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

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I don't know how @Audrada Roibeardet managed this, but she has to be stopped.

Fiován gang rise up.

I don't know what all this is about, but YES SIR

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Can the race director get the riff raff out of here?

(JK, you can stay as long as you're Kinetic supporters.)

[Glüc]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ritirato Groves (MCB/BDC)

That's massively disappointing.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Every day Luc or Gluc will post something like, "Oof, that turn for Miravolicin really hurt him on the Vitallipop stretch.  I can't believe what happened to Kil-Grirgr, either!"  And then I try to look it up on cycling news, get lost, and have to wait for the explanation with great anxiety.

Did Groves quit?

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

Every day Luc or Gluc will post something like, "Oof, that turn for Miravolicin really hurt him on the Vitallipop stretch.  I can't believe what happened to Kil-Grirgr, either!"  And then I try to look it up on cycling news, get lost, and have to wait for the explanation with great anxiety.

Did Groves quit?

My sentiments exactly lol

[Glüc]

Did Groves quit?

Yes :(

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Looks like Harm is out as well. Both riders seem to have gastric issues and fatigue. Possibly influenza?

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

I have to express my ignorance. Is this normal for a bunch of riders to drop out in the first few weeks?

[Audrada Roibeardet]

I can't remember when there were this many scratches. This Giro really has been strange.

[Glüc]

I have to express my ignorance. Is this normal for a bunch of riders to drop out in the first few weeks?

Yes and no. There will always be dropouts in a grand tour, for various reasons. When you do a three week, 3000+ km cycling race, there are gonna be incidents.

However, I agree with Audrada that there have been unusually many this year. Especially since we're only in the second week (obviously a crash can happen at any time, but usually the third week is when the exhaustion and the little pains and aches really start to add up and take its toll. Also, some people who know they aren't gonna be winning anything, maybe because their form isn't what they hoped it would be, might just give up at some point). I also think we're unfortunate in that a lot of the dropouts have been high scoring tcat riders.

Clearly the weather hasn't helped, but I'm not sure thats the only explanation.

[Glüc]

Ok, I looked up some statistics

In the past 10 Giro editions, on average 19% of riders dropped out
In the past 10 Tour de France editions, on average 17% of riders dropped out
In the past 10 Vuelta editions, on average 20% of riders dropped out

The worst GT in the past 10 year was the Vuelta in 2013, where 54 out of 198 riders (27%) dropped out.

The best was the Vuelta in 2018, when 18 out of 176 (10%) dropped out.

However, this is over three weeks, and as mentioned, most dropouts are in the final week and at least some part of that will be demoralised riders who are not in form who give up after a while, or riders who simply can't keep up and come in after the time limit for a stage, which is also unfortunate, but doesnt have as big an impact as someone who is still in for the win getting sick or crashing out.

Currently we are at 40 dropouts out of 176  (23%) and we're only in week 2!

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 12 Bra -> Rivoli

A stage that could somewhat have gone one of several ways going in: some hills to begin, a mostly flat middle section, and a category 2 summit 20km before the finish. Plenty of space for a breakaway, but still a chance that the peloton might keep close enough to absorb it after the last mountain and lead to another mass sprint.

As it turned out, no, no chance for any of our very tired sprinters to keep up, and indeed poor Kaden Groves (MCB/BDC) is our latest retirement. Luckily the toll from this stage is just four DNS/DNFs, which compared to a combined 23 retirements from the last two stages is a relief.

No, this was a day for a breakaway. And what a breakaway it was: a massive 26 riders escaped early on and took control of the stage, later fracturing further into a leading trio including TCAT rider Berwick (VFL), a gaggle of riders in pursuit including Bettiol (CHX), Hessmann (KIN) and Kuss (CHX/GHS/CFA), and various other riders inbetween. The stage win ultimately went to Bora's Nico Denz; Berwick finished P3, Bettiol P7, Hessmann P9 and Kuss P15. No other TCAT rider got stage points, as the peloton arrived P26 onwards, but Mads Pedersen (ATX/CHX/PTM/CFA/BDC/KIN) did win the intermediate sprint early on, giving him 12 much needed points towards his pursuit of Jonathan Milan (CHX) in the points' classification (the maglia ciclamino).

As for ourselves, we have a rare shared victory between Velociposse and Cyclohexane, but overall it was a very low scoring affair, with a majority of team not getting into the triple digits.

Standings after Stage 12:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu de Cézembre Pterodactyls (BDC)	4579	+120
2nd	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	4364	+274
3rd	(=)	Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3607	+82
4th	(=)	Maritiimi-Maxhestic Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3536	+86
5th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3365	+95
6th	(+2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3291	+274
7th	(-1)	Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3150	+51
8th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	3148	+64
9th	(+1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	3077	+213
10th	(-1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2963	+97
11th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschă (CFA)	2785	+176

[Sir Lüc]

Tomorrow, finally, we get to the Alps! Three first category climbs, so Velogames points on offer for each, and big chances of shakeups in the King of Mountains classification. Tell your climbers to get ready!

No St. Bernard pass, due to the risk of snow and avalanches, so the highest summit will instead be the finish of stage 19 next Friday. We still get a long but reduced climb there, but passing through the tunnel instead of the actual summit of the pass; the Croix de Coeur later; and the uphill finish at Crans-Montana.

Definitely a stage to get excited for; the action is getting real. Sadly, without Evenepoel, Gegoghegan Hart, Vlasov and many other retirements.

[Sir Lüc]

Lastly, very overdue look at our unofficial sprinters' and climbers' classifications. Usual reminders:

• 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 12:

• Cyclohexane still in control thanks to Jonathan Milan; BDC's assault to the leadership is definitely called off now that Groves is out.
• Further behind, Averatxeirs reaps Ackermann's rewards, and Fieschă is surprisingly strong thanks to a TCAT-best 50 points from intermediate sprints.
• MCB could also have hoped in Groves to help clinch a strong finish in this classification at least, but his retirement will sadly preclude that.

1. Cyclohexane (247)
2. Banqeu de Céz (205)
3. Averatxeirs (118)
4. Fieschă (109)
5. MCB (107)
6. Port Maxh (106)
7. Kinetic (81)
8. Dead Last (66)
9. Gagnheirs (53)
10. Velociposse (49)
11. GHST (38)

Climbers:

• Again, not much has happened yet. All but 24 of these points are from the daily KOM standings, so the Pinot teams obviously reap the rewards of his early days in the maglia azzurra.
• BDC also has both Almeida and Paret-Peintre, and Cyclohexane has Almeida.
• This will obviously change greatly (assuming TCAT riders do get those Velogames summit points!) from tomorrow onwards, as Giro tackles the Alps and the many first category summits to come.

1. Banqeu de Céz (139)
2. Cyclohexane (111)
3. Fieschă (98)
4. Velociposse (25)
5. Gagnheirs (23)
6. GHST (20)
7. MCB (16)
8. Dead Last (15)
9. Kinetic (12)
10. Port Maxh (11)
11. Averatxeirs (0)

[Glüc]

noooooooooooo
Ritirato Pedersen (ATX/CHX/PTM/CFA/BDC/KIN)

:(