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

[Glüc]

Just a quick reminder btw: in the first TCAT edition after three stages the lowest place team was on 589 points

nearly 1000 points behind the first placed team

The team that was on 589 ended up winning...

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Thanks Glüc ! I therefore remain confident, even if I stay at the 'dead last' position (not all Cézembreans are gifted at sports !)


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[Sir Lüc]

Stage 4, first proper... hills? Not quite mountains, but still our first three category 2 climbs.

Well, Evenepoel wanted to lose the maglia rosa and so he did, to non-TCAT Andreas Leknessund. But it was another cyclist who took the stage win on top of Lago Laceno, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (BDC)! Banqeu de Cézembre pulls a Cyclohexane by taking advantage of picking the stage winner - but does so in a stage where none of the other teams was particularly lucky with picking riders involved in the breakaway.

As a result, they score big and propel themselves to an overall lead. Cyclohexane climbs down to P2; Gagnheirs regain P3 by just two points; MCB continue their slide to P4.

Making the most out of the situation is also Koen Bouwman, his P7 finish in front of the peloton helping  Gagnheirs and Kinetic to a second and fifth place respectively. Gagnheirs also benefits from  Top five is rounded out by Gordon Hiatus Support Team, third thanks to Vlasov (P10) and Geoghegan Hart (P13), and Dead Last in fourth, with Caruso (P8) and Barguil (bringing both intermediate sprint and breakaway points).

All in all though, just 108 points separate GHST in third from Cyclohexane in eleventh, pointing out how this was a day with one winner and ten scoring teams that simply were not lucky enough to have riders out in front.



Standings after stage 4:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)	Banqeu de Cézembre Pterodactyls (BDC)	1679	+380
2nd	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	1420	+91
3rd	(+1)	Maritiimi-Maxhestic Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	1380	+257
4th	(-1)	Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1378	+106
5th	(=)	Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1261	+149
6th	(+1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1210	+198
7th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1194	+150
8th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1069	+96
9th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	1005	+173
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	970	+163
11th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschă (CFA)	768	+117

[Sir Lüc]

And since it's my turn to post tonight and I definitely don't have a podcast to go edit, sprinter & climber catchup!

Reminder: Sprinters' classification is daily points classification points ("PC" on Velogames) + intermediate sprint points ("Spr").
Climbers' classification is daily KOM classification points ("KOM") + summit points ("Sum").

Sprinters after stage 4:

1. Cyclohexane (80)
2. Banqeu de Céz (76)
3. MCB (53)
4. Dead Last (42)
5. GHST (36)
6. Gagnheirs (21)
7. Fieschă (18)
8. Averatxeirs & Velociposse (17)
10. Port Maxh (15)
11. Kinetic (12)

Climbers:

1. Banqeu de Céz (41)
2. Cyclohexane (35)
3. Fieschă (24)
4. Velociposse (23)
5. Gagnheirs (21)
6. GHST (16)
7. MCB & KIN (12)
9. Port Maxh & Dead Last (11)
11. Averatxeirs (0)

[Glüc]

1. Banqeu de Céz (41)
2. Cyclohexane (35)
3. Fieschă (24)

Pinot gang!

[Glüc]

Stage 5 Atripalda -> Salerno

Holy macaroni, what a mess... The day started of poorly for Cézembre Fieschă, as Rémy Rochas was the first TCAT rider to withdraw, due to exhaustion, and did not appear at the start today. Not much happened for most of the stage. The breakaway never had much of a chence. There was an incident involving a dog that caused Evenepoel (CHX/MCB/GHS/BDC/DED) to hit the asphalt. Thankfully both Evenepoel and the dog are fine.

The chaos started in the final kilometers. As the peloton started gearing up for the bunch sprint in pretty bad weather conditions there was crash after crash.

First a big crash involving Roglic (CFA/VFL) and several others, which caused several riders stuck behind to get delayed. Most GC contenders, including Roglic himself, managed to get back to the front in time. However, Jay Vine (ATX/VFL/PTM/MCB/KIN) did not and lost about a minute.

