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

Started by Glüc, July 01, 2023, 08:18:46 AM

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Glüc

7:


Kinetic Racing (KIN, Fiôvâ)
6905 points
Team leader: @Audrada Roibeardet
Season: 12614 (#8)

Stage Wins: 2 (Vingegaard, A. Yates)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 5th (Vingegaard)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 3rd (Vingegaard)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 19th (Vermeersch)
Final classification points: 1450 (#5)

Team:
Vingegaard 2946
A. Yates 1868
Gaudu 866
Laporte 510
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Alaphilippe 222
Pichon 42
Vermeersch 14
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The Fiovans suffered some early setbacks with the crashes of Mas and Cavendish, who got very close to a stagewin just one stage earlier. Kinetic got the most final classification points of all the teams without both Pogacar and Vingegaard, causing them to jump two places in the standing on the final day, due to the results of Vingegaard, Yates and Gaudu. A relative lack of good stage results prevented Kinetic from a top 6 result. 6th place seemed possible until the last stage, but unfortunately Laporte decided not to sprint, while the competition did get a good final result. Still a decent result overall considering the unfortunate dropouts.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

Glüc

Apologies for the delay. It's been an exhausting week.

6:


Velociposse Florencia (VFL, Florencia)
7125 points
Team leader: @Breneir Tzaracomprada
Season: 14884 (#5)

Daily winner: 2 times

Stage Wins: 2 (Pedersen, Rodriguez)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 5th (Rodriguez)
Best Points Classification (Green): 2nd (Pedersen)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 10th (Skjelmose)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 2nd (Rodriguez)
Final classification points: 1070 (#10)

Team:
Rodriguez 1375
Pedersen 1349
Pidcock 940
Pinot 898
Gaudu 866
Skjelmose 594
Benoot 593
Laporte 510
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The Florencians showed that a balanced strategy can work. Without any of the really expensive riders nearly every pick still performed well, in particular Rodriguez, who overperformed expectations, winning a stage ahead of Pogacar and Vingegaard and looked like he might be headed for third in GC at some point. Sadly some bad luck and a fall in the final mountain stage prevented that from happening and he ended up fifth. Without anyone in top 4 GC the Velociposse didn't score too many classification points. Still a good result and who knows where they would have ended if Mas didn't crash out in the first stage. After the third place in the Italian leg Velociposse could be headed for pretty strong season score if they perform well in Spain too.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

Tric'hard Lenxheir

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on July 29, 2023, 08:01:57 AM11:

Dead Last (DED, Vuode)
6289 points
Team leader: @Tric'hard Lenxheir
Season: 13052 (#6)

Daily winner: 1 time

Stage Wins: 1 (Vingegaard)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 5th (Vingegaard)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 1st (Ciccone)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 4th (Pidcock)
Final classification points: 1120 (#8)

Team:
Vingegaard 2946
Pidcock 940
Ciccone 697
Laporte 510
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Ewan 391 [ab: stage 13]
Alaphilippe 222
Bernal 126
Cort 20

After a strong debut in the previous leg, the pessimistic Vuodeans performed ok in the first week as a solid sprint team with both Ewan and Cavendish close to stage victories. However after that things turned sour with Cavendish crashing and Ewan not strong enough to cross the Alps. Vingegaard ended up winning the tour, but his relatively passive riding style prevented him from scoring as many points as Pogacar. With Bernal not having returned to form yet, having only Vingegaard compete in GC was not enough. At least they're not actually Dead Last

Give me time, I'm working my way to the bottom LOL
Tric'hard Lenxheir

Glüc

5:

els cantzelerïă aþletici (SOS, Maricopa)
7650 points
Team leader: @Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB

Stage Wins: 2 (A. Yates, Pedersen)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 3rd (A. Yates)
Best Points Classification (Green): 2nd (Pedersen)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 1st (Ciccone)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 4th (Pidcock)
Final classification points: 1405 (#6)

Team:
A. Yates 1868
S. Yates 1704
Pedersen 1349
Pidcock 940
Gaudu 866
Ciccone 697
Wright 206
Cort 20
Mas 0 [ab: stage 1]

The Chancery team were the only true debutants this edition, and it was quite the debut. The first stage was a rollercoaster, with Mas crashing, but then the Yates brothers coming 1 and 2. They continued to do well after that, eventually ending 3rd and 4th in GC. Other successes for the athletics from Maricopa included a stage win for Pedersen and Ciccone winning the polkadot jersey. As a result, els cantzelerïă aþletici ended up as the best scoring team without Pogacar and Vingegaard. An impressive first TCAT participation.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

Glüc

#79
4:

Cézembre Fieschā (CFA, Cézembre)
8316 points
Team leader: @þerxh Sant-Enogat
Season: 14948 (#4)

Daily winner: 2 times

Stage Wins: 3 (Pogačar 2x, Vingegaard)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 4th (Pogačar)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 3rd (Vingegaard)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 1st (Pogačar)
Final classification points: 1560 (#4)

Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
Pinot 898
Bauhaus 669 [ab: stage 17]
Cavendish 437 [ab: stage 8]
Bardet 317 [ab: stage 14]
Boivin 28
Petit 26
Gallopin 16

In some way, the Cézembrean home team was maybe the most unlucky this edition. It started out really well, with Vingegaard and Pogacar dominating and the hills and mountains and being one of only two teams with two sprinters to compete on the flat stages. After stage 7 Fieschā was actually in the lead. After that, the bad luck started with first Cavendish and then Bardet crashing out, and Bauhaus not making it through the Alps. Petit also had a bad crash, but heroically finished the tour, even if it didn't score any points. On the other hand, just having Vingegaard and Pogacar compensates for a lot of bad luck. Pinot kept the team going in the latter half of the tour. The result is a very decent fourth place and a strong position in the season standings.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

þerxh Sant-Enogat

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on August 05, 2023, 04:43:43 PM4:

Cézembre Fieschā (CFA, Cézembre)
7650 points
Team leader: @þerxh Sant-Enogat
Season: 14948 (#4)
 The result is a very decent fourth place and a strong position in the season standings.
 
