Stage 21 (Final)   »   Carrefour Granada  ›  Granada


Van Aert (CHX/CJO) was the big favourite for the final stage. However, it was Brennan (GHS/BDC/MAN) who was joining the attacks in the final kilometers, along with Johannessen (VFL/CJO/MAN), Widar (GHS/BDC) and Vermaerke (MMM) and several others. Surprisingly, it was Johannessen who was the strongest in the end, winning the final stage after being in the break many times. Brennan finished fourth.

The result is a stagewin for the Manilows, who climb to third in the stage and secure a fourth place overall. BdC remain in the lead for now, but they were faced with the near impossible task of gaining more than 220 points on Cjovani to compensate for the EoT points that Naziun Cjovani will score after the gains they made saturday and instead ended up losing more point. BdC has been ahead for the entire edition, but they have felt the breath of Naziun Cjovani in their neck ever since the crash of Pogacar and in the end losing Pogacar, Tarling, Vine proved too much in the final sprint.



Standings after stage 21 (NOT including end of tour points!!!):
These are not the final standings

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	7155	+252
2nd	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	7151	+324
3rd	(+2)		The Manilows (MAN)	5930	+477
4th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5855	+359
5th	(-2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	5718	+145
6th	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	5561	+226
7th	(+1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4994	+257
8th	(-1)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4816	+73
9th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	3610	+166
10th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3439	+17
11th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3365	+29

Yes, congrats to Naziun Cjovani! (Update later)

Unfortunately I don't have time for proper update today. The stagewin went to Cézembre Fiescha. For the race for overall winner no change is very good news for BdC, who are getting very close to the win with only two stages to go.

Standings after stage 19:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	6679	+148
2nd	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	6254	+174
3rd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	5452	+193
4th	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	5237	+83
5th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	5143	+66
6th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5123	+127
7th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4553	+150
8th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4532	+146
9th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	3376	+67
10th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3345	+91
11th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3293	+200

Tomorrow the Queen stage with loads of climbing and many vertical meters.

Currently listening to: Vostok Lake - Office Work

Stage 17  »  Dos Hermanas  ›  Sevilla

Another long day in the Andalusian heat, which went pretty much entirely as predicted, ending in a bunchsprint, won by Brennan (GHS/BDC/MAN). De Schuyteneer (CHX) finally got involved in the sprint this time and finished 5th.

Unlike yesterday, BdC did get what they want this time. With Albanese and Van Aert further back, BdC won the stage and increased their lead over Naziun Cjovani, which might prove important considering the stages that are yet to come. GHST again fell just short of a stagewin as De Jong didn't make the top 20 to provide the points to put them ahead.


Standings after stage 17:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	6399	+298
2nd	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	5452	+145
3rd	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	5115	+272
4th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	5087	+180
5th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	4993	+272
6th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4742	+131
7th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4179	+79
8th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4015	+100
9th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	3260	+40
10th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3014	+0
11th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2909	+29

Mas currently holds a 2'06" lead in the general classification while BdC is leading TCAT by 947 points. Those look like pretty comfortable margins, but tomorrow they could well shrink significantly, as the riders will be faced with a 32km mostly flat time trial.

Mas (REX/VFL/BDC/MAN) is not particularly known for his time trial skills. Gall (CJO), who is currently in second but almost certainly will not be after tomorrow, even less so. Roglic (VFL/PTM/CJO), does have a strong time trial and can realistically be expected to between 1 and 2 minutes of his deficit, putting him well back in the race for the red jersey.

Others who are expected to do well tomorrow include Van Aert (CHX/CJO), Armirail (REX/CJO), Skjelmose (GHS/CFA), Almeida (REX/MMM/CFA/CJO), Chamberlain (CJO), Oliveira (MMM) (although he crashed yesterday) with De Pestel (GHS) and Barta (PTM) also among the outsiders along with several GC favourites.

That means Naziun Cjovani has at least 5 serious contenders for a spot in the top 10 tomorrow, while most of the competitors have a lot fewer, especially due to Pogacar, Tarling and Vine, who all would have been possible favourites tomorrow, all having dropped out earlier. Realistically that should be enough to make big gains tomorrow. Whether that will be enough to stay in the race for a second TCAT win (or even become the favourites if things go especially well) remains to be seen.

Tomorrow we get a stage that actually features more vertical meters than yesterday, but it's still mostly flat and with a lot of the hills early in a stage thats pretty long the expectation is still that it will be a bunch sprint.


The coming three days might actually be more important in determining who wins TCAT than youd think based on the fairly unexciting stage profiles. BdC needs Brennan to win in the sprints to further extend their lead. That might be needed because on thursday the time trial could well see Naziun Cjovani make big gains. Naziun Cjovani will therefore hope for a break to succeed or Van Aert or Albanese to get sprint points as well just to stay within reach of first place and make their move on thursday and possibly the final three stages as well.

