Talossan Cycling Association Tour Season 4 Leg 3: Torino -> Madrid

[Sir Lüc]

Apologies for missing the stage 18 and 20 updates, it's been a busy week. Seismic engineering congress and a wedding back-to-back don't make for a lot of free time.

Thankfully the stage 21 update is very short, because

Stage 21 Alalpardo -> Madrid

Did not really take place. People once again blocked the route to protest the inclusion of an Israeli-backed team while the Israeli government continues its genocide in Gaza. The stage was neutralised and later cancelled for security reasons moments before the peloton entered the final circuit in Madrid.

Points for the daily General Classification and for the two side classifications, plus assist points for GC and teams standings, were still given out and are reflected below, meaning Fieschă technically gets the stage win.

Standings after stage 21 and before EOT points:                                                               

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	8663	+112
2nd	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	8466	+116
3rd	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	7915	+114
4th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	7748	+140
5th	(=)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	7236	+98
6th	(=)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	7125	+120
7th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	6793	+100
8th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	6713	+79
9th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	6419	+76
10th	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	5971	+74
11th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5867	+66

Will this 197 point gap be enough for GHST to stay in front after EOT points are applied, or will EOT points overturn a second leg in a row?

[Sir Lüc]

FINAL STANDINGS (with End of Tour points)

Had the final stage played out, GHST vs DED would have come down to Pedersen vs Silva, while BDC needed Philipsen to win in order to stay in front of CFA. No wonder then that with the stage getting cancelled, all is moot and Gordon Hiatus Support Team wins TCAT Spain 2025 by a mere 97 points - the slimmest winning margin ever and a fourth extremely tight final result in a row. In doing so, GHST is the third team to win multiple legs in TCAT history, after Banqeu de Cézembre and Esqipă Velocostă, their previous leg win coming three years ago, also in Spain. It is also their best result by points scored, and just the fourth time in 11 editions that the winner crosses the 10K mark.

Close but no cigar for Dirnalaiset Mortescu, who are just the second team to cross the 10K points mark without winning the leg; they still get their best ever result and a second podium after France 2024. And Fieschă gets a second third place in a row - the only double podium this season other than Velocostă - scoring the most End of Tour points of any team, but not enough to close the gap with the leading duo. Unfortunately for BDC, their (slim but real) hopes of scoring enough with Philipsen to resist Fieschă could not come to pass, and they miss out on the podium for a third leg in a row. The other position swap as a result of End of Tour points is Velocostă overtaking the Cabana Boys for fifth place.

Pos	±		Team	Pts	EoT
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	10178	+1515
2nd	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	10081	+1635
3rd	(+1)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	9938	+2190
4th	(-1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	9740	+1845
5th	(+1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	8895	+1750
6th	(-1)		Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	8676	+1440
7th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	8553	+1740
8th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	7958	+1245
9th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	7489	+1090
10th	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	7301	+1310
11th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	6977	+1090

[Sir Lüc]

SIDE CLASSIFICATIONS

Two side classification wins (one shared) for the Cabana Boys, proving Spain is particularly lucky for them in this respect after they swept all three classifications in 2023. These two make it five side classification wins for MCB.

The Sprinters's Classification came down to the teams with Pedersen, winner of the points's classification, but MCB edged out the other two thanks to Ciccone, who is not a sprinter but stayed high up in the points's classification for long enough.

The Climbers's Classification was won by Gordon Hiatus Support Team; just as with the sprinters, the two teams holding the winner of the equivalent real-world classification (Jay Vine) battled it out at the top, but the Belacostan team made the difference through holding Jonas Vingegaard. It is the fourth win in the Climbers's Classification for GHST and the eighth in any side classification.

In the Combativity Classification, MCB and Cyclohexane share the win. They both hold Ciccone, Armirail and Bagioli, who scored 120 of the 200 points. Tiberi added a further 60 for the Belacostans, while Pedersen was the biggest contributor to the rest of the Maricopans's haul. We already discussed the Cabana Boys's stats, while it is just the third side classification win for Cyclohexane, who won the Sprinters's Classification twice before.

