2023 Talossan Cycling Association Tour - Leg 2: Bilbao -> Paris

[King Txec]

I had no idea how you came up with the abbreviation so I didn't say anything.

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 10 Vulcania -> Issoire

Hope everyone had a nice rest day! The peloton hits the midway point of Tour with a stage that had breakaway written all over it, but whose initial stages were frantic and full gas, with multiple groups attempting to form at various points only to be foiled and reabsorbed. At one point, Vingegaard and Pogacar themselves were in the breakaway!

Ultimately, the race settled on a 12 man breakaway with a large TCAT representation that included Neilands (GHS), Perez (GHS/CJO), O'Connor (GHS), Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED), Asgreen (CJO/GNH/MCB), Bilbao (BDC) and Skjelmose (VFL/MCB). Neilands attacked on the last climb, hoping to ride the last 32kms solo, but was foiled by a pursuing quintet including Bilbao and O'Connor that efficiently took turns pulling to reel him in.

Indeed, it was Bilbao who took the stage win in the six-man sprint, with O'Connor third and Neilands fourth. Skjelmose and Alaphilippe's quartet did not manage to catch up in time and finished 30" behind, with the bulk of the peloton arriving 2'53" from the front. Bilbao's win and sizable lead from the group of favourites nets him a whopping 6 places in the GC, where he's now fifth and definitely in contention for the podium. O'Connor finally gets a break after struggling in week 1, but even just the top 10 is still a whopping 5' away.

As for TCAT, we have two high scorers, GHST and BdC, and the other eleven teams enclosed in little more than 100 points. Which essentially means BdC pulling away from Cjovani, and GHST regaining P5, best-of-the-rest of the teams without both Pogacar and Vingegaard. Some other minor adjustments owing to small points differences between teams, but essentially a wash for everyone else.


Standings after stage 10:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	3659	+357
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3390	+159
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3293	+97
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3144	+185
5th	(+1)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2924	+410
6th	(-1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	2687	+104
7th	(+1)	Dead Last (DED)	2528	+145
8th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2486	+92
9th	(+1)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2395	+183
10th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2392	+135
11th	(+1)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2225	+137
12th	(-1)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2176	+82
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2058	+192

The Massif Central swing continues tomorrow with Clermont Ferrand -> Moulins, a stage that might favour breakaway riders who don't like much climbing (think Cort and Bettiol), but that will likely end in a sprint anyway. All depends on how large is the breakaway, and who ends up in it.

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

Who wants to party with the MCB at the bottom of the list!?

[Glüc]

Stage 11 Clermont Ferrand -> Moulins

The early attackers weren't given a chance today. It was only a small group that broke away from the peloton and they were never given more than 3,5 minutes, with the sprint teams strictly controlling the race. Amador did score some breakaway and int sprint points for els Gagnheirs.

The bunch sprint itself was again won by Philipsen (BdC). His fourth stage this edition already! Groenewegen (CJO) got his best result yet, but still came up short. Bauhaus (CFA) got third place again, with Pedersen (SOS/VFL/PTM) in the top 5 and Van Aert (CHX) in the top 10.

Banqeu da Cézembre got the most points today due to the effort by Philipsen, further extending their overall lead. Most other teams will be happy that we will likely have no more bunch sprints for at least a week from here on.


Standings after stage 11:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	4000	+341
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3672	+282
3rd	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3552	+259
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3300	+156
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3046	+122
6th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	2889	+202
7th	(+1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2680	+194
8th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	2628	+100
9th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2598	+203
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2477	+85
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2390	+165
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2281	+105
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2139	+81

Tomorrow we move east towards wine country as we get closer to the Alps. It's a transitional stage featuring a lot of climbs. The tour has been rough so far on puncheur type stagehunters, with GC favourites canibalising breaks and sprint teams not missing a single chance, even when the finish is uphill. That leaves loads of riders, including some big names like Alaphilippe, Van Aert and Cort Nielsen, without a result so far. For many of these riders tomorrow might be the last chance at a stage win. As a result, expect a big fight to get in the breakaway, which might take a long time to settle. Could be a fun stage to watch, with a finish that's hard to predict.

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Who wants to party with the MCB at the bottom of the list!?

The way things are going, I'll meet you at the bottom. Haha!

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 12 Roanne -> Belleville-en-Beaujolais

Another crazy breakaway stage, with over an hour and a half passing until a stable attack was allowed to form. Not many TCAT riders found themselves in the breakaway: Tiesj Benoot (VFL) and Thibaut Pinot (CFA/PTM/VFL) were the only ones who made it to the end, while Mathieu van der Poel (CHX/ATX) and Julian Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED) also featured in it but were eventually dropped.

