Talossan Cycling Association Tour Season 5 Leg 1: Nessebar -> Roma

[Sir Lüc]

Small trivia moment.

Team In The Wind has already gotten three stage wins, so that puts it in quite a good place to break the record of five stage wins in a team's maiden edition*, jointly held by Gagnheirs/Mençeis (Spain 2022) and Cyclohexane (Italy 2023, but with added value due to more participants).

Cyclohexane also went on to win that edition, being again one of two teams to win its debut edition, together with Esqipă Velocostă (Italy 2025). Surprisingly (or not, if you recall how that edition went...), EVC only took a single stage victory in that winning maiden edition.

Also perhaps surprisingly, Averatxeirs and Valcürïas got two stage wins in their respective debuts, while other teams who went on to win and, in general, to take part in TCAT much more often, actually got no wins in their debut and it took a while to get their first stage win: it took Fieschă 24, Dead Last 25, Port Maxhestic 29, ex-SOS/REX 33 and the Cabana Boys 44 stages before they could finally triumph.

Today's Mençeis wins also ensures ex-GNH/MMM confirms their perfect record of getting at least one stage win in every edition they took part in (5 editions, 17 wins), which they share with GHST (12 editions, 37 wins), EVC (3 editions, 10 wins) and obviously ITW (1 edition, 3 wins).

(*: I am obviously ignoring the very first edition as all teams were new, and the low turnout would skew stuff even more)

[Glüc]

Todays stage could have been a sprint. However, some teams had different plans, going fast enough on the climbs on the way to drop most of the fastest sprinters (who often struggle uphill). They never managed to return, resulting in a reduced peloton heading towards the finish. Without the organisation of the sprint teams there was room to attack and Alec Segaert used the opportunity to escape and solo to the stage win. Aular (REX/VFL) was the first TCAT rider across the line followed by Narvaez (MMM/REX/VFL) resulting in a pretty low scoring affair. A disappointment for the teams who invested credits in sprinters perhaps. Els Talossaes Rexhital remain in the lead.

Standings after stage 12:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	3740	+261
2nd	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3561	+137
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3491	+179
4th	(+1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3317	+278
5th	(-1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3186	+72
6th	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3114	+81
7th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3049	+95
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1809	+72

Tomorrow is somewhat similar to today, except we get climbs that are a bit steeper and a bit closer to the finish, so again we probably won't see a bunch sprint. Yet another opportunity for Narvaez perhaps. Presumably we will see Scaroni or Silva near the front as well. Meanwhile, with opportunities slowly running out ITW and BDC will very much hope Ciccone finally gets a result to prevent GHST from running away with the competition before we get to the mountains again.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Yaaaaaassssss!

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 13 Alessandria -> Verbania

A day for the breakaway, but unfortunately once the initial attacks settled Mirco Maestri (CHX) was the only TCAT rider among the 15 leaders. He finished a distant 12th and +1'48 behind the winner. The peloton essentially chose to pace and conserve energies for today's upcoming mountain stage, ultimately finishing a whopping 13 minutes down.

Despite Maestri getting a few points, Cyclohexane gets beaten by Gordon Hiatus Support Team by just one point for today's stage win. Since only Maestri, Arensman and Bernal got (very few) stage points, we got an extremely low scoring result mostly made up of assist and daily classification points - which is usually good news for the virtual leader because that's one less stage to make up the difference.

Standings after stage 13:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	3817	+77
2nd	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3697	+136
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3587	+96
4th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3409	+92
5th	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3267	+81
6th	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3249	+135
7th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3149	+100
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1873	+64

Today's stage should be much more consequential. It's just 133km (80ish mi) but chock full of climbs, perfect to see some action among general classification riders. Good chance of big scores and big swings in TCAT and GC; the kind of stage that can make or break an edition. Be sure to tune in for the results.

[Glüc]

Stage 14 Aosta -> Pila

Today was the most challenging mountain stage so far this giro, taking place in the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, near the border with France and Switzerland. The stage had the potential to shake up the general classification quite a bit. A break including Rubio (CFA), Arrieta (CHX), Ciccone (ITW/BDC/CHX), Garofoli (GHS), Narvaez (REX/VFL/MMM) and Christen (REX/BDC/VFL) scored points along the way but never got enough space to make it to the finishline once the GC favourites started going on the final climb. Narvaez did get enough sprint points in the intsprint to take over the lead in the points classification and the Maglia Ciclamino.

 Along the way we got bad news for Els Talossaes Rexhital and the Menceis as Scaroni woke up with a fever and had to drop out.

