Talossan Cycling Association Tour Season 4 Leg 1: Dürres -> Roma

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

It's nice to see us Maricopans sticking together!

[King Txec]

Unfortunately at the bottom of the pack!

-Txec R

[Glüc]

Oof massive crash in the peloton. Hindley left in an ambulance. Other riders are on their bike again but several appear quite badly hurt including Cerny (who was originally also reported as having abandoned), Adam Yates and Carapaz. 😖

[Glüc]

Stage 6 Potenza -> Napoli

Today we moved to the west coast for a sprint in Italy's third largest city and it was wet. Slippery roads caused a rider to slip and much of the peloton behind him followed suit. Biggest TCAT victim was Jai Hindley (CFA/DED/KIN) who suffered a concussion and had to abandon. Multiple other TCAT riders were hurt however, so we have to hope there won't be more abandons because of this crash.

The crash and the condition of the roads led the organisation to decide not to award PC points or time loss at the finish, leaving only the stage itself contested with no implications for classifications and allowing anyone not contesting the stage itself to avoid further risks. Fortunato (GHS) had already scored some KOM points by that point and there was also a break, involving Taco van der Hoorn (CFA/KIN), which only got caught mere kilometers before the finish after being hindered by a very dangerous action by a some protestors (who then also went on to nearly cause another crash in the peloton).

So we did get a sprint in the end, not involving Pedersen (PTM/GHS/CFA/CHX/BDC), who decided not to risk it with no points on the line. Van Aert (VFL/MAN/KIN) accidentally bravely attacked before the finish, but did not manage to stay ahead of the bunch. Instead Groves (GHS/ATX) won the sprint, followed by Fretin (BDC). Zijlaard (CJO), Marcellusi (MCB) and Kooij (REX/DED/EVC/MCB) also managed to end in the top 10.

The result by Groves means GHST again scored the most points and extended their lead. Averatxheirs also did well and gained four places in the standing.

Standings after stage 6:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	2643	+350
2nd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	2353	+133
3rd	(+1)		BdC Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2168	+283
4th	(-1)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2084	+140
5th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1975	+170
6th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	1673	+149
7th	(+1)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1516	+218
8th	(-1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC) (EVC)	1426	+117
9th	(+4)		Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1409	+308
10th	(+1)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	1386	+247
11th	(-1)		Kinetic (KIN)	1362	+107
12th	(-3)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1330	+71
13th	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	1232	+96
14th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	1166	+75

Finishphoto: Groves wins the sprint in a group of only sprinters while the rest of the peloton takes it easy with no points or time on the line.


Tomorrow, TCAT enters a new phase as we move north into somewhat more mountainous terrain. While friday's stage isn't the most challenging we do end on a pretty serious uphill finish, which should favour pure climbers and the more punchy of the GC contestants, with Roglic probably being favoured to take over the pink jersey. As it stands there are 41 riders within 3 minutes of the GC leader. That number will shrink considerably. The giro can't be won tomorrow, and I don't think the top riders will put minutes between them, but for some riders their GC standing be lost and this will tell us a lot about the chances of the various TCAT teams as well.


Profile of the final climb tomorrow.

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 7 Castel di Sangro -> Tagliacozzo (Marsia)

First summit finish, first direct skirmishes between GC contenders, with a long breakaway including Paul Double (CJO/MAN) and Christian Scaroni (REX/DED/EVC) which got regathered on the final climb; bit of a letdown as no early attack came, as most of the final climb saw the leading group slowly shed riders, Juan Ayuso (CJO/PTM/GHS/CFA/VFL/MAN/ATX/BDC/MCB) waiting until the very end to launch an attack that caught his main GC opponent Primoz Roglic (CJO/PTM/GHS/CFA/DED/MAN/CHX/KIN/MCB) sleeping.

Ayuso ultimately got the stage win, gaining 4" on Roglic (fourth today) plus another 10" from finishing first, which all together put him at just 4" from the lead of the general classification. The lead is instead inherited by Roglic himself, with former pink jersey Mads Pedersen (PTM/GHS/CFA/CHX/BDC) obviously not suited to a stage such as today's, plummeting down the order as was always assumed.

Lots of other TCAT riders scoring stage finish points by placing top 20 - unsurprisingly, as it turned out to be a stage for GC contenders - with Ciccone and Tiberi immediately behind Roglic, and Carapaz, Poole and Storer closing the top 10. Both Yates twins, Derek Gee, Harper, Arensman, Poels and Pidcock also got points.

This results in a large haul for most TCAT teams, but the Cabana Boys rising on top; the Maricopans make the most of placing Ayuso, Roglic, Ciccone and Carapaz within the top 8 and leap into the top half of the standings. GHST retains the lead of the overall standings and place second today, though the next nine teams in the daily results are all within about 100 points of them. Sadly not as good as a day for Kinetic and the Royals despite respectively placing four and five riders in the top 20 - the top 10 positions simply pay much more stage finish points.

