Anyone out there looking for a TL;DR: the Prog minority government made some bad calls due to excessive partisan antipathy, which led to them bring less-qualified people into posts of responsibility. The next Union-led government will strive to put policy and competence over "team sports".

Stage 18  »  Voiron  ›  Orcières-Merlette

We already got today's results! The first of three mountain stages goes to the breakaway, and specifically to Richard Carapaz (BDC/CHX/CJO), who battled for summit points with Valentin Paret-Peintre (CHX/GHS) for most of the stage, but unlike the Frenchman, who had to settle for fourth, he still had plenty of energy on the final climb to distance him and four other fellow attackers.

These included EVC's Matteo Jorgenson, ultimately third, and Tobias Halland Johannessen (GHS/VFL), who finished fifth. The GC contenders had to settle for eighth onwards, with Evenepoel (CFA/CJO/REX/VFL) 9th and Pidcock (REX/EVC) 10th being the other two top 10 TCAT riders. It was indeed Evenepoel's team who paced for much of the finish, unlike the usual Pogacar-UAE show; but it was not the day for Pogacar's team to attack, with teammate McNulty abandoning due to a potential illness, and other teammate Yates (MMM) struggling as well; rival Evenepoel will no doubt try to exploit these manpower issues in the next two stages.

TCAT-wise, the win goes to Cyclohexane, who retakes third place in the standings, ahead of Cjovani and GHST.

Standings after stage 18:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	8284	+352
2nd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	7917	+316
3rd	(+1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	7806	+683
4th	(-1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	7657	+502
5th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	7191	+324
6th	(=)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	6761	+446
7th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	6164	+426
8th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	5767	+396
9th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	5589	+516

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on October 14, 2025, 01:57:49 PMVolume 4 of the Talossan Book of Cuisine is now available!
I will be issuing the call for submissions to Volume 5 later this year. I hope we can get some interesting recipes for this next edition.

As mentioned earlier this year, I am planning to soon open submissions to Volume 5 of the Talossan Book of Cuisine.

@Mximo Malt You submitted an oatmeal recipe some time ago so I wanted to re-confirm your wish to include it.

Also, our friendly visitor @varoneglan enquired on submitting to the Book of Cuisine. You are still welcome to do so!

Azul, I was preparing the database for the election and I noticed that 62RZ15 essentially repeals two arguably desirable provisions (no provincial constitution without a referendum, no provincial laws contradicting OrgLaw/national statute) while leaving untouched the one that I assume its final WHEREAS purported to fix (no same person can be Cunstavál in one province and premier in another).

Am I misunderstanding this?

Two more strong groups. In group 7 the 3 and 2 points are clear for me, but most of the remaining songs could have gotten the final point (and I feel like a bad Cézembrean for not giving points to Tri Martolod :( )
In group 8 the top 3 I all like about equally and again there are more songs that would deserve points.

Group 7
Subdivisions - 3
Psycho Killer - 2
Stroke - 1

Group 8
I Wear Your Ring - 3
België - 2
While My Guintar Gently Weeps - 1

Group 7

3 - Incubus
2 - Stereophonics
1 - Aerosmith

Group 8

3 - Simon and Garfunkel
2 - Gloria Gaynor
1 - Joy Division

-Txec R

FINAL UPDATE

Points scored in semifinals
Lüc 8
Glüc 8
Braneu 0
AD 0
þerxh 0
Danihel 16
Breneir 0


Points scored in final
Lüc 0
Glüc 0
Braneu 0
AD 0
þerxh 0
Danihel 13
Breneir 0

Not only did Danihel get the winner right, he also got both finalists correct, resulting in the following final score:


Danihel 125
Lüc 107
Glüc 96
Braneu 86
Breneir 84
þerxh 83
AD 58


Congrats Danihel!

And congrats to Spain of course. Conceding only a single goal for the whole tournament makes them the deserved winners. Not one of the teams I rooted for from the start, but Im happy they won over Argentina.