In the end it was Vingegaard who showed why he was the favourite as he won the stage with a 50 second margin and becomes the new leader in GC with a 2,5 minute lead over the current number 2. By winning the stage he also scored enough KOM points to take a near unassailable lead in the KOM classification. Gall (REX/VFL) came in second and also did well in GC. Hindley (BDC/GHS), Piganzoli (GHS/MMM), Pellizzari (CFA/VFL/MMM/CHX), Arensman (ITW/BDC/GHS/VFL) and Storer (REX/GHS/VFL) took places 3-7 and are all placed somewhere in the top 10 now.

Another big stage win for GHST, who now take the lead in the standing for the first time. They most likely have a big lead in virtual end of tour points as well and more riders seriously competing in the GC stages. It would now require a massive upset for them to be overtaken by any of the other teams, although we still have a full week to go where of course a lot can happen. Els Talossaes Rexhital had a pretty bad day and drop from first place and may well drop even further. BDC were the best of the rest and gain two places in the standing. Unfortunately Cézembre Fiescha keep falling even further behind.


Standings after stage 14:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4610	+913
2nd	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4237	+422
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	4221	+634
4th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4044	+635
5th	(+2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3856	+705
6th	(-1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3786	+517
7th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3768	+519
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2368	+495

Tomorrow a flat stage and almost certainly a sprint. The finish is in Milan. Will Milan be first at the finish?

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 15 Voghera -> Milano

Another sprint stage with a surprising outcome. While stage 6, the one finishing in Naples, had people wondering if the weird uphill cobbled sprint would claim any casualties (which it did), this one - flat and uneventful - seemed primed for a conventional sprint finish, with a small breakaway that would be carefully managed by the peloton.

Except that's not how things went; the breakaway, which included Cyclohexane duo Mirco Maestri and Mattia Bais, was victorious in its attack until the end, finishing one minute ahead of the peloton (aka, not even close). Maestri placed second and Bais fourth in a huge boon to Cyclohexane, with Andresen (ITW/REX) 7th, Mozzato (CFA) 10th and a disappointed Milan (CHX/GHS) only 14th ahead of MMM's Ackermann.

The 335 points between Cyclohexane and In The Wind are this edition's most dominant winning margin so far, with GHST previously putting 190 and 208 points on BDC in stages 9 and 14 respectively (and incidentally posting the narrowest margin too in stage 13, a single point over CHX). This should be a big help in Cyclohexane's quest for this edition's podium, on which they last stood in France 2024. Slim pickings for other teams, with just two sprinters in the top ten.

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4785	+175
2nd	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4396	+159
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	4350	+129
4th	(+3)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4285	+517
5th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4131	+87
6th	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	3968	+182
7th	(-2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3959	+103
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2504	+136

Today is the second and last restday; action will resume tomorrow in a mountainous stage entirely within the Italian speaking Swiss canton of Ticino. It will be the last proper mountain stage until the deciding duo on Friday and Saturday. Not likely to see much changing in the general classification, but if the breakaway succeeds, it's a good opportunity to score high points for non-GC climbers (the likeliest options are probably Ciccone, Zana and Rubio). If the breakaway doesn't, not many reasons to expect a much different outcome than other GC stage results (Vingegaard > Gall > Arensman/Hindley/Pellizzari/Storer/Gee), unless we get some drama either on course, because of illness, or as a result of the restday.

[Glüc]

Stage 16 Bellinzona -> Carì

TCAT took a detour to Switzerland today. Unfortunately not including Ackermann (MMM), who did not get on his bike after the restday. A break including Zana (CFA/CHX), Christen (REX/BDC/VFL), Narvaez (REX/VFL/MMM), Harper (GHS), Rubio  (CFA) and Ciccone (ITW/BDC/CHX) never got much more than 2 minutes from the peloton led by Vingegaards teammates, leaving the GC contenders to fight for the stage. It wasn't much of a fight, as Vingegaard easily outpaced his competitors in the final uphill kilometers. What remains is the fight for second place, where Gall (REX/VFL), Hindley (BDC/GHS) and Arensman (ITW/BDC/GHS/VFL) finished close together in that order. It will be a close race for second place between these three and maybe a couple others in the remaining stages.


The big news of today is that Pellizzari (CFA/VFL/MMM/CHX) will not be in that race anymore. He had been sick but hanging on before the restday, but today he clearly did not have the legs and lost more than 15 minutes, leaving him out of GC contention.

Like the GC, the KOM winner is also pretty much decided at this point. Ciccone did get some KOM points, but he has no chance of ending ahead of Vingegaard.

The points classification however, is still very much an open race. Where Magnier has chances in the sprints, Narvaez keeps gathering points by being in breaks, including today. Narvaez is now only two points behind Magnier with two more stages that seem suited for a succesful breakaway coming up, but Magnier of course can score big in the final stage in Rome. That makes the ciclamino the only jersey that hasnt been decided yet.