Then there was another crash, this time involving Evenepoel again. This was within the final 3 kilometres, which means it will not affect GC standing. Finally, during the sprint Cavendish (DED/KIN) collided with another rider and crossed the finishline while sliding across the road. Somehow he still managed to end up fourth.

All in all a stage to quickly forget. As for the result:

_{(Posted by @AlpecinDCK on twitter. Not sure where they got it.)}


In front we have Groves (MCB/BDC) _{(in blue, centre left)}, who wins his first stage. Second place went to Milan (CHX) _{(in black, centre right)}. The podium was completed by Pedersen (ATX/CHX/PTM/CFA/BDC/KIN) _{(in red, left)}, who still hasn't won a stage despite high expectations. Just behind them we see Cavendish' bike horizontally crossing the line in what turned out to be fourth place (also due to another rider getting penalised). Behind Pedersen there is also the phone of a member of the public about to land.

All this means another good result for sprint oriented teams BdC and Cyclohexane, with BdC winning the stage and extending their lead. Kinetic Racing and the Maricopa Cabana Boys also did well, with Kinetic moving up to 7th place. Not a great day for GHST, Els Gagnheirs and the Velociposse though, because again their sprinters Gaviria(GHS) and Ackermann (ATX/GNH/VFL) did not manage to get involved in the sprint.

Other than BdC and Cyclohexane most teams will probably be looking forward to friday, when we finally get the first mountain stage.



Standings after stage 5:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)	Banqeu de Cézembre Pterodactyls (BDC)	2194	+515
2nd	(-1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	1846	+426
3rd	(+1)	Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1659	+281
4th	(+1)	Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1476	+215
5th	(-2)	Maritiimi-Maxhestic Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	1455	+75
6th	(+1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	1405	+211
7th	(+3)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	1327	+357
8th	(-2)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1314	+104
9th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	1207	+202
10th	(-2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1139	+70
11th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschă (CFA)	992	+224

Tomorrow we move further west to Naples, where the riders will cycle around the Vesuvius (Napoli -> Napoli). It's a stage that could go either way, with a finish that looks good for a bunch sprint (with hopefully better weather and fewer riders on the ground), but also a second category climb early on and some more climbing along the way that could favour a breakaway or lead to a reduced sprint.

[Glüc]

So far it's not the Averatxheirs but Port Maxhestic that seems to be the most average team (although the teams are quite similar). I noticed they don't really get mentioned in the updates a lot (sorry Ian), but I guess that is because they seem to be pretty consistently around 6th place every stage so far.

[Glüc]

Oh and I almost forgot:

But it was another cyclist who took the stage win on top of Lago Laceno, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (BDC)!

Yes, let's go! Finally an unclassed rider in my team who is not a disappointment.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Curses! Declining steadily... this cannot be borne! At this rate, no one's blood will spice my wine at all!

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

So far it's not the Averatxheirs but Port Maxhestic that seems to be the most average team (although the teams are quite similar). I noticed they don't really get mentioned in the updates a lot (sorry Ian), but I guess that is because they seem to be pretty consistently around 6th place every stage so far.

That's probably because my only strategy when picking the team was to avoid the really high-cost cyclists so I wouldn't be toast if they were injured or performed poorly. That may have resulted in me picking mostly very average team members.

[Glüc]

Curses! Declining steadily... this cannot be borne! At this rate, no one's blood will spice my wine at all!

Well there was plenty of blood to be scraped of the asphalt today. A bit too spicy if you ask me.

[Tric'hard Lenxheir]

Sliding on his back or walking on his hands carrying his bike in his teeth, I will happily take 140 points from a rider who had yet to put up any points for me LOL

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

walking on his hands carrying his bike in his teeth

Folks, this should be TCAT 2024.

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

Curses! Declining steadily... this cannot be borne! At this rate, no one's blood will spice my wine at all!

Well there was plenty of blood to be scraped of the asphalt today. A bit too spicy if you ask me.

No kidding! Even that picture of the finish has someone going down right in the middle. It looks like a split second before disaster.

[Audrada Roibeardet]

I think Cav went down in the finish.