Stage 13 Alessandria -> Verbania

A day for the breakaway, but unfortunately once the initial attacks settled Mirco Maestri (CHX) was the only TCAT rider among the 15 leaders. He finished a distant 12th and +1'48 behind the winner. The peloton essentially chose to pace and conserve energies for today's upcoming mountain stage, ultimately finishing a whopping 13 minutes down.

Despite Maestri getting a few points, Cyclohexane gets beaten by Gordon Hiatus Support Team by just one point for today's stage win. Since only Maestri, Arensman and Bernal got (very few) stage points, we got an extremely low scoring result mostly made up of assist and daily classification points - which is usually good news for the virtual leader because that's one less stage to make up the difference.

Standings after stage 13:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	3817	+77
2nd	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3697	+136
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3587	+96
4th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3409	+92
5th	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3267	+81
6th	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3249	+135
7th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3149	+100
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1873	+64

Today's stage should be much more consequential. It's just 133km (80ish mi) but chock full of climbs, perfect to see some action among general classification riders. Good chance of big scores and big swings in TCAT and GC; the kind of stage that can make or break an edition. Be sure to tune in for the results.

The time allotted for voting on the Clark has expired.

As no bills or resolutions have passed both the Cosă and Senäts, Royal Assent is not required.

The Cosă and Senäts both rejected the following bills and resolutions:

62RZ22 - BHAID: Humanitarian Assistance to Sudan Resolution (Reconsideration)
Rejected by the Cosă 64-96 (20 abstained), by the Senäts 0-7 (1 abstained)

62RZ23 - The Sentient Rights Act
Rejected by the Cosă 44-60 (76 abstained), by the Senäts 0-2 (6 abstained)

The Cosă and Senäts have disagreed on the following resolution:

62RZ24 - Sense of the Ziu: In Support of Decoloniality
Agreed to by the Cosă 64-20 (96 abstained), rejected by the Senäts 0-0 (8 abstained)


The Cosă passed a Vote of Confidence in the incumbent Government 84-25 (71 abstained).

Francesco Manzella (MC-Green) and Marcüs Causch (MC-URL/NC) did not vote.



Sir Lüc da Schir, UrB
Secretary of State

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on May 16, 2026, 05:56:16 PMHe also spurred the creation of the Cjovani subculture. (Which he may possibly regret.) (Da Schir Day is a holiday in our calendar.)

Yeah, I'm sure I've said it before, so I won't repeat the whole spiel again, but writing and passing that catchment area reform bill is the thing I regret the most in all of my Talossan life. Not only it didn't work at what it was supposed to do, it also created a rift in personal relationships that can't be healed easily.

But also, the Cjovani subculture might not exist had that not happened, so...

I think at the very least there should be one for the Sixth Clark, which could include a live Royal Assent and Dissolution ceremony. (EDIT: but this requires an official Living Cosa, since otherwise business would not actually be over at the end of the session, so planning ahead is necessary!)

However, recent turnout has been discouraging, with the official opposition completely unrepresented in recent sessions and the Government only ever represented by the Seneschal. I really hope we can get to a better turnout, especially since the First Clark live debates were such a success, but I understand timezones are a challenge.

Small trivia moment.

Team In The Wind has already gotten three stage wins, so that puts it in quite a good place to break the record of five stage wins in a team's maiden edition*, jointly held by Gagnheirs/Mençeis (Spain 2022) and Cyclohexane (Italy 2023, but with added value due to more participants).

Cyclohexane also went on to win that edition, being again one of two teams to win its debut edition, together with Esqipă Velocostă (Italy 2025). Surprisingly (or not, if you recall how that edition went...), EVC only took a single stage victory in that winning maiden edition.

Also perhaps surprisingly, Averatxeirs and Valcürïas got two stage wins in their respective debuts, while other teams who went on to win and, in general, to take part in TCAT much more often, actually got no wins in their debut and it took a while to get their first stage win: it took Fieschă 24, Dead Last 25, Port Maxhestic 29, ex-SOS/REX 33 and the Cabana Boys 44 stages before they could finally triumph.