Unless crazy things happen, TCAT itself also has been pretty much decided with GHST again getting a big stagewin. Like in previous mountain stages, BDC was best of the rest and gains some places in the standing with a good outlook to climbing further in the stages to come. For the podium chances of the Menceis and Cyclohexane this was a pretty bad day however, due to Pellizzari losing his standing in GC.



Standings after stage 16:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	5762	+977
2nd	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4900	+504
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	4837	+487
4th	(+3)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	4738	+779
5th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4666	+535
6th	(-2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4637	+352
7th	(-1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	4567	+599
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2845	+341

Tomorrow we get an intermediate stage that should be one for the attackers. We can safely write down the name of Narvaez to feature in the attack. What names will join him is not as clear.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

All right, this is a pretty devastating day for my team!

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 17 Cassano all'Adda -> Andalo

TCAT Italy 2026's finale is fast approaching, with the peloton making its way towards the Dolomites in a hilly stage that turned out to be quite tiring and demanding due to constant elevation changes, even without major climbs. Perfect day for a breakaway, and indeed 20ish riders survived to the finish in front of the peloton, of which 6 were in the frontmost group contending for the win. No luck for the TCAT riders involved in that effort, as CFA's Einer Rubio and CHX's Igor Arrieta finished 5th and 6th respectively. A fair bit behind, GHS's Garofoli finished 7th and eternal breakaway stage favourite Jhonatan Narvaez (MMM/REX/VFL) only managed 8th today. Minor points for Ciccone (13th, BDC/CHX/ITW), Bais (17th, CHX) and Gualdi (19th, GHS).

Cyclohexane gets the daily win, albeit a low scoring one - the whole pack fits in just 109 points today. This is still enough for the TCAT Italy 2023 champions to jump up to 4th for the time being.

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	6015	+253
2nd	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	5062	+162
3rd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	5030	+193
4th	(+2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4908	+271
5th	(-1)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	4901	+163
6th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4838	+172
7th	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	4732	+165
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3058	+213

Today, another breakaway-friendly stage but with less elevation change, still moving eastwards through Valsugana from Trentino to Veneto. This one might even see punchy sprinters survive to the end. In general, this might be the last chance for stagehunter unclassified picks to get any meaningful points, as only two big mountain GC days and the final Rome sprint remain.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I just hope to hold onto the podium by my fingernails at this point.

[Glüc]

Stage 18 Fai della Paganella -> Pieve di Soligo

As usual Cyclohexane were represented in the break today and again it was Bais who went on the attack. It was caught before the climbs near the end. Surprisingly the various attacks on the final climb before the finish were not enough to permanently drop the best sprinters permanently, so it was a bunch sprint. Magnier won and regained the lead in the points classification. Milan (GHS/CHX) was the best TCAT rider in third place. Yet another stagewin for GHST. Cyclohexane climb to second place.

Standings after stage 18:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	6331	+316
2nd	(+2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	5200	+292
3rd	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	5173	+111
4th	(-1)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	5138	+108
5th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	5021	+120
6th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4949	+111
7th	(=)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	4842	+110
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3129	+71

Tomorrow we get the Queen stage of this edition with 6 climbs, including Passo Giau, which is the cima coppi (highest point of the giro) and an uphill finish. Definitely a stage for the climbers, although we get another mountain stage on saturday, so for the GC contenders a podium place may be lost, but not won tomorrow.


(Also if someone wanted to challenge Vingegaard for the overall win tomorrow would be the day to do it. Trying and failing however would risk dropping of the podium alltogether, so as much as I'm hoping someone gives it a shot to make things interesting, I'm guessing it's not gonna happen.)

[Glüc]

I just hope to hold onto the podium by my fingernails at this point.

Milan getting the opportunity to sprint today was pretty bad news for you in that regard. A podium is still very much possible though. (I think so anyway. I haven't actually checked the virtual standings.) Piganzoli is realistically your only hope to make a difference with CHX/BDC/ITW, so a lot will depend on him getting points in the final mountain stages and hanging on in GC for you.

[Glüc]

Like the GC, the KOM winner is also pretty much decided at this point. Ciccone did get some KOM points, but he has no chance of ending ahead of Vingegaard.

Well this was completely wrong. Oops. Fascinating stage today.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Like the GC, the KOM winner is also pretty much decided at this point. Ciccone did get some KOM points, but he has no chance of ending ahead of Vingegaard.

Well this was completely wrong. Oops. Fascinating stage today.

What happened?!!

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 19 Feltre -> Alleghe (Piani di Pezzè)

The queen stage of this edition immediately saw an important surprise as Jhonatan Narvaez (MMM/REX/VFL), one of Giro's standout riders and still in full contention for the points classification, dropped out of the race after apparently crashing after yesterday's stage finish, en route to his team bus. The breakaway predictably took a while to form, but interestingly ended up including both climbers (Ciccone, Harper and Rubio) and a few GC riders (Storer and Gee-West).

