Yates, who won the first stage and had a pretty strong tour after that, finishing on the podium.

As a sidenote, I was wondering how far you could have gotten with the averatxeir strategy if you stuck to the same credit distribution but optimal picks.

Turns out the answer is 7845, enough for 5th place.

That would have required picking Laporte instead of Cort (both 8c unclassed), Simon Yates instead of Ciccone (both 10c climbers) and Philipsen instead of Gaudu as wildcard (both 14c).

If you include any strategy without Pogacar or Vingegaard I think the optimal team would have scored 12001, more than enough to win overall (though still fewer points than the optimal team with Pogacar).

Of course thats all in hindsight. In practical terms getting a high score without these two feels a lot more challenging, because you need all your picks to be good.

11:


Team:
Vingegaard 2946
Pidcock 940
Ciccone 697
Laporte 510
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Ewan 391 [ab: stage 13]
Alaphilippe 222
Bernal 126
Cort 20

After a strong debut in the previous leg, the pessimistic Vuodeans performed ok in the first week as a solid sprint team with both Ewan and Cavendish close to stage victories. However after that things turned sour with Cavendish crashing and Ewan not strong enough to cross the Alps. Vingegaard ended up winning the tour, but his relatively passive riding style prevented him from scoring as many points as Pogacar. With Bernal not having returned to form yet, having only Vingegaard compete in GC was not enough. At least they're not actually Dead Last

10:


Team:
Vingegaard 2946
Van Aert 1443 [ab: stage 18]
Kuss 938
Majka 543
Alaphilippe 222
Van der Poel 165
Bernal 126
Bettiol 111
Kirsch 28

It's always hard to make a pick between the two cycling rivals that dominate every race and that everyone always talks about, so Cyclohexane signed both...

_{Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert.}

Regardless, the winner of the previous edition could not repeat their performance, despite picking the overall winner this time. Van der Poel really only was effective as a leadout and Alaphilippe and Bernal underperformed. At one point being near the bottom of the field, the TCAT Italy winners were making something of a comeback due to the spectacular performances of Van Aert, but when he left the tour to witness the birth of his second child, the progress stalled at place 10. As a result Cyclohexane also drops to a third place in the season overall standings. They need a good result in Spain to get back in contention for season winner.

9:


Team:
Pogačar 2979
Hindley 1483
Pidcock 940
O'Connor 506
Girmay 406
Neilands 197
Meintjes 109 [ab: stage 14]
Perez 23 [ab: stage 18]
Cort 20

Pogacar did not win the tour, but was a good pick as he scored many points and won two stages. Outside that, the Gordon Hiatus Support Team was less succesful, with O'Connor and Girmay disappointing, Meintjes unfortunately breaking his collarbone and Pidcock and Hindley losing time in the third week. Still a considerable improvement over the previous performance for the winners of the 2022 Spain edition.

Love these summaries so much. Checking multiple times a day as they come out, waiting eagerly for each one!

8:


Team:
Pogačar 2979
Pedersen 1349
Kuss 938
Pinot 898
Bardet 317 [ab: stage 14]
Shaw 281 [ab: stage 14]
Bettiol 111
Cort 20
Carapaz 0 [ab: stage 1]

Port Maxhestic notably went with four riders who also prominently featured in the previous. Somewhat of a risky strategy, as in cycling doing a grand tour can be exhausting and it's notoriously difficult to peak for two grand tours in a row. Also, the field in the France leg tends to be stronger, so doing well in Italy is no guarantee. Even so, Kuss and Pedersen perfomed very well, with the latter winning a stage. Pinot, who sadly is retiring, also performed well, although not as spectacular as in the previous leg, and sadly not winning a stage. Only Cort disappointed.

Going with Pogacar turned out to be the right choice, but otherwise Port Maxhestic was also very unlucky, being one of two teams to have two riders drop out, including two on the same day.