Standings after stage 7:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3224	+581
2nd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	2877	+524
3rd	(=)		BdC Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2667	+499
4th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2650	+566
5th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2510	+535
6th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	2150	+477
7th	(+3)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2126	+740
8th	(-1)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2070	+554
9th	(=)		Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	1946	+537
10th	(+2)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1909	+579
11th	(-3)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	1853	+427
12th	(+2)		The Manilows (MAN)	1743	+577
13th	(-2)		Kinetic (KIN)	1672	+310
14th	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	1543	+311

Finishphoto: Juan Ayuso's first stage win at a grand tour

[Sir Lüc]

Today's stage is already underway - one for a breakaways perhaps, with a category 1 climb right in the middle and a very spicy last bit, with a hard but short climb just before, a long downhill, then a 4% slope finish. Everyone will want to be in the breakaway though, so it might take a while to form.

[Glüc]

More detailed update tomorrow, because it's way past my bedtime and I've had too much wine, but the short version:

* The break succeeded.
* Ulissi (REX/ATX/EVC) was the first TCAT rider across the line and also takes the lead in GC and the pink jersey
* GHST got the most points again and extend their lead
* The Cabana Boys got very close a second succesive victory and keep gaining spots.

Standings after stage 8:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3628	+404
2nd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3071	+194
3rd	(+1)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	2935	+285
4th	(-1)		BdC Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2838	+171
5th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2722	+212
6th	(+1)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	2527	+401
7th	(+1)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2345	+275
8th	(+1)		Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2330	+384
9th	(-3)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	2322	+172
10th	(+1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC) (EVC)	2211	+358
11th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2065	+156
12th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	1923	+180
13th	(+1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	1862	+319
14th	(-1)		Kinetic (KIN)	1799	+127

Tomorrow: Gravel! We get a stage inspired by the spring classic Strade Bianche passing some of the same gravel sections and finishing on the famous Piazzo del Campo in Siena. Might the most interesting stage to watch this Giro.

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 9 Gubbio -> Siena

Quick ish update: yesterday's Strade Bianche ended up being the most chaotic day so far, as what seemed like a stage for the breakaway actually saw just six riders go for it, including sprinters Groves (ATX/GHS) and Fretin (BDC) - hardly candidates for the stage victory. As such, it turned into a day for general classification riders to try and put gaps on each others in the unpredictable gravel portions.

And chaotic they were - Tom Pidcock, one of the favourites for the stage win given his win at Strade Bianche 2023 and his second place at this year's edition, crashed in the second gravel segment taking Primoz Roglic and Derek Gee with him. This effectively guaranteed a minute timeloss to all three, leaving rivals such as Ayuso, Ciccone, Tiberi and Carapaz free to battle for all top 10 places.

The stage win actually went to a resurgent Wout van Aert, who battled with young non-TCAT Isaac del Toro in a two man finale and just about prevailed as the two snaked their way in the tight alleyways of Siena. Giulio Ciccone headed the GC riders for third, about a minute down. A further minute down, Pidcock, Roglic and Gee. Del Toro inherits pink from Diego Ulissi, way down the order today together with Lorenzo Fortunato; both tumble down the order and out of the GC top 20.

Standings after stage 9:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3851	+223
2nd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3526	+455
3rd	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	3314	+379
4th	(=)		BdC Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3258	+420
5th	(+1)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	3101	+574
6th	(-1)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3044	+322
7th	(+4)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	2923	+858
8th	(=)		Els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2889	+559
9th	(+1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC) (EVC)	2744	+533
10th	(-1)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	2709	+387
11th	(-4)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2645	+300
12th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	2331	+408
13th	(+1)		Kinetic (KIN)	2308	+509
14th	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	2303	+441

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

7th(+4)Velociposse Florencia (VFL)2923+858

VFL won this round by hundreds of points somehow. Going to enjoy this one bright shining moment before we start back burrowing into the ground.

[King Txec]

7th(+4)Velociposse Florencia (VFL)2923+858

VFL won this round by hundreds of points somehow. Going to enjoy this one bright shining moment before we start back burrowing into the ground.

Enjoy it because being at the bottom is not terribly exciting!

-Txec R

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

GO MCB!

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

GO MCB!

They're movin' on up (movin' on up)
From the west side (movin' on up)
To a podium spot in the skyyy

Movin' on up (movin' on up)
From the west side (movin' on up)
They saddled up and oh, how they fly

[King Txec]

It took me a second because those aren't the lyrics at all haha.

-Txec R

[Sir Lüc]

Gonna try and quickly finish the update before bed with TCAT considerations and next stage preview.

Today was a restday which I of course forgot to mention. Tomorrow we start again with the second of two time trials, longer and flatter than the first. Tarling should probably be expected to win this if he managed to win the first one. Roglic got extremely close to winning the first TT, but he seems to have dipped a bit in form even if yesterday's time loss was mostly bad luck. Ayuso can do well in TTs but I don't know about ones this flat and long; in similar ones he lost 50" to Roglic at Dauphine 2024 and 35" at Vuelta 2023. And Van Aert, usually an outstanding time trialist, seems conversely to be healing from whatever malaise he had.