Today's Mençeis wins also ensures ex-GNH/MMM confirms their perfect record of getting at least one stage win in every edition they took part in (5 editions, 17 wins), which they share with GHST (12 editions, 37 wins), EVC (3 editions, 10 wins) and obviously ITW (1 edition, 3 wins).

(*: I am obviously ignoring the very first edition as all teams were new, and the low turnout would skew stuff even more)

Stage 11 Porcari -> Chiavari

A day tailor made for the breakaway was bound to see quite some action, since lots of riders wanted to get into the winning attack, so it took quite a while to get a 12 man front group that included Jhonathan Narvaez (MMM/REX/VFL), Chris Harper (GHS), Mattia Bais (CHX) and Christian Scaroni (MMM/REX). In the hilly finale, Narvaez and Harper were among the last standing, with the former outsprinting non-TCAT Enric Mas for a third stage win and the Australian settling for fourth. Scaroni unfortunately tangled up on the last descent and finished sixth, with a painful right wrist to cope with. GHST's Simone Gualdi took  8th place after a late attack from the peloton, and Bais got 11th and last of the remaining break. Rounding off the daily points in the GC group were Garofoli (GHS, 14th), Piganzoli (MMM/GHS, 17th) and Bernal (BDC/ITW, 19th).

Congratulations to the Mençeis for the first stage win since their comeback; GHST barely edged out REX for second place of the day, but not nearly by enough to take over the lead. Lots of position changes in the standings regardless due to the small gaps throughout. We sadly also have to register another dropout, with stage 6 winner Davide Ballerini (ITW) withdrawing as a result of an early crash. This leaves GHST and Cyclohexane as the sole two intact teams.

Standings after stage 11:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	3479	+423
2nd	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3424	+424
3rd	(+2)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3312	+455
4th	(-2)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3114	+88
5th	(+2)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3039	+330
6th	(-2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3033	+175
7th	(-1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2954	+119
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1737	+76

Tomorrow's stage starts from western Liguria, crosses the very end of the Appennines and ends in Novi Ligure (confusingly not in Liguria). Seems like a stage with a potentially similar outcome to today, but the Appennine crossing might be survived by some of the more versatile sprinters, which in TCAT essentially means Aular (REX/VFL) and Andresen (ITW/REX).

Stage 9 Cervia -> Corno alle Scale

Long flat stretch, with a small breakaway featuring Giulio Ciccone (BDC/CHX/ITW) and Einer Rubio (CFA), got whittled away on the final climb. Ciccone almost looked like he could solo to victory, but behind in the group of main GC contenders Felix Gall (REX/VFL) attempted to exploit certain rivals having a bad day by putting seconds on them ahead of the rest day. The Austrian's attack was followed by Jonas Vingegaard (BDC/CFA/CHX/GHS/ITW/MMM), ever this edition's strongest climber, who mostly only had to wait for the right moment to attack himself and get a second stage win ahead of his so-far closest rival.

Vingegaard teammate Davide Piganzoli (GHS/MMM) got a surprise third place ahead of Thymen Arensman (BDC/GHS/ITW/VFL) - these two are the biggest winners of the day looking at the general classification. Conversely, definitely a bad day for Giulio Pellizzari (CFA/CHX/MMM/VFL) who slips three places in GC and is now 45" behind his teammate Jai Hindley, which doesn't bide well for his team leadership ambitions. Three more TCAT riders placed top 10 (Gee 6th, Hindley 9th and Storer 10th), with a sorry Ciccone only finishing 11th.

Much like stage 7, the other stage where GC riders shone, most teams got a nice enough point haul, but it is GHST again topping the stage ranking. REX keeps the overall lead ahead of today's restday.