Some additional thoughts on the Pogacar v Vingegaard thing:

Vingegaard won, but Pogacar was the better choice due to being a bit cheaper and getting better stage results. The best possible team would have included Pogacar but not Vingegaard. Even so, the Vingegaard+Pogacar teams swept the board. I think that's because practically, picking both is much easier. To actually get close to that best possible team, all your other picks need to be really good, which is just very unlikely considering the amount of options there are. Whereas if you pick both, even if all your other picks are rubbish, thats already nearly 6000 points that are safe.

So even if picking only Pogacar was theoretically the optimal strategy, practically picking both worked out better.

To be clear, thats not always gonna be true about expensive picks. The big favourites won't always be as dominant as they were in this tour. Additionally, if something does go wrong with either of them thats gonna be hard to recover from.

7:


Team:
Vingegaard 2946
A. Yates 1868
Gaudu 866
Laporte 510
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Alaphilippe 222
Pichon 42
Vermeersch 14
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The Fiovans suffered some early setbacks with the crashes of Mas and Cavendish, who got very close to a stagewin just one stage earlier. Kinetic got the most final classification points of all the teams without both Pogacar and Vingegaard, causing them to jump two places in the standing on the final day, due to the results of Vingegaard, Yates and Gaudu. A relative lack of good stage results prevented Kinetic from a top 6 result. 6th place seemed possible until the last stage, but unfortunately Laporte decided not to sprint, while the competition did get a good final result. Still a decent result overall considering the unfortunate dropouts.

Apologies for the delay. It's been an exhausting week.

6:


Team:
Rodriguez 1375
Pedersen 1349
Pidcock 940
Pinot 898
Gaudu 866
Skjelmose 594
Benoot 593
Laporte 510
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The Florencians showed that a balanced strategy can work. Without any of the really expensive riders nearly every pick still performed well, in particular Rodriguez, who overperformed expectations, winning a stage ahead of Pogacar and Vingegaard and looked like he might be headed for third in GC at some point. Sadly some bad luck and a fall in the final mountain stage prevented that from happening and he ended up fifth. Without anyone in top 4 GC the Velociposse didn't score too many classification points. Still a good result and who knows where they would have ended if Mas didn't crash out in the first stage. After the third place in the Italian leg Velociposse could be headed for pretty strong season score if they perform well in Spain too.

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on July 29, 2023, 08:01:57 AM11:

Dead Last (DED, Vuode)
6289 points
Team leader: @Tric'hard Lenxheir
Season: 13052 (#6)

Daily winner: 1 time

Stage Wins: 1 (Vingegaard)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 5th (Vingegaard)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 1st (Ciccone)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 4th (Pidcock)
Final classification points: 1120 (#8)

Team:
Vingegaard 2946
Pidcock 940
Ciccone 697
Laporte 510
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Ewan 391 [ab: stage 13]
Alaphilippe 222
Bernal 126
Cort 20

After a strong debut in the previous leg, the pessimistic Vuodeans performed ok in the first week as a solid sprint team with both Ewan and Cavendish close to stage victories. However after that things turned sour with Cavendish crashing and Ewan not strong enough to cross the Alps. Vingegaard ended up winning the tour, but his relatively passive riding style prevented him from scoring as many points as Pogacar. With Bernal not having returned to form yet, having only Vingegaard compete in GC was not enough. At least they're not actually Dead Last

Give me time, I'm working my way to the bottom LOL

5:


Team:
A. Yates 1868
S. Yates 1704
Pedersen 1349
Pidcock 940
Gaudu 866
Ciccone 697
Wright 206
Cort 20
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The Chancery team were the only true debutants this edition, and it was quite the debut. The first stage was a rollercoaster, with Mas crashing, but then the Yates brothers coming 1 and 2. They continued to do well after that, eventually ending 3rd and 4th in GC. Other successes for the athletics from Maricopa included a stage win for Pedersen and Ciccone winning the polkadot jersey. As a result, els cantzelerïă aþletici ended up as the best scoring team without Pogacar and Vingegaard. An impressive first TCAT participation.