Velociposse wins the day and jumps to sixth overall by virtue of holding both Benoot (P4) and Pinot (P6), while the other two Pinot teams, Fieschă and Port Maxhestic, round off today's top 3. Fieschă also reaches second place overall, but leaders Banqeu da Cézembre still enjoy a healthy lead and a good daily result thanks to Van Gils (P11), in addition to the usual Pogacar (P12) and Vingegaard (P16). Adam Yates, who at one point looked in serious trouble of losing substantial GC time, ultimately got back to the main peloton and is the last TCAT rider to get stage points (P18).

Standings after stage 12:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	4208	+208
2nd	(+1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3828	+276
3rd	(-1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	3821	+149
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	3492	+192
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3169	+123
6th	(+3)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3023	+425
7th	(-1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	3021	+132
8th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2964	+284
9th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	2713	+85
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2582	+105
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2520	+130
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2388	+107
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2180	+41

Tomorrow is Bastille Day! Just one categorised climb, but it's the hardest kind possible: a Hors Categorie summit finish on Grand Colombier. Very likely to see breakaway attempts from the get-go, and act four of the Pogacar/Vingegaard GC fight on the 18 km final climb.

[Glüc]

Stage 13 Châtillon-Sur-Chalaronne -> Grand Colombier

A lot of people wanted to be in the break today, although it didn't take nearly as much time to form as yesterday. We did end up with a big group, including Van Gils (BdC), Shaw (PTM), Bettiol (PTM/CHX), Asgreen (CJO/GNH/MCB), Petit (CFA), and Wright (SOS/MCB). They never got much time on the long flat stretch of the stage however. At the foot of the 17 km climb to the Grand Colombier the break was about 3'50" ahead of the peloton.

Even so the winner did come from the break, with Van Gils also managing to stay ahead of the favourites and Shaw ending in 7th place, being only overtaken by four of the GC favourites: Pogacar, Vingegaard, Pidcock (SOS/VFL/ATX/GHS/DED), and Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB). Pogacar won another couple of seconds on Vingegaard, but not enough to take over the lead in the general classification. The difference between them is only 9 seconds now, but the coming days could potentially lead to much bigger timegaps. We just don't know in whose favour. Simon (CJO/SOS) and Adam (SOS/KIN/ATX) Yates also ended up in the top 10 and both gained a spot in GC. Many of the other GC riders disappointed and lost time compared to their competitors.

Sadly, along the way there was some bad news for Dead Last, as Caleb Ewan gave up, knowing he wasn't gonna be able to make the time limit. For pure sprinters like him it's always a bit of a question whether they will make it through the mountain stages. Still, this is a big miss for Dead Last, as he would almost certainly have scored points in the final days of the tour if he would have managed to survive the next couple of mountain stage as well.

The most points were scored by BdC today due to the strong performance by Van Gils, with Gagnheirs also getting a good result, still . The other two teams with both Pogacar and Vingegaard (Cjovani and Fiescha) also scored well of course, but lost valuable ground in the race for the top spot. GHST solidified their fifth place, and Port Maxhestic climbed to 6th place. Despite the heat, the Cabana Boys had another bad day.

Standings after stage 13:

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	4887	+679
2nd	(+1)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	4330	+509
3rd	(-1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	4283	+455
4th	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	4097	+605
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3715	+546
6th	(+2)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3418	+454
7th	(=)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	3413	+392
8th	(-2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3336	+313
9th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	3090	+377
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	2898	+316
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	2828	+308
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2678	+290
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2381	+201

We aren't leaving the alps anytime soon. Tomorrow we have a challenging mountain stage, with 3 category one climbs and another hors category summit as well followed by a downhill finish. Only very strong climbers will have a chance tomorrow. The question is what the GC favourites will do. Will they strategically wait until the final climb to attack or will one of try to break the other much earlier than that. In the latter case, tomorrow may well decide the tour.

Oh, and we're watching the finish on discord tomorrow (around 17:00 CEST/10:00 TST), so be there!

[Glüc]

Time for a quick update on projected end-of-tour classification points:

Gangheirs 1930
BdC 1710
Fiescha 1640
Cjovani 1610
GHST 1510
Port Maxhestic 1230
Kinetic 1200
Cantzeleria 1170
Velociposse 1170
Cyclohexane 1070
Dead Last 1025
Averatxeirs 915
Cabana Boys 635

The teams with both Vingegaard and Pogacar are still expected to get the most bonus points at the end, since they are the current 1 and 2 in the standings. Of those four teams, only Gagnheirs also has the current number 3, Hindley. This puts them in a great position. The final points alone won't be enough to win (although enough to overtake Naziun Cjovani), but it is also a great starting point for scoring more points in the coming mountain stages. Of course that does depend on Hindley keeping his third place, which became more likely today, but isnt at all guaranteed. Also, BdC has the big advantage of having Philipsen to score point in the final couple of days.

[Glüc]

Big crash (20-ish riders) at the start.

Abandon Meintjes (GHS) :(

Van Gils (BDC), Petit (CFA) continuing but not looking great either.

