I am pleased to report there are already 49 answers to the Census, and I can spot at least a few who did not vote in the most recent General Elections. 316 individual answers to optional questions were given, meaning at least two in three people answered at least a question (most likely more than that).

People who, in the mandatory part, entered a different primary email than the one the Chancery holds are advised this change will be made as the Chancery processes the Census results, early in October.

Own nomination:
1. Eurodance/Eurodisco

Other nominations (partly influenced by how likely I am to find suitable nominations):
1. Songs with no lyrics
2. Ska/reggae songs
3. Covers of original songs
4. Songs that include unusual time signatures
5. Songs in French
6. Jazz/big band

The Census is now open for responses and citizens are being notified via email as I type this.

Please use this thread to report any issues with the website.

Voting on the September 2025 Clark (the fifth of the 61st Cosă) is now open, until the 21st of the month, at 19h30 TST.

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/terms/61/clarks/4 (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/5/5a/August2025Clark.pdf (pdf)

MCs and Senators can all vote on the new Database using the credentials I sent you earlier: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

If you wish to vote on Wittenberg, MCs can vote here and Senators can vote here. Please do not vote any other way or on any other thread.




Sir Lüc da Schir, UrB
Secretary of State

Senators, you can cast your votes on the Fifth Clark here or on the database: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/terms/61/clarks/5 (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/b/ba/September2025Clark.pdf (pdf)

If you vote here on Witt, do not indicate any conditions which may make it sound like this vote isn't final: you can always change your vote later.

Members of the Cosă, you can cast your votes on the Fifth Clark here or on the database: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/terms/61/clarks/5 (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/b/ba/September2025Clark.pdf (pdf)

If you vote here on Witt, do not indicate any conditions which may make it sound like this vote isn't final: you can always change your vote later.

Moved, and sorry about the quoting change, it was unintended and I reverted it.

Stage 8 Monzón Templario -> Zaragoza

Boring sprint stage. Not much to write about except Philipsen (BDC/DED/GHS/REX/VFL) getting a second stage win. CHX's Elia Viviani originally finished second but was relegated for deviating from his line during the final sprint. The only other TCAT riders to get points were Mads Pedersen (DED/MCB/PTM, 9th) and Guillermo Silva (GHS).

Logically, Dead Last gets a second victory thanks to Philipsen and Pedersen, although having banked so much on two expensive sprinters they might regret Pedersen once again having a somewhat muted showing (14th, 6th and 9th in the three flat sprints, and 2nd in the uphill sprint of stage 3). They still leapfrog Cjovani (jointly with MCB) and set themselves somewhat clear of the tight four-team group completing the upper half of the standings. The biggest upside mover is however els Rexhitais, who lift themselves off the bottom of the standings - so far TCAT had not been particularly kind to them with the early loss of Axel Zingle depriving the team of its second sprinter before he could score much.

Standings after stage 8:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3556	+380
2nd	(+1)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	2990	+406
3rd	(+1)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2742	+181
4th	(-2)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2707	+82
5th	(+1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2679	+328
6th	(-1)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2656	+166
7th	(+1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2282	+287
8th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	2177	+92
9th	(+2)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	2082	+297
10th	(-1)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2053	+103
11th	(-1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	1996	+94

Today, Week 1 ends with a long hilly approach to the only categorised climb of the day, a category 1 summit finish at Valdezcaray ski resort. It could very well be another day for a successful break, seeing as the main GC contenders (Vingegaard, Almeida and Ciccone) seem to be in no rush to get stage wins for their respective reasons.

Oath sent over.

Azul all,

I would like to announce that the Chancery will held a legally required biannual Census during the upcoming month of September. The Census will be open for responses from September 1st to September 30th; the Chancery will send out a mass mailer on September 1st.

The Census will be hosted on TalossaDB (aka the new database still without a proper name or official launch). Answering the Census should be relatively quick and straightforward and should be doable from both a PC and a mobile device.

In the meantime, you can read a FAQ about the Census here:


This might get updated later, as will the rest of the Citizenship and Census part of the Database, which has received a few updates over the last month. I would like to thank @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP for his help in translating the Census so that questions are available in both English and Talossan.



Sir Lüc da Schir, UrB
Secretary of State

Stage 6 Olot -> Pal. Andorra

Vuelta's first true mountain stage was defined by a ten rider breakaway including Jay Vine (GHS/DED), Lorenzo Fortunato (BDC/DED/PTM) and Bruno Armirail (CHX/MCB/PTM). They got all the way to the finish, with this TCAT trio getting respectively first, third and fourth place; Vine himself went on a solo attack on the final climb and won by around a minute over non-TCAT Torstein Træen, who takes the lead of the general classification off Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane got 11th and second in the group of favourites, only bested by Almeida (CFA/DED/REX). The duo are now 5th and 6th in the general classification, with Giulio Ciccone (CHX/CJO/GHS/MCB) just behind both today and in GC, and the leading quartet all unlikely to stay there for long.

It's still very early days though, as you definitely can't win Vuelta but you sure can lose it. Indeed, Juan Ayuso (CJO/PTM/VFL), already off a disappointing showing in TCAT Italy earlier this year, managed to disappoint again by dropping very early on in the final climb and losing almost eight minutes to Vingegaard and Almeida; his bid for the general classification is already over. And for a last bit of the bad news, Koen Bouwman (VFL) is unfortunately the third TCAT rider to abandon. Not the best first shot at a summit finish for Tiberi, Buitrago, O'Connor and Landa either - all of them are already a minute down on Vingegaard, Almeida, Ciccone, Jorgenson, Hindley, Pellizzari, Bernal and Gall, who at a first look seem like the strongest GC picks (again very early days).