4:


Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
Pinot 898
Bauhaus 669 [ab: stage 17]
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Bardet 317 [ab: stage 14]
Boivin 28
Petit 26
Gallopin 16

In some way, the Cézembrean home team was maybe the most unlucky this edition. It started out really well, with Vingegaard and Pogacar dominating and the hills and mountains and being one of only two teams with two sprinters to compete on the flat stages. After stage 7 Fieschā was actually in the lead. After that, the bad luck started with first Cavendish and then Bardet crashing out, and Bauhaus not making it through the Alps. Petit also had a bad crash, but heroically finished the tour, even if it didn't score any points. On the other hand, just having Vingegaard and Pogacar compensates for a lot of bad luck. Pinot kept the team going in the latter half of the tour. The result is a very decent fourth place and a strong position in the season standings.

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on August 05, 2023, 04:43:43 PM4:

Cézembre Fieschā (CFA, Cézembre)
7650 points
Team leader: @þerxh Sant-Enogat
Season: 14948 (#4)
 The result is a very decent fourth place and a strong position in the season standings.

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230805/17bec01084f991e1d9e7018a4c91d6e7.jpg)

_{Sorry again. I should really hurry up, as the third leg (Spain) is almost about to start already.}

In third place:


Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
S. Yates 1704
Groenewegen 777
Asgreen 531
Lafay 465 [ab: stage 20]
Alaphilippe 222
Rickaert 40
Perez 23 [ab: stage 18]

Last year, Naziun Cjovani were the winners of the first TCAT edition which was also TCAT France. Since then only teams from Benito have won editions. Early on it looked like Naziun Cjovani would continue the Benitian streak as they started out amazing, with Simon Yates doing well in stage 1 and Lafay unexpectedly winning stage 2. After that they kept doing well with Vingegaard and Pogacar dominating in the mountains and Asgreen being another unexpected stagewinner. However, Lafay's success remained limited to the Basque country stages and Groenewegen disappointed somewhat in the sprints. In the end the team scored better than their winning result last year, but somehow it just wasn't enough to win again, although it did secure a spot on the podium.

In second place:


Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
Hindley 1483
Gall 1390
Asgreen 531
Abrahamsen 300
Aranburu 224
Arndt 132
Amador 68

Els Gagnheirs have consistently done well in TCAT, never finishing outside the top 4. And this time was their strongest performance yet as they clearly brought their A-team. Apart from Vingegaard and Pogacar, Hindley and Gall, who both won a stage, also ended up in the top 10 GC, resulting in the team from Maritiimi-Maxhestic getting the most classification points. Additionally Els Gagnheirs also were the daily winner on 7 stages (mostly mountain stages), the most of any team. For a while it even looked like they would get the complete GC podium, which would also have ensured the overall win but unfortunately Hindley was not as strong in the final week and dropped to 7th. Even so, every previous edition this performance would have been more than enough to win, as no team had scored more than 10000 points before. The only way GNH might have done better was by including a competitive sprinter, which Aranburu did not turn out to be. Unfortunately the result was not enough to win, although it was another impressive result for Els Gagnheirs, who might only be a good performance in Spain away from being the strongest team of the season.

And the winner is


Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
Philipsen 1935
Bibao 1434
Ciccone 697
Van Gils 371
Peters 18
Vermeersch 14
Mühlberger 10

After just losing out on first place in Italy due to not having the strongest sprinter, Banqeu da Cézembre got their first edition win by picking the strongest sprinter this time. Just like the other teams in the top 4, Pogacar and Vingegaard formed the basis, but it was the performance by Philipsen, who won four stages, that made the difference, along with a strong performance by Bilbao, who ended up 6th in GC and won a stage, and Ciccone who completed the set of jerseys by winning the King of the Mountains classification. BdC did get lucky as well by being one of two teams not to have any riders drop out. The result is a new TCAT record of 10404 points and the first team outside Benito to win an edition.

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on August 16, 2023, 02:46:26 PMAnd the winner is

Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC, Cézembre)

Congrats ! Well deserved victory, our province is so proud !