[Glüc]

Abandon Bardet (CFA/PTM/ATX/MCB)

Shaw (PTM) also crashed. Not sure if he'll continue. Edit: No :(

What's happening today???

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Are there always so many crashes that take people out? Seems like there were a lot in the last leg too.

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Cycling is an unpredictable sport. There is always a few crashes, a couple of mechanicals, maybe some illness. This year has been weird and we still have Spain to get through.

[Glüc]

Are there always so many crashes that take people out? Seems like there were a lot in the last leg too.

Last leg we definitely had way more dropouts than normal. I think so far this tour had relatively few dropouts (still some pretty unfortunate ones), but then yesterday was really bad.

[Sir Lüc]

Sorry about no update yesterday. No point in writing the recap and implications for TCAT now, since the update for today is coming, but a few additional words on abandons:

Meintjes (GHS) abandoned after a freak mass crash in the opening stages, due to a broken collarbone. Petit (CFA) was also involved but heroically got to the finish.

Bardet (CFA/PTM/ATX/MCB) and Shaw (PTM) also abandoned due to a subsequent crash with each other. As far as I understand, both suffered a concussion but no other injuries thankfully.

Standings after stage 14:
                                                           

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	5553	+666
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	4909	+579
3rd	(+1)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	4868	+771
4th	(-1)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	4812	+529
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4163	+448
6th	(+1)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	3891	+478
7th	(-1)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3872	+454
8th	(=)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3813	+477
9th	(=)	Dead Last (DED)	3512	+422
10th	(=)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	3402	+504
11th	(=)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	3346	+518
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3062	+384
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2590	+209

[Glüc]

Stage 15 Les Gets les Portes du Soleil -> Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc

Second rest day today, so I hope you all don't mind if I do yesterday's summary a bit later than planned.

Yesterday we got another alpine mountain stage. No hors category climbs, but still plenty of ups and downs including a nasty steep section with percentages up to 17% near the end.

Unlike saturday the break did get plenty of time today, unfortunately helped by a crash in the peloton caused  by some colossal idiot trying to take a selfie and turning around to take down a rider with his arm. No further riders dropped out because of that thankfully, but it did result in the peloton pretty much giving up the chase for the time being.

The break itself was very big, including Alaphilippe (CJO/KIN/CHX/DED), who actually was ahead for a bit, being the only TCAT rider to score breakaway points, Ciccone (SOS/ATX/BDC/MCB/DED), who managed to get enough summit points to take the lead in the King of the Mountains classification and wear the polkadot jersey tomorrow, Van Aert (CHX), Pinot (CFA/VFL/PTM), Amador (GNH), Cort (SOS/PTM/ATX/GHS/MCB/DED), Skjelmose (VFL/MCB) Peters (BDC), Van der Poel (ATX/CHX), Aranburu (GNH), Neilands (GHS), and Abrahamsen (GNH).

Heading towards the final two climbs there were only four left in front, including Van Aert and Neilands. However, in a deeply unfortunate turn of events, Neilands crashed. He was able to continue but wasn't able to play a role in the race for the stagewin. Van Aert got second place. Pinot got fifth, Skjelmose seventh, Aranburu 12th, Ciccone 14th. The others were not able to stay ahead of the favourites.

In the favourites group again neither Pogacar nor Vingegaard managed to break the other. They finished in the same time, meaning Vingegaard advantage stays at 10 seconds. Just like saturday, Hindley (GNH/GHS/MCB) did not do well, losing time on Rodriguez (VFL) and Adam Yates (SOS/KIN/ATX), and dropping to fifth place in GC.

For TCAT, the result by Van Aert meant that Cyclohexane scored the most points and improved to 9th in the standings. Velociposse and Cézembre Fiescha also did well. GHST had a pretty awful day, partly because of the Neilands crash. For els Gagnheirs and Naziun Cjovani this was a missed opportunity with neither team reaching the targets they need to achieve to continue contesting the overall victory.


Standings after stage 15:
                                                           

Pos	±	Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)	Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC)	5769	+216
2nd	(=)	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	5090	+181
3rd	(=)	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	5073	+205
4th	(=)	Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	5060	+248
5th	(=)	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4248	+85
6th	(+2)	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4124	+311
7th	(=)	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	4095	+223
8th	(-2)	els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS)	4047	+156
9th	(+2)	Cyclohexane (CHX)	3745	+399
10th	(-1)	Dead Last (DED)	3731	+219
11th	(-1)	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	3584	+182
12th	(=)	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	3195	+133
13th	(=)	The Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2758	+168

Tomorrow we get the first and only time trial of this edition. It's nothing like Mt Lussari, but there's still enough uphill parts to ensure this will most likely not go to flat time trial specialists. The big favourites are probably Vingegaard, Pogacar and Van Aert. None of the regular stages so far have caused a big time gap between the two favourites, but they will not be able to cling on to each other tomorrow, so tomorrow could be a big day in determining who wears the yellow jersey in Paris.