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

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Congrats!

No bias

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

From Stage 17 on, my Mençeis dropped in the ranks at a steady rate.  They finish nearly last, a testament to the shortcomings of my "buy the highest priced favorites and then try to fill in the gaps" strategy.  For TCAT France, I'll be switching it up.

Luc, thank you for running this -- super fun as usual to follow along!

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

A very nice first run for Team In The Wind @Crement Itravilatx and at least my Posse didn't come in last.

A deal's a deal hun..

[Sir Lüc]

From Stage 17 on, my Mençeis dropped in the ranks at a steady rate.  They finish nearly last, a testament to the shortcomings of my "buy the highest priced favorites and then try to fill in the gaps" strategy.  For TCAT France, I'll be switching it up.

Not a terrible strategy at all, and actually one that worked very well in the past, especially in TCAT France, ironically!

Unfortunately this time the second highest priced favourite, Pellizzari, was still a bit too inexperienced for a three week stage race and bombed. Next month, the second highest priced favourite is almost certainly going to be Vingegaard himself. Pretty reliable and hard to pass up on.

[Sir Lüc]

A couple of updates to finally complete this edition's coverage.

SIDE CLASSIFICATIONS

As a reminder, the Climbers, Sprinters and Combativity classifications respectively mimic the real life King of Mountains, Points and Combativity classifications (well, the latter doesn't actually exist anymore), by tallying up only the points making up the relevant categories: summit and daily KOM for Climbers, intermediate sprints and daily PC for Sprinters, and breakaway points for Combativity.

And we have a sweep: Cyclohexane wins all three side classifications, thanks to Ciccone (KOM winner), Milan (best placed TCAT in PC) and their plethora of breakaway riders. This is their first sweep and the fourth overall (GHST swept in Spain 2022 and Italy 2025, and MCB swept in Spain 2023). This is also Cyclohexane's third win in the Sprinters's classification, their first in the Climbers' and their second (with a likely points record) in Combativity.

Sprinters's classification (podium only)
Cyclohexane 551
Gordon Hiatus Support Team 367
Els Talossaes Rexhitais 269

Climbers's classification (podium only)
Cyclohexane 718
Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs 699
Team In The Wind 657

Combativity classification (podium only)
Cyclohexane 300
Gordon Hiatus Support Team 100
Cézembre Fieschā 100

[Sