2023 Talossan Cycling Association Tour - Leg 1: Ortona -> Roma

[Sir Lüc]

Brief gallery from an amazing cycling day:

1) Mark Cavendish (DED/KIN) greets the Giro fans for the last time. Definitely an occasion for a last old-style Cav mass sprint stage win tomorrow.



2) Intermarché-Circus-Wanty's Laurenz Rex pops a wheelie on the finish line. For the vast majority of riders, today was mostly about just surviving the insane gradients and putting up a good show.



3) Primoz Roglic being helped to restart after his mechanical by his mechanic and... an old ski jumping teammate who just so happened to be standing nearby. You can see the unnecessary spare bike to the right.



4) The final metres of Primoz Roglic's time trial. Lots of Slovenian fans turned out due to Lussari being a stone's throw from the border.



5) Roglic teammates and TCAT riders Sepp Kuss, Michel Hessmann, Koen Bouwman and Sam Oomen, reacting to Geraint Thomas going over the target time he needed to keep the maglia rosa with still a long way to go before the finish.



6) Roglic fans clapping at Thomas, on his way to the mandatory post race testing.

[Glüc]

For anyone who is interested in watching the conclusion of TCAT (and has the means to do say), the peloton is expected to cross the final finish line in Rome between 18:33 and 18:53 CEST (11:33-11:53 TST).

Most classifications have been decided, but here's what still at stake:

- Cyclohexane needs Milan or Kirsch to end up 6th or higher (or some combination like Milan 10th and Kirsch 11th) to overtake BdC.*

- Dead Last needs Cavendish to be first or second (third will likely also be enough) to stop Cézembre Fiescha from getting fifth based on final points.*

- GHST needs Gaviria to outperform Ackermann (for example Gaviria 1st, Ackermann 11th or Gaviria 2nd, Ackermann 19th) to lose the red lantern.*

*Provided no surprise dropouts, non-sprinters in the stage top 20, major classification changes, breakaway/intsprint/assist points scored, etc

[Glüc]

CYCLOHEXANE WINS TCAT!

And Cavendish wins the final stage!

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Cav got a lead out from Thomas. :)

[Glüc]

Cav got a lead out from Thomas. :)

Proof that they are actually in the same team (Kinetic Racing)!

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Won't be on the same team in France. I heard Thomas is racing.

[Glüc]

Stage 21 Roma -> Roma

Well here it is, the final mid-evening update of the first TCAT 2023. Now that the general classification has been decided we finally have the triumphant arrival of the peloton in Rome. But while Roglic and his Velociposse/Fiescha teammates were celebrating his victory in GC, a couple of teams still had unfinished business in the final sprint for the final stage win, most notably Cyclohexane, who needed a good result by Milan or Kirsch to take the first place overall.

In the end it was Cavendish (DED/KIN), helped by his Kinetic teammate Thomas (GNH/KIN) as leadout who took the stage, followed by Kirsch (CHX). Ackermann (ATX/GNH/VFL) crashed and was therefore unable to score points. Gaviria got 7th place.

This was the 54th!!! grand tour stage win by Cavendish, who earlier this week announced his that he will retire after the upcoming tour (TCAT 2023 leg 2). That means this was his last ever giro, so he will be happy to end on another win. It also means that every sprint stage this edition was won by someone else.

Most points in the final stage go to Cyclohexane, due to the results of Kirsch and Milan. It really came down to the final meters of this edition, but that result is enough to overtake BdC, who held the lead since stage 4.

Standings after Stage 21:
NOT the final result, as this is still without end-of-tour classification points!

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	7498	+297
2nd	(-1)	Banqeu de Cézembre Pterodactyls (BDC)	7331	+78
3rd	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	6359	+79
4th	(=)	Maritiimi-Maxhestic Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	6299	+82
5th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	5748	+286
6th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschă (CFA)	5362	+88
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	5167	+39
8th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4919	+290
9th	(=)	Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	4494	+52
10th	(=)	Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	4251	+16
11th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4080	+140

[Glüc]

It's really a rather late midevening today as velogames took a while to update points. I planned on posting the final results now, but I don't know how far I will get as it's really quite late already. That probably means most of the results will be posted tomorrow.

[Glüc]

RESULTS OF THE TALOSSAN CYCLING ASSOCIATION TOUR 2023 LEG 1: ORTONA -> ROMA

11:

Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS, Benito)
4440 points
Team leader: @Sir Lüc 

Daily winner: 1 time

Stage Wins: 2 (Evenepoel 2x)
Best General Classification (Pink): 9th (Kämna)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 27th (Gaviria)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 18th (Kuss)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 38th (Hoole)
Final classification points: 360 (#10)

Team:
Evekoel 910 [rit: stage 10]
Kämna 767
Geoghegan Hart 688 [rit: stage 11]
Kuss 675
Gaviria 449
Vlasov 360 [rit: stage 10]
Küng 314 [rit: stage 10]
Puccio 238
Hoole 39


Bad luck for the winners of the previous edition. The disappointing results of Gaviria is something a non-sprint team can get away with, but losing 64 credits worth of riders, including both allrounders and the strongest climber, before we even got to the serious mountain stages is not something a team can recover from.

[Glüc]

10:

els Averatxeirs (ATX, Maritiimi-Maxhestic)
4456 points
Team leader: @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP

Daily winner: 2 times

Stage Wins: 3 (Pedersen, Cort, Ackermann)
Best General Classification (Pink): 19th (Haig)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 5th (Ackermann)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 15th (Cort)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): n/a
Final classification points: 205 (#11)

Team:
Pedersen 1009 [rit: stage 13]
Ackermann 850
Cort 520
Vine 459
Haig 423
Vlasov 360 [rit:stage 10]
Küng 314 [rit: stage 10]
Ganna 288 [rit: stage 8]
Sivakov 233 [rit: stage 16]

The debutants from M-M had a pretty unlucky first edition, being the only team not have a majority of riders finish the race. Even so some good sprint results and a very nice stagewin by Cort resulted them being on the podium halfway through the competition. However, in the second half the lack of Vlasov really began to hurt, especially since the team didn't have many other gc favourites. To make things worse, Pedersen dropped out, Vine got sick and underperformed, the break involving Haig was one of the few that got caught by the peloton and then Sivakov dropped out as well. In the end the Averatxeirs managed to avoid being last by only 56 points.

[Glüc]

9:

The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB, Maricopa)
5074 points
Team leader: @Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat

Stage Wins: 4 (Evenepoel 2x, Groves, McNulty)
Best General Classification (Pink): 6th (Arensman)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 37th (McNulty)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 22nd (McNulty)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 2nd (Arensman)
Final classification points: 580 (#9)

Team:
Arensman 1035
Evenepoel 910 [rit: stage 10]
Groves 754 [rit: stage 12]
McNulty 566
Armirail 489
Vine 459
Haig 423
Küng 314 [rit: stage 10]
Affini 124

The hottest team north of Havana had a dreamstart to their first edition, getting second in the first ITT and being on the podium after the first week due to Groves being the best scoring sprinter. After that it all went downhill sadly. Evenepoel, Küng and Groves dropped out and second allrounder Haig did not live up to expectations in the mountains. Arensman was a very strong third week pick and Armirail unexpectedly got to wear pink for a bit, but that moment of glory faded away as well. I suspect the heavy raining didnt go down well with a team that clearly prefers sunny conditions. Hopefully the weather conditions in Tour and Vuelta will be more to their liking.

[Glüc]

8:

Kinetic Racing (KIN, Fiôvâ)
5709 points
Team leader: @Audrada Roibeardet

Stage Wins: 3 (Pedersen, McNulty, Cavendish)
Best General Classification (Pink): 2nd (Thomas)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 4th (Cavendish)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 12th (Thomas)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 9th (McNulty)
Final classification points: 790 (#7)

Team:
Thomas 2187
Pedersen 1009 [rit: stage 13]
Cavendish 672
McNulty 566
Vine 459
Bouwman 304
Hessmann 238
Gibbons 150
Affini 124

It was a bold move for last season's overall strongest team to not use the entire budget. This put them at an early disadvantage. However, a strong team spirit (I think this is the team scoring the most assist points) and a good performance by Thomas saved Kinetic from the bottom-3 and at some point it even looked like more might be possible. Some disappointing results in the mountains (along with Pedersen) dropping out prevented that from happening. Cavendish may not have gotten a great score overall, but did provide for a very nice finish to this first edition of 2023.