SPRINTERS'S CLASSIFICATION - second win by MCB after Spain 2023
(intermediate sprint points + daily points' classification points)
Maricopa Cabana Boys 894
Dirnalaiset Mortescu 799
Port Maxhestic AC 752
Gordon Hiatus Support Team 619
Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs 471
Naziun Cjovani 401
Cyclohexane 394
Cézembre Fieschā 340
Esqipă Velocostă 314
Els Talossaes Rexhitais 283
Velociposse Florencia 217

CLIMBERS'S CLASSIFICATION - fourth win by GHST
(summit points + daily KOM points)
Gordon Hiatus Support Team 677
Dirnalaiset Mortescu 612
Cézembre Fieschā 575
Port Maxhestic AC 440
Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs 423
Naziun Cjovani 404
Esqipă Velocostă 376
Cyclohexane 344
Maricopa Cabana Boys 328
Els Talossaes Rexhitais 278
Velociposse Florencia 196

COMBATIVITY CLASSIFICATION - second ever shared win; first by CHX, second by MCB after Spain 2023
(20 pts per breakaway rider)
Maricopa Cabana Boys 200
Cyclohexane 200
Gordon Hiatus Support Team 180
Port Maxhestic AC 180
Esqipă Velocostă 160
Dirnalaiset Mortescu 140
Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs 120
Naziun Cjovani 120
Velociposse Florencia 120
Els Talossaes Rexhitais 80
Cézembre Fieschā 60

[Sir Lüc]

FINAL SEASON STANDINGS

Saving the best for last - congratulations to Esqipă Velocostă for winning the 2025 season of TCAT. An underwhelming (for their standards...) 5th place in the spanish leg is still enough to win by about 350 points over Gordon Hiatus Support Team, who finish second for a second season in a row. Outgoing champions Banqeu de Cézembre complete the podium. It is the first time we manage to get ten teams into the final standings by taking part in all legs, which is very nice to see. It is also the tightest final season standings by far, with both previous seasons going to BDC by roughly 3K points each time.

Pos	±		Team	Pts
1st	(=)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	26899
2nd	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	26547
3rd	(+3)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	24960
4th	(+3)		Cézembre Fieschǎ (CFA)	24515
5th	(-3)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	23916
6th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	23050
7th	(-3)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	23028
8th	(+2)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	22879
9th	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	22645
10th	(-1)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	21348

BONUS: ALL-TIME STAGE WINNERS

Continuing the tradition from the previous leg to also update on the all-time stage (daily) winners. Not the first time the team with the most stage wins does not win the season: it also happened in 2022, when Kinetic won the season with just 3 daily wins. In a nice touch, we had three more teams getting at least a daily win (12) compared to last year.

	Team	Stage Wins	2022	2023	2024	2025
	Banqeu da Cézembre (BDC)	51	11	15	20	5
	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	35	6	5	11	13
	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	17	-	3	9	5
	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	17	3	4	4	6
	Els Gagnheirs (GNH)	16	5	11	-	-
	Cézembre Fieschă (CFA)	16	-	2	9	5
	Cyclohexane (CHX)	15	-	8	2	5
	Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	15	12	2	0	1
	Maricopa Cabana Boys (MCB)	13	-	7	3	3
	Dead Last (DED)	12	-	3	4	5
	Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	10	-	-	-	10
	Rexhitais/Cantzelerïă (REX)	6	-	1	1	4
	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4	3	0	-	1
	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2	-	2	-	0
	Valcürïăs (VAL)	2	2	0	-	-

[Glüc]

Well that was an eventful season. Kind of a weird ending, although somehow appropriate I guess. Three close finishes (all within 220 points).

Congrats to Lüc for winning this leg. Congrats to Mic'haglh for winning the season standing. (Strong performances by the Belacostăn teams. Next year I'm sure we'll see Cézembre strike back.)

Thanks everyone for playing and as usual of course many thanks to Lüc for co-hosting!

See you all next year!

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

This proves I should never do any more research again

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

FINAL STANDINGS (with End of Tour points)
Had the final stage played out, GHST vs DED would have come down to Pedersen vs Silva, while BDC needed Philipsen to win in order to stay in front of CFA.

I demand to replay the last stage!