The call for bills for the June 2026 Clark (the fifth of the 62nd 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 May 31st 11:59 PM TST, as I will begin assembling the Clark on the European morning of June 1st.

Stage 15 Voghera -> Milano

Another sprint stage with a surprising outcome. While stage 6, the one finishing in Naples, had people wondering if the weird uphill cobbled sprint would claim any casualties (which it did), this one - flat and uneventful - seemed primed for a conventional sprint finish, with a small breakaway that would be carefully managed by the peloton.

Except that's not how things went; the breakaway, which included Cyclohexane duo Mirco Maestri and Mattia Bais, was victorious in its attack until the end, finishing one minute ahead of the peloton (aka, not even close). Maestri placed second and Bais fourth in a huge boon to Cyclohexane, with Andresen (ITW/REX) 7th, Mozzato (CFA) 10th and a disappointed Milan (CHX/GHS) only 14th ahead of MMM's Ackermann.

The 335 points between Cyclohexane and In The Wind are this edition's most dominant winning margin so far, with GHST previously putting 190 and 208 points on BDC in stages 9 and 14 respectively (and incidentally posting the narrowest margin too in stage 13, a single point over CHX). This should be a big help in Cyclohexane's quest for this edition's podium, on which they last stood in France 2024. Slim pickings for other teams, with just two sprinters in the top ten.

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4785	+175
2nd	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4396	+159
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	4350	+129
4th	(+3)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4285	+517
5th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4131	+87
6th	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3968	+182
7th	(-2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3959	+103
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2504	+136

Today is the second and last restday; action will resume tomorrow in a mountainous stage entirely within the Italian speaking Swiss canton of Ticino. It will be the last proper mountain stage until the deciding duo on Friday and Saturday. Not likely to see much changing in the general classification, but if the breakaway succeeds, it's a good opportunity to score high points for non-GC climbers (the likeliest options are probably Ciccone, Zana and Rubio). If the breakaway doesn't, not many reasons to expect a much different outcome than other GC stage results (Vingegaard > Gall > Arensman/Hindley/Pellizzari/Storer/Gee), unless we get some drama either on course, because of illness, or as a result of the restday.

Today, we reminded everyone interested in Heraldry that the Royal Talossan College of Arms is one of the many reasons to join us. On X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, r/micronations and r/Heraldry

I will be out of pocket for a bit prepping for a couple of events:

6 June https://www.worldquizzing.com/
I encourage all Talossans to take part!

13 June https://www.redbull.com/us-en/events/red-bull-soapbox-denver/
I'm on team Cyclepathz with the GONE-DOLA
TBD what the live stream link may be

BTW, I fear the Baron might have a wrong idea that I/the URL are "out to get" the Senäts. I do not have a principled opposition to bicameralism, though I come from a country which gets along fine without it. But I consider competitive elections much, much more important than the main feature of bicameralism (limiting the legislative power of a Cosa majority). Without competitive elections, democracy is replaced by "whoever puts their hands up", a self-selecting oligarchy. I would give up every Upper Chamber in the world to promote competitive elections. An Upper Chamber is for me a luxury that we are paying a very heavy price for.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on May 23, 2026, 05:52:23 AM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 23, 2026, 01:59:48 AM(b) will this disadvantage the interests of my voter base, which is usually fairly broad but not very intense with active support, when compared to a voter base that is very intense but not as broad?

I'm not sure what this means, or how a candidates-based voting system would do anything like that.

What the good Baron means is that his party is less able to recruit candidates before elections to put on the ballot, because his voter base is less politically active. So any electoral system where people vote for nominated candidates rather than just a party "brand"/leader would be disadvantageous to him, and a system where a party leader can assign seats at their own pleasure is the most advantageous.

But what I really want to know is - would the good Baron agree, if this amendment were passed, that party lists as established by law would be indisputably Organic and enforceable? If not, there's not much point.

And this has absolutely no relevance to the Senäts, even by the most paranoid reading.

Stage 14 Aosta -> Pila

Today was the most challenging mountain stage so far this giro, taking place in the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, near the border with France and Switzerland. The stage had the potential to shake up the general classification quite a bit. A break including Rubio (CFA), Arrieta (CHX), Ciccone (ITW/BDC/CHX), Garofoli (GHS), Narvaez (REX/VFL/MMM) and Christen (REX/BDC/VFL) scored points along the way but never got enough space to make it to the finishline once the GC favourites started going on the final climb. Narvaez did get enough sprint points in the intsprint to take over the lead in the points classification and the Maglia Ciclamino.

 Along the way we got bad news for Els Talossaes Rexhital and the Menceis as Scaroni woke up with a fever and had to drop out.

In the end it was Vingegaard who showed why he was the favourite as he won the stage with a 50 second margin and becomes the new leader in GC with a 2,5 minute lead over the current number 2. By winning the stage he also scored enough KOM points to take a near unassailable lead in the KOM classification. Gall (REX/VFL) came in second and also did well in GC. Hindley (BDC/GHS), Piganzoli (GHS/MMM), Pellizzari (CFA/VFL/MMM/CHX), Arensman (ITW/BDC/GHS/VFL) and Storer (REX/GHS/VFL) took places 3-7 and are all placed somewhere in the top 10 now.

Another big stage win for GHST, who now take the lead in the standing for the first time. They most likely have a big lead in virtual end of tour points as well and more riders seriously competing in the GC stages. It would now require a massive upset for them to be overtaken by any of the other teams, although we still have a full week to go where of course a lot can happen. Els Talossaes Rexhital had a pretty bad day and drop from first place and may well drop even further. BDC were the best of the rest and gain two places in the standing. Unfortunately Cézembre Fiescha keep falling even further behind.


Standings after stage 14:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4610	+913
2nd	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4237	+422
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	4221	+634
4th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4044	+635
5th	(+2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3856	+705
6th	(-1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3786	+517
7th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3768	+519
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2368	+495

Tomorrow a flat stage and almost certainly a sprint. The finish is in Milan. Will Milan be first at the finish?

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 23, 2026, 01:59:48 AM(b) will this disadvantage the interests of my voter base, which is usually fairly broad but not very intense with active support, when compared to a voter base that is very intense but not as broad?

I'm not sure what this means, or how a candidates-based voting system would do anything like that.

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.

So I'm sympathetic to the overall aim, for sure.  My main questions are (a) will this just smooth the way to getting rid of the Senats, and (b) will this disadvantage the interests of my voter base, which is usually fairly broad but not very intense with active support, when compared to a voter base that is very intense but not as broad?