It turned out Ciccone (BDC/CHX/ITW) and Rubio (CFA) more or less made a deal to respectively split summit points and intermediate sprints, but when Ciccone teammate Gee-West (REX) broke the deal by going for the second intermediate sprint, Rubio in turn "stole" the next summit from Ciccone, who did not take it well. The Italian rode off into the distance to attempt a solo win, but was caught and had to settle (yet again) for third, with Gee-West taking second.

So no stagewin to the GC favourites, with Gall, Vingegaard and Hindley having to settle for 4th to 6th. Points also to Piganzoli, Rubio and Storer closing off the top 10, with the biggest news being Thymen Arensman finishing only 12th and losing a minute from GC leader Vingegaard and the third place in GC from Hindley.

Banqeu de Cézembre gets their second stagewin of this edition; they seem headed for second place in the final standings, as they should score both more stagepoints and End of Tour points than Cyclohexane. The latter, in turn, should have more chances to defend at least the final podium position from ITW and MMM given Narvaez abandoning and Milan having a chance at a good position on Sunday.

Standings after stage 19:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	6943	+612
2nd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	5710	+510
3rd	(+2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	5691	+670
4th	(-1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	5668	+495
5th	(-1)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	5476	+338
6th	(+1)		Team In The Wind (ITW)	5385	+543
7th	(-1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	5312	+363
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3501	+372

Tomorrow we get TCAT's penultimate and probably decisive stage, featuring two laps of the 14km Piancavallo ascent. Since this is also my home stage, I will try and attend and get some pictures!

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

This is very concerning.

[Sir Lüc]

"Quick" assessment of where we stand before the final two stages when taking into account End of Tour points - those that are given out at the end depending on the final standings in the General, Points, King of Mountains and Teams Classifications. Not gonna give exact numbers because some fluctuation will happen anyway as the final GC/PC/KOM/TC positions won't exactly be what they are tonight.

Gordon Hiatus Support Team is pretty much guaranteed the final win no matter what happens: if tomorrow goes to GC riders another 800+ points haul is likely, on top of having Milan as a potential winner for Sunday, the most EoT points, and a four digit lead over second place (only happened once in 11 past editions). The main question is basically whether or not they get to 10K points, which is usually the benchmark of whether or not the TCAT winner is globally strong when compared to all Velogames competitors.

Banqeu de Cézembre is also pretty much guaranteed a second place and a return to the TCAT podium, which they are missing from since Spain 2024; they haven't been a sprint threat, but they are safely a top 2 team in mountain stages and their EoT haul is also going to be the best of the rest by a fair bit.

Third place down is instead all but settled. Two teams have the best shot at the final podium position: Cyclohexane is virtually slightly in front due to their current points haul, but Pellizzari dropping out of GC hurt them a lot and their EoT points haul has shrunk slightly from what it would have been at the start of the week. Team In The Wind has instead been rather quiet lately, but it has an EoT advantage that would put it within striking distance. CHX has to hope not to lose too much tomorrow, where ITW is almost guaranteed to do better, and then root for Jonathan Milan to do better than Tobias Lund Andresen on Sunday. Right now, despite the slight virtual standings disadvantage, I think ITW is favoured, even if I might have jinxed their chance at getting more stage wins with my earlier stats post.

The three Narvaez-less teams will probably fight it out for 5th to 7th, with their standout rider's absence likely putting the podium out of reach, if not much harder:

• Els Talossaes Rexhitais have the advantage as it stands: Gall seems to safely be the second best climber, and Storer and Gee both had a solid performance today. They also have the best point chances of the three for Sunday with Andresen and Aular. To do better they will need to put 250ish on CHX - weaker tomorrow but with Milan to fill the gap on Sunday - and 150ish on ITW - who has superior climbing depth but no Aular for Sunday. Doubtful but not impossible.
• The Mençeis sadly don't have any sprinters left, so it all comes down to hoping Vingegaard, Piganzoli and Pellizzari do much better than REX's three GC riders tomorrow, to compensate both for likely scoring no stagepoints on Sunday and for the small EoT deficit.
• Velociposse is almost tied with MMM in virtuals; it has Gall, Pellizzari, Storer and Arensman, for what on paper seems like the climbing combination with the most point chances. They may/should overtake MMM due to climbing depth and literally having any sprinters at all, but to reach REX they have to hope Arensman/Pellizzari outscore Gee by a significant amount (200ish points), other than Andresen not scoring at all on Sunday.

And sadly, Fieschă will have to hope for better luck next time, but not all is lost as they still can root for Mozzato - twice a top 10 finisher in a Giro that hasn't been kind to sprinters - to win on Sunday and maybe deliver a stage win to the only team that hasn't managed one in this edition.