Standings after stage 9:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	2847	+478
2nd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	2753	+411
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	2738	+557
4th	(+3)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2652	+806
5th	(-1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	2548	+572
6th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2537	+616
7th	(-2)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2412	+474
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1400	+344

Today is a rest day; we'll resume tomorrow with this edition's only individual time trial, a 42km dash along the coast of northern Tuscany. Not many ITT specialists present - Remi Cavagna (CFA/ITW) is I think the only specialist in any TCAT roster, but he is definitely not as strong as Jonas Vingegaard (BDC/CFA/CHX/GHS/ITW/MMM), who is again the favourite here, even if he might not win the time trial outright because of Filippo Ganna (who however isn't in anyone's TCAT lineup). Among the other GC riders the only competent team trialist should be Thymen Arensman (BDC/GHS/ITW/VFL), so there might be hefty time drops among the others. So, immediate bottom line, ITW has all three, BDC, GHST and CFA have two.

 Other than that I wouldn't be sure about any other potential TCAT high-scorers, although Gee (REX) should have a decent time trial, Pellizzari (CFA/CHX/MMM/VFL) and Christen (BDC/REX/VFL) didn't do a bad ITT in this March's Tirreno-Adriatico (similar to tomorrow's course but shorter), and Jonathan Milan (CHX/GHS) is a relatively good time trialist, but he may save energies for the sprints.

Stage 7 Formia -> Blockhaus

Verdicts from first GC stage: Vingegaard (BDC/CFA/CHX/GHS/ITW/MMM) predictably on top. Gall (REX/VFL) surprisingly close just 13" behind (it was generally feared that other riders might drop 1' or more). Pellizzari (CFA/CHX/MMM/VFL) managed to hang with Vingegaard the longest, but ultimately finished 1' behind, in a trio with Hindley (BDC/GHS) and non-TCAT O'Connor.

More delayed, at +1'40" and over, Ciccone (BDC/CHX/ITW), Gee-West (REX), Storer (GHS/REX/VFL) and Arensman (BDC/GHS/ITW/VFL), but this is still good news for their ambitions of finishing top3/5 in the final standings. Less good news for other potential GC top 10 candidates like Bernal (BDC/ITW), Mas, Rubio (CFA), Cepeda (MMM) and Zana (CFA/CHX), all variously delayed by 3 to almost 6 minutes.

GHST gets the daily win thanks to placing all six of their GC riders in the top 16 (4 in top 10, plus Harper and Piganzoli). BDC and CHX round off the podium, with the latter retaining the top spot.

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	2202	+625
2nd	(+1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	1906	+480
3rd	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	1898	+410
4th	(+1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1778	+656
5th	(-1)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	1732	+502
6th	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1649	+749
7th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1569	+547
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	956	+459

Today, a stage that seems tailor made for an interesting breakaway, with a second half peppered with hard and relatively short climbs. Might be a great occasion for those teams with a couple of top tier stage hunters to score 200-300 unanswered points over everyone else.

Stage 6 Paestum -> Napoli

This edition, much like the past few ones, also features a stage with sprint finish in Naples... except the finish line was moved up a hill, past an uphill cobblestone section, with a hairpin midway through. With the surface still wet from the rain, this was a recipe for disaster, and indeed an otherwise predictably uneventful stage came undone right at the last kilometre.

With the top sprinters battling for position at the front, a few riders slid on their own as they were taking the damp cobbled hairpin a mere 300m from the finish line, resulting in most of the group getting stuck. Luckily for In The Wind, one of just two riders who were entirely unaffected was their own Davide Ballerini, who outsprinted non-TCAT Jasper Stuyven for an entirely unexpected stage win. All other top TCAT sprinters were delayed or crashed outright, meaning it  who had a chance at avoiding the accident and scoring points: Mozzato (CFA) ended up 7th, van Uden (BDC) 10th, Ackermann (MMM) 17th and Maestri (CHX) 20th.

ITW gets another stage win, albeit a low scoring one, with no position changes in the overall standings. The most consequential outcome from today is instead Milan and Andresen, the most expensive sprinters, not scoring any points and failing to turn around their so-far disappointing TCAT edition, which is bad news for CHX, GHS, REX and ITW itself.