[Glüc]

7:

Port Maxhestic AC (PTM, Maritiimi-Maxhestic)
5832 points
Team leader: @Ian Plätschisch

Stage Wins: 3 (Pedersen, Cort, Almeida)
Best General Classification (Pink): 3rd (Almeida)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 8th (Cort)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 9th (Almeida)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 1st (Almeida)
Final classification points: 665 (#8)

Team:
Almeida 1971
Pedersen 1009 [rit: stage 13]
Cort 520
Armirail 489
Vine 459
Haig 423
Vlasov 360 [rit:stage 10]
Küng 314 [rit: stage 10]
Carthy 287 [rit: stage 19]

Port Maxhestic went in with the same strategy as the Averatxeirs, avoiding the most expensive riders but going with a solid team overall. This resulted in Port Maxhestic hanging around the middle for most of the tournament, at some point looking to even get a top 4/5 spot, with Almeida, and surprisingly Armirail for a short while, doing well in gc. In the final stages missing Vlasov, really started to hurt though. Missing Pedersen and Küng also didn't help and Carthy and Haig underperformed. Carthy would have at least scored some decent final gc points though if he hadn't dropped out. An interesting strategy that didn't fully work out in the end.

[Glüc]

6:

Cézembre Fieschă (CFA, Cézembre)
6632 points
Team leader: @þerxh Sant-Enogat

Stage Wins: 3 (Pedersen, Cort, Roglic)
Best General Classification (Pink): 1st (Roglic)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 7th (Cort)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 1st (Pinot)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): n/a
Final classification points: 1270 (#3)

Team:

Roglic 2380
Pinot 1554
Pedersen 1009 [rit: stage 13]
Kuss 675
Cort 520
Vlasov 360 [rit: stage 10]
Dennis 118
Jungels 16
Rochas 0 [rit: stage 5]


The true Cézembrean home team was one of only two teams to pick the actual winner of the Maglia Rosa, and one of only three to pick the legendary winner of the Maglia Azzurra. Still TCAT did not start out well for this team, with Dennis and Jungels not in good shape and Rochas dropping out before scoring a single point. To make things worse Vlasov and Pedersen dropped out as well. Still CFA managed to turn things around when we finally got some gc action in the mountains. The final victory of Roglic on mt Lussari completed the comeback for CFA. The final classification points of Roglic and Pinot almost resulted in Fiescha jumping to 5th, but Cavendish prevented this so they ended up a solid 6th.

[Glüc]

5:

Dead Last (DED, Vuode)
6763 points
Team leader: @Tric'hard Lenxheir
Stage Wins: 5 (Evenepoel 2x, Cort, Almeida, Cavendish)
Best General Classification (Pink): 3rd (Almeida)
Best Points Classification (Mauve): 4th (Cavendish)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Blue): 9th (Almeida)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 1st (Almeida)
Final classification points: 1015 (#6)

Team:

Almeida 1971
Caruso 1382
Evenepoel 910 [rit: stage 10]
Cavendish 672
Barguil 583
Cort 520
Küng 314 [rit: stage 10]
Carthy 287 [rit: stage 19]
Affini 124

Dead Last did not live up to expectations at all, ending far removed from the predicted last place. A slow start due to not spending many credits on sprinters, and Cavendish not really finding his way in the first couple of sprints was followed by bad news when Evenepoel dropped out. However, in the final week spending on climbers and allrounders really paid off, especially Caruso who turned in a very solid 4th in GC. Of course Almeida was a great pick as well. Barguil and Cort meanwhile were often present in breaks. In the end Cavendish finally delivered, securing fifth place for his team.