Did a quick (possibly not completely accurate) count of the current virtual end-of-tour points based on current classifications:

REX 1495
BDC 1455
CJO 1425

VFL 1340

PTM 1185

MAN 800
GHS 790

DED 690

CHX 535
CFA 460

MMM 25

Adding these to the current scores it's really hard to see anyone other than Banqeu de Cézembre or Naziun Cjovani winning this edition.


Several teams could still finish in third however. VFL, GHST, Manilows and Cyclohexane (in that order would be my best guess) are all still very much in the race for podium, but Els Talossaes Rexhital and even Port Maxhestic still have chances at the third place as well.

Miraculously The Menceis still are not in last place yet, but eventually that does feel unavoidable. Perhaps the more interesting question there is whether they can avoid the all time low score of 3776. That would require about 125 points per stage remaing, slightly more than they have been getting the last few days, despite the efforts of Vermaerke in particular. Maybe Almeida could make a difference in the last week though.

Visited:
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Vatican, Slovenia, Greece, Turkey, UK, Canada, South Africa

Would like to visit:
Iceland, Talossa (no current plans for either)

Doesn't count:
Denmark (only on train while mostly asleep)

Some more semifinal/final stats:

LOVE/HATE meter (Standard deviation)

Final Most controversial (highest SD) Street Spirit (Fade Out) Wuthering Heights Under Pressure Take Five The Sound of Silence Jump Around Baba O'Riley Black Hole Sun Starman Have You Ever Seen the Rain Sympathy for the Devil Telegraph Road The Chain Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) You Can't Always Get What You Want Most agreement (lowest SD)

Semifinal Most controversial (highest SD) Wish You Were Here Stairway to Heaven Paranoid Android Jump Around The Sound of Silence Starman Roam Baba O'Riley Ring of Fire A Forest Child in Time The Mercy Seat Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Taxman Down Under Most agreement (lowest SD)

Most douze points (final)
1. Street Spirit (Fade Out) - 2
1. Under Pressure - 2

3. Black Hole Sun - 1
3. Wuthering Heights - 1
3. Baba O'Riley - 1
3. Jump Around - 1
3. Take Five - 1


Most 10-points (semifinal)
1. Wish You Were Here - 2
1. Stairway to Heaven - 2

3. Starman - 1
3. Baba O'Riley - 1
3. Jump Around - 1
3. Roam - 1
3. Paranoid Android - 1
3. Ring of Fire - 1

Stage 15   »   Palma del Río  ›  Córdoba

Lücs prediction was correct. There was a break involving Van Aert (CHX/CJO). None of the pure sprinters were able to get involved, while Van Aert beat those who did at the line.

The result is a low scoring stage for everyone except Cyclohexane and Naziun Cjovani who win the stage and chop off nearly 300 points from the gap with BdC (who according to anonymous sources are starting to get very nervous).

Standings after stage 15:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	5801	+86
2nd	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	4994	+372
3rd	(+1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4701	+264
4th	(-1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4539	+62
5th	(+1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4466	+106
6th	(-1)		The Manilows (MAN)	4453	+81
7th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4025	+95
8th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	3815	+108
9th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	3100	+44
10th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	2973	+94
11th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2847	+37

Restday tomorrow. Stay tuned for more analysis (maybe)

Many thanks to everyone who nominated, voted, or listened to the broadcast.

I've added all the new nominations to the
ALL TIME TALOSSAN MUSIC TOP 20 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

Stage 13   »   Almuñécar  ›  Loja

After yesterday's epic stage win by Omrzel (BDC/PTM), today was more of a classics type stage suited for attackers. Indeed we got a large break with all team represented, which was eventually reduced to a smaller group. Towards the end several riders tried to break free, but the only one who succeeded, about 5 km before the finish was Van Aert (CHX/CJO), along with Paret-Peintre (CHX), who bravely tried to sprint against Van Aert, but of course was no match for him. In the group that followed Brennan (GHS/BDC) won the sprint for third place, ahead of Widar (GHS/BDC) and Albanese (CJO/DED). Vermaerke (MMM) finished seventh, at least preventing the Menceis from another zero on the board, and Zana (CFA) finished tenth.

On a less fortunate note, yesterday brought more bad news for GHST, BdC and Cyclohexane as Vine abandoned. Today it was more misery for the menceis as Sivakov dropped out.

The stage today was won by Naziun Cjovani. They continue their surge and climb to second place in the standings and will now presumably set their sights on overtaking first place as well. With a full roster (compared to the 6 riders worth 54 credits BdC has left) and 8 stages to go that might not be as impossible as the 1100 point gap makes it seem. BdC still hold the advantage, but this is not over yet.

Standings after stage 13:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	5560	+437
2nd	(+1)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	4463	+496
3rd	(-1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4422	+405
4th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	4091	+256
5th	(+2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4044	+455
6th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3876	+130
7th	(-2)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3847	+87
8th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	3158	+155
9th	(+1)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	2819	+227
10th	(-1)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	2779	+115
11th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2592	+147

Tomorrow a mountain stage with an uphill finish that could be one for the gc riders or for some adventurous climber.