In TCAT, Dead Last get the win they nearly got two days ago; making the most of these mountain breakaway stages is very important* and they almost got it perfect with Vine and Fortunato on the podium and Almeida best of the GC favourites. DED accordingly takes over Cjovani's podium spot, with Port Maxhestic, today's strong second holding Fortunato and Armirail, also a big mover going straight from last to midpack.


Standings after stage 6:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2963	+482
2nd	(+1)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2348	+371
3rd	(+2)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	2322	+674
4th	(-2)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2229	+182
5th	(-1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2071	+396
6th	(+1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1899	+375
7th	(+4)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1864	+528
8th	(-2)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1755	+200
9th	(-1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	1668	+227
10th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	1597	+203
11th	(-2)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1543	+128

Tomorrow, arguably a pretty similar stage. Will today's first impressions prove correct? Will we see another breakaway win (and from whom), or will the GC guys take this one instead? Tune in to find out!

Stage 5 Figueres -> Figueres (TTT)

Second of three updates from me as I catch up on the ones I missed while travelling - many thanks again to @Glüc for covering for me earlier.

Not much to say about yesterday's team time trial except that it was fairly clear it would be won by either UAE (Ayuso and Almeida's team) or Visma (Vingegaard's team) - it was the former who ultimately prevailed by 8". Lidl (Pedersen and Ciccone's team) rounded off the podium.

TCAT wise, GHST gets another daily win largely thanks to holding five riders among the three podium placed teams. Most other teams got roughly the same amount of points, 60 to 80 fewer than GHST, except for PTM, whose riders might not be bringing enough assist points to fill these small gaps yet, and REX and VFL, both of whom only held a single UAE rider. As a combination of the low-ish scoring and little point differences, not much has changed in the overall standings except for EVC gaining two places off their daily fifth place.

Standings after stage 5:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2467	+338
2nd	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2035	+268
3rd	(=)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1967	+273
4th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1666	+246
5th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	1640	+257
6th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1546	+266
7th	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1518	+254
8th	(+2)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	1432	+261
9th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1409	+167
10th	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	1390	+195
11th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1318	+213

Today we finally get a first true taste of the mountains as Vuelta enters a fourth diffferent country in six stages, with a category 1 summit finish in Andorra. Could be a first chance to see the first meaningful gaps in the general classification, although it doesn't seem nearly hard enough to blow up the standings altogether. It will still be an interesting first peek at the climbing pecking order, and a chance for poor fortunes to turn around as the climbers get more engaged.

The Chancery is in receipt of this request and has assigned you a single Cosă seat, to be held until Dissolution. This is reflected on the Database as well: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/terms/61/clarks/5

@Leonardo Miguel Carvalho Marques , I have additionally sent you an email with credentials that will enable you to vote on the Clark through the Database. Be sure to check your inbox and/or spam folder.

The call for bills for the September 2025 Clark (the fifth of the 61st Cosă) is now open. You may post a link to a bill's Hopper thread underneath in the usual fashion, provided it has passed the Hopper according to Lex.H.2 and you are entitled to Clark bills.

I will accept for Clarking any such bills (except for any that fall foul of H.2.7) that are presented between now and August 31st 11:59 PM TST, as I will begin assembling the Clark on the CEST morning of September 1st.

Stage 4 Susa -> Voiron

I'm back from traveling so here's a quick update on yesterday's stage, which led riders out of Italy and into France for the last of the four "grand depart" stages away from Spanish soil.

The longest of this edition, yesterday's stage started off strong with three categorised climbs, then a very long downhill and flat stretch to an uphill sprint. Many speculated this could go to the breakaway, but ultimately most of the peloton arrived together in a sprint. It was non-TCAT Ben Turner who crossed the line first, ahead of stage 1 winner Jasper Philipsen (BDC/GHS/REX/VFL/DED). EVC placed Jenthe Biermans in fifth, ahead of still-winless Mads Pedersen (MCB/PTM/DED, 6th), Orluis Aular (CJO, 8th), Guillermo Silva (GHS, 9th) and Bryan Coquard (CFA, 13th).

Logically a pretty good result for the five Philipsen teams, who lock out the five top positions. Dead Last just misses out on the daily win despite the Philipsen/Pedersen combination, with GHST edging them out with Silva and more daily classification points.

Standings after stage 4:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2129	+397
2nd	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1767	+201
3rd	(=)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1694	+257
4th	(+1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1420	+279
5th	(+2)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	1383	+390
6th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1280	+157
7th	(-3)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1264	+96
8th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1242	+265
9th	(+1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	1195	+255
10th	(-1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	1171	+209
11th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1105	+212

Tomorrow, a very rare team time trial (TTT) - only the third TTT in 11 editions of TCAT, I believe - as TCAT finally enters Spain proper. Each of the 23 (real world) teams taking part in Vuelta will field their riders as a group, and the time for the whole team will be taken at the fourth rider crossing the line. The custom Velogames scoring for this kind of stage means TCAT managers will receive 50,40,30,...,5 points for each rider they hold in the 1st,2nd,3rd,...,8th placed Vuelta team.