Niiiice, a stage win for the Posse!

---

We, TXEC by the Grace of God, King of Talossa and of all its Realms and Regions, King of Cézembre, Sovereign Lord and Protector of Pengöpäts and the New Falklands, Defender of the Faith, Leader of the Armed Forces, Viceroy of Hoxha and Vicar of Atatürk, Azul àd ár citaxhiens es cestours:

Having thought fit to dissolve this present sixty-second Cosa of the Kingdom of Talossa, do to that end publish this Our proclamation royal, hereby dissolving the said Cosa accordingly; and do discharge and excuse the Members of that Cosa from their meeting and attendance thereat from the conclusion of this month instant. And We being desirous and resolved for the better governance of these Our realms to have the advice of Our people in the Ziu assembled, do hereby make known to all Our loyal commons, knights, and nobles Our royal will and pleasure to call and assemble a new Cosa, and do hereby further declare that We have given order that Our Chancery and Secretary of State do forthwith issue out writs and ballots in due form, and according to law, for the election of a new sixty-second Cosa as well as Senators for Maritiimi-Maxhestic, Belacostă, Vuode in their regular rotation.

Further, We desire at this time most heartily to thank and congratulate, on Our own behalf and that of the entire Talossan nation, the citizens who served in this now-dissolved sixty-first Cosa, especially thanking Baron Alexandreu Davinescu for his faithful service as Our Seneschal during this last Cosa, and all the other members of the Government who so generously give of their time and effort for the good of our nation. Further thanks are due to Baron Alexandreu Davinescu, Sir Iason Taiwos, and Eðo Grischun, whose present distinguished terms of service in the Senäts will end with the upcoming election.

Given under Our hand Royal at the city of Riverside this twenty-third day of July, in the year of salvation 2026, of the independence of Talossa the forty-seventh, and of Our reign the second.

Stage 17   »   Chambéry  ›  Voiron

Yesterday was a hilly stage that looked suited for attackers because a break would be hard to control. However forces in the peloton decided otherwise. A crash split in the peloton resulted in different groups racing each other leading to the original break being caught.

After that the stage was overshadowed by the fight for the green jersey and the points classification between Pedersen, who started the stage with a 31 point lead and because of his better climbing abilities is often able to pick up intermediate sprint points and Philipsen who is behind with very few point scoring opportunities remaining, but is the faster finisher of the two. Several attacking groups emerged, with Pedersen in the front group forcing other sprinters to try and make the jump as well in order to not miss out on a potential sprint finish. Pedersen and a few others did manage to get away and score the maximum amount of intsprint points while Philipsen was still in a group further behind.

Eventually however they did get caught by the large group including Philipsen (with the help of Van der Poel, who could have gone for his own chances today but chose to help Philipsen instead) and we did get a rather chaotic bunchsprints, which Philipsen did end up winning. Kooij (GHS/BDC) came in third and Askey (CJO) got fourth place, while Pedersen only finished 8th. The result: despite Pedersens hard work Philipsen reduced his deficit to only 7 points.

The fight for the green jersey (PC) is a lot closer than GC or KOM. However, Pedersen is still likely to win as there are barely any opportunities for Philipsen left to make up the difference which the remaining intsprints following tough climbs (which Pedersen is actually  trying to reach as we speak), which are too difficult for Philipsen to keep up on and the finish in Paris not necessarily one for the sprinters because it includes several ascents of Montmartre.

Not much changes in the TCAT standings except GHST overtakes Cyclohexane due to the Kooij result.

Standings after stage 17:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	7932	+302
2nd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	7601	+297
3rd	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	7155	+279
4th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	7123	+153
5th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	6867	+392
6th	(=)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	6315	+192
7th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	5738	+131
8th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	5371	+240
9th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	5073	+250

Today is the first of three alpine mountain stages that will determine the GC, KOM and likely TCAT as well, including not one but two finishes on the legendary Alpe d'Huez on friday and saturday.