Standings after stage 6:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1577	+114
2nd	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	1488	+106
3rd	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	1426	+294
4th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	1230	+121
5th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1122	+128
6th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1022	+88
7th	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	900	+35
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	497	+126

Today we finally get the first mountain stage of TCAT Italy 2026, as the peloton climbs Cima Blockhaus (which, despite the name, is not in the Alps and is actually nestled deep within the Appennines.) First verdicts from leading GC contenders and climbers coming up!

Stage 4 Catanzaro -> Cosenza

Welcome to Italy! TCAT lands on the tip of the boot, Calabria, for what could have been a sprint finish - but no, all sprinters (and more) were dropped on the single Cat.2 climb halfway through the stage, and only a group of 40 was left in front to contend the stage win.

The reduced bunch sprint went to Jhonatan Narvaez (MMM/REX/VFL) in front of Orluis Aular (REX/VFL) and Giulio Ciccone (BDC/CHX/ITW), the latter also taking over the GC leader's pink jersey. Logically then it is REX and VFL who lead the day, with the Rexhitais also narrowly inheriting the overall lead. 

The Florencian team gets the stage win, but will have to do without Kaden Groves from now on, the Australian having dropped out today as a result of the finish line crash in stage 1. With this abandon, only Cyclohexane, GHST and In The Wind have a full roster, all other teams having one each.

Standings after stage 4:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+2)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	1136	+484
2nd	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1113	+323
3rd	(-1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	1058	+281
4th	(+2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	907	+359
5th	(-1)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	872	+294
6th	(+1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	843	+519
7th	(-2)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	694	+116
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	324	+79

Coming up today is a hilly stage that could see a similar outcome (breakaway and/or reduced sprint).

Done!

Stage 2 Burgas (Bulgaria) -> Veliko Tarnovo

Glüc's prediction was mostly correct, but GC riders did make a valiant attempt at trying to win seconds on their peers - Vingegaard (CHX/ITW/BDC/MMM/GHS/CFA), Pellizzari (CFA/CHX/MMM/VFL) and Van Eetvelt (non-TCAT) were rebuffed by the charging chase within the last kilometer, with the stagewin ultimately going to non-TCAT Silva, and Giulio Ciccone (BDC/CHX/ITW) in third leading the TCAT riders. Scaroni (MMM/REX) placed fourth, Pellizzari fifth and Christen (BDC) eighth.

It is BDC who comes away with the daily win, but disaster struck soon after as Andrea Vendrame, one of the riders involved in a 30-rider megacrash midway through, completed the stage but will not be able to start tomorrow. Also unable to start due to the crash is Adam Yates, which sadly means Fieschă and REX are already a GC rider down. The first TCAT rider to abandon, though, was MMM's Matteo Moschetti, which did not start stage 2 as a result of the injuries sustained in the finish line crash of stage 1.

Standings after stage 2:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	555	+358
2nd	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	527	+309
3rd	(-2)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	522	+290
4th	(+2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	463	+418
5th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	446	+338
6th	(-2)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	346	+155
7th	(+1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	281	+269
8th	(-1)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	209	+181

Well, there'll be plenty more racing to come this summer - registrations for Leg 2 will likely open around 29-30 June, less than a month after Leg 1 wraps up.

Meanwhile, welcome back to all returning managers and welcome Crement!

Two days to the deadline - make sure you get your registration in, and join the TCAT league on Velogames using code 639289433 (https://www.velogames.com/italy/2026/leaguescores.php?league=639289433)

Tagging other frequent former managers: @þerxh Sant-Enogat @Iason Taiwos @Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be and others - would love to see you all join the fun again!

Azul everyone, May has rolled around and you all know what that means - it's TCAT time! Welcome to season 5 of the Talossan Cycling Association Tour, starting as usual with the first of three legs playing out in Italy (except for some reason the first three stages are happening abroad, this time in Bulgaria.)