The fact a long, flat ITT is coming up should be reason to be reasonably cautious about the state of the general classification, and why it's probably better to defer discussing the outlook right now.

This weekend marked a meaningful shuffling in GC, with riders such as Gee, Poole and Fortunato falling way out of contention, Roglic dropping from wearing the pink jersey on Saturday to tenth now, while others like Carapaz and Ciccone climbed back into the top 10. But this also means that the top 10 presently has at least two or three climbers (Carapaz and Ciccone themselves, but also Bernal) who are likely going to pay at least two minutes tomorrow, if not more, and others who are just worse than others around them, like the Yates brothers when compared to McNulty and Roglic or even to Arensman and Vacek who lie in wait just outside the top 10. And of course the lead may well change hands again as I think Ayuso doing 1'13" better than Del Toro over such a long TT is possible.

So: the GHST domination of the first week is probably over, but it's too early to say who's best placed to win it all. The one thing I'm sure about is that tomorrow's ITT will be pivotal, because after that I don't really see any days for big GC shakeups until next week, meaning there's a good chance the general classification will be mostly stable for five or six stages, which means in turn that the same riders will not be allowed to go on breakaways and get stage wins, and the same riders will also collect a mostly predictable income of daily GC points (that's 30 points each stage for the leader).

[Sir Lüc]

Gonna try and quickly finish the update

he says,

[Glüc]

Starting times for selected riders today (TST, for local/Cézembre time add 7 hours):

TT favourites in bold
Outsider candidates in roman
GC contenders who arent TT specialists in italics


06:26 - Zijlaard (CJO)
06:51 - Černý (PTM)
06:55 - Affini (VFL/DED/CHX)
07:31 - Baroncini (MCB)
07:34 - Van Aert (VFL/MAN/KIN)
07:36 - Tarling (GHS)
07:37 - Vine (KIN)
07:43 - Pedersen (PTM/GHS/CFA/CHX/BDC)
08:08 - Martinez (MAN)

Still in contention for GC [time deficit]
08:48 - Poole (GHS/MAN) [5'35"]
08:49 - Fortunato (GHS) [5'08"]
08:50 - Ulissi (REX/ATX/EVC) [4'56"]
08:51 - Gee (REX/KIN/ATX/EVC) [3'59"]
08:54 - Harper (BDC) [3'39"]
08:55 - Pidcock (CJO/VFL/REX/DED/KIN/BDC/EVC) [3'35"]
09:01 - Vacek (ATX) [3'23"]
09:04 - Arensman (REX/BDC) [3'21"]
09:10 - Storer (BDC) [3'03"]
09:13 - Roglič (CJO/PTM/GHS/CFA/DED/MAN/CHX/KIN/MCB) [2'25"]
09:16 - Adam Yates (CJO/CFA/CHX/BDC) [2'01"]
09:25 - Simon Yates (VFL/KIN/ATX) [1'42"]
09:28 - Ciccone (DED/CHX/ATX/EVC/MCB) [1'41"]
09:31 - Carapaz (PTM/VFL/REX/EVC/MCB) [1'40"]
09:34 - Tiberi (VFL/REX/DED/CHX/EVC) [1'30"]
09:37 - Ayuso (CJO/PTM/GHS/CFA/VFL/MAN/ATX/BDC/MCB) [1'13"]
09:40 - Del Toro (NPC) [0'00"]

[Glüc]

Update (7:04):
Zijlaard (CJO) currently in 4th place after 9 riders have finished. Thats not gonna be enough to score points today. Meanwhile Černý (PTM) is now 2nd at the first timepoint where 32 riders have passed. Not a bad start. Let's see how he does on the rest of the parcours. Affini should soon be passing the first timepoint as well.

Update (7:07):
Affini (VFL/DED/CHX) 4" quicker than Černý at t1, but not enough to be in the lead there.

[Glüc]

Update (7:29)

Affini a slightly disappointing second place at the finish (after 36 riders finished), with Hoole probably overtaking him as well soon based on his time at t2. Černý currently 5th. Not sure that's gonna be enough for points (which requires a finish in the top 20).

[Glüc]

Update (7:50). Tarling (GHS) just passed the first timepoint and as expected takes the lead with a time thats 17" quicker than the number 2 so far. Is GHST heading for another stagewin and extending their lead?

Meanwhile Van Aert (VFL/MAN/KIN) is now in fourth place at t1 (ahead of Affini). Vine (KIN) unfortunately had a mechanical issue and had to change bikes which pretty much ends his chances at a strong result today.

[Glüc]

Update (8:03) Tarling slower than Hoole at t2! We could have a very surprising winner today if things stay the same. (Of course all the GC favourites still have to start)

Pedersen (PTM/GHS/CFA/CHX/BDC) does not look to be competing for the win. Vine did have a strong second part after his bike change and passed t2 in 7th place after 78 riders, with 93 still to come. Baroncini, Van Aert and Cerny are now in 11th, 12th and 13th respectively at t2, which probably means none of them will make the top 20.