þerxh Sant-Enogat
Mençei | Sénéchal et Sénateur de Cézembre | PermSec of Propaganda
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Glüc

#81
Sorry again. I should really hurry up, as the third leg (Spain) is almost about to start already.

In third place:

Naziun Cjovani (CJO, Benito)
9687 points
Team leader: @Iason Taiwos

Daily winner: 2 times

Stage Wins: 5 (Pogačar 2x, Lafay, Vingegaard, Asgreen)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 4th (Pogačar)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 3rd (Vingegaard)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 1st (Pogačar)
Final classification points: 1825 (#3)

Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
S. Yates 1704
Groenewegen 777
Asgreen 531
Lafay 465 [ab: stage 20]
Alaphilippe 222
Rickaert 40
Perez 23 [ab: stage 18]

Last year, Naziun Cjovani were the winners of the first TCAT edition which was also TCAT France. Since then only teams from Benito have won editions. Early on it looked like Naziun Cjovani would continue the Benitian streak as they started out amazing, with Simon Yates doing well in stage 1 and Lafay unexpectedly winning stage 2. After that they kept doing well with Vingegaard and Pogacar dominating in the mountains and Asgreen being another unexpected stagewinner. However, Lafay's success remained limited to the Basque country stages and Groenewegen disappointed somewhat in the sprints. In the end the team scored better than their winning result last year, but somehow it just wasn't enough to win again, although it did secure a spot on the podium.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

Glüc

#82
In second place:


Els Gagnheirs (GNH, Maritiimi-Maxhestic)
10053 points
Team leader: @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu
Season: 17647 (#2)

Daily winner: 7 times

Stage Wins: 6 (Pogačar 2x, Hindley, Vingegaard, Gall, Asgreen)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 4th (Pogačar)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 2nd (Gall)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 1st (Pogačar)
Final classification points: 1995 (#1)

Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
Hindley 1483
Gall 1390
Asgreen 531
Abrahamsen 300
Aranburu 224
Arndt 132
Amador 68

Els Gagnheirs have consistently done well in TCAT, never finishing outside the top 4. And this time was their strongest performance yet as they clearly brought their A-team. Apart from Vingegaard and Pogacar, Hindley and Gall, who both won a stage, also ended up in the top 10 GC, resulting in the team from Maritiimi-Maxhestic getting the most classification points. Additionally Els Gagnheirs also were the daily winner on 7 stages (mostly mountain stages), the most of any team. For a while it even looked like they would get the complete GC podium, which would also have ensured the overall win but unfortunately Hindley was not as strong in the final week and dropped to 7th. Even so, every previous edition this performance would have been more than enough to win, as no team had scored more than 10000 points before. The only way GNH might have done better was by including a competitive sprinter, which Aranburu did not turn out to be. Unfortunately the result was not enough to win, although it was another impressive result for Els Gagnheirs, who might only be a good performance in Spain away from being the strongest team of the season.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

Glüc

And the winner is

Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC, Cézembre)
10404 points
Team leader: @Glüc da Dhi S.H.
Season: 18960 (#1)

Daily winner: 4 times

Stage Wins: 8 (Philipsen 4x, Pogačar 2x, Bilbao, Vingegaard)
Best General Classification (Yellow): 1st (Vingegaard)
Best Points Classification (Green): 1st (Philipsen)
Best King of the Mountains Classification (Polkadot): 1st (Ciccone)
Best Young Rider Classification (White): 1st (Pogačar)
Final classification points: 1940 (#2)

Team:
Pogačar 2979
Vingegaard 2946
Philipsen 1935
Bibao 1434
Ciccone 697
Van Gils 371
Peters 18
Vermeersch 14
Mühlberger 10

After just losing out on first place in Italy due to not having the strongest sprinter, Banqeu da Cézembre got their first edition win by picking the strongest sprinter this time. Just like the other teams in the top 4, Pogacar and Vingegaard formed the basis, but it was the performance by Philipsen, who won four stages, that made the difference, along with a strong performance by Bilbao, who ended up 6th in GC and won a stage, and Ciccone who completed the set of jerseys by winning the King of the Mountains classification. BdC did get lucky as well by being one of two teams not to have any riders drop out. The result is a new TCAT record of 10404 points and the first team outside Benito to win an edition.
Director of Money Laundering and Sportswashing, Banqeu da Cézembre

þerxh Sant-Enogat

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on August 16, 2023, 02:46:26 PMAnd the winner is

Banqeu da Cézembre Runners Up (BDC, Cézembre)

Congrats ! Well deserved victory, our province is so proud !
 
þerxh Sant-Enogat
Mençei | Sénéchal et Sénateur de Cézembre | PermSec of Propaganda
Reliabilty, respect and independance, join the Progressive Alliance!