All Talossans are heartily invited to sign their teams up! Team registrations are now open, and instructions follow below.

Deadline

The deadline for entries to be submitted is 12:45 CEST (Cézembre Summer Time) / 05:45 (AM) TDT (Talossan Daylight Time) on Friday 8th May, 2026.


How to register

Step 1: Create a Velogames account

If you already have a Velogames account you can proceed with step 2.
You can create a Velogames account by going to velogames.com -> log in -> click here to register

Step 2: Register your team

While logged in to Velogames, go to the following page: https://www.velogames.com/italy/2026/entryform.php

Here you can submit your team. After submitting your team you can still make changes to your team up until the deadline! On your team page, which you can find by clicking visit team, you can also change your team name and jersey.

Step 3: Join the Talossan Cycling Association Tour

After you set up your team you can go to your team page (visit team) and under team management there should be a button called join league. There you can join the Talossan Cycling Association Tour by entering the following league code: 639289433

(You can access league scores and/or view who's signed up here: https://www.velogames.com/italy/2026/leaguescores.php?league=639289433)


Team information

Each team needs to consist of 9 riders, with a combined total cost of up to 100 credits. These need to include 2 all rounders, 2 climbers, 1 sprinter, 3 unclassified riders, and 1 wildcard (which can be any category).

Generally, the credits assigned to the riders are pretty close to the consensus expection of how these riders will perform. This means it is possible to do well without much research, though of course if you do want to research your team there are many resources online, such as ProCyclingStats, various preview sites, bookmakers, and the youtube channel Ow Do Cycling. It is possible to use less than 100 credits, but this is usually not advisable.

A full list of participating riders, categories and credits can be found here. These should be mostly definitive, but should any of your picks drop out before the deadline without you noticing, Velogames will autoreplace them.


Scoring & Rules

The rules for the competition can be found here. Note that we are only focused on the classic competition: 1 team that stays the same throughout the race.

The scoring system can be found here. Points are assigned daily for stage results, intermediate sprints, categorised summits, participating in breakaways, daily classification standings, and team assist points; and furthermore, a sizable chunk of points will be assigned based on the final classifications.

The Chancery is happy to await the outcome of His Majesty's request for an advisory opinion, and to revisit its decision if necessary.

I should restate/clarify that, of the 20 seats to be reassigned, while being unable to allocate all of them as directed by the Seneschal, the Chancery has nonetheless given 2 to Moinul Moin out of the 7 he was slated to receive, as he had been initially appointed as a Member of the Cosă upon the erroneous preliminary reallocation, and the Chancery believes that retracting such an appointment could potentially inOrganically disenfranchise him from enjoying the rights of that office.

Voting on the May 2026 Clark (the fourth of the 62nd Cosă) is now open, until the 21st of the month, at 19h30 TST.

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/9/9e/May2026Clark.pdf (pdf)

MCs and Senators can all vote on the new Database using the credentials you have been sent by email: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

If you wish to vote on Wittenberg, MCs can vote here and Senators can vote here.



Sir Lüc da Schir, UrB
Secretary of State

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

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/9/9e/May2026Clark.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 Fourth Clark here or on the database: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/9/9e/May2026Clark.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.

I might have overlooked a substantial issue. I'm afraid that, unless I am mistaken, this would mean the Progressive Alliance allocation is:

* On-list candidates: 40 *
Lux 20
Brigă 20

* Off-list candidates: 47 *
Lupul 20
Tong 20
Moin 7

Pursuant to Lex.B.2.3.1.1.3, "The total number of seats awarded to those not on the list does not exceed 1/3 of all seats won by the party". 47 being over 87/3 = 29, I am unable to honour the Seneschal's reallocation request.

For the time being, Tong Mun Kit has been reverted to the 7 seats he already held, and Moinul Moin will hold 2 seats, for a total of 29 off-list seats. 69 seats are filled, and 18 seats will stand vacant.

I'm sorry I didn't catch this earlier - I was on a rush and misremembered the Duke of Lupul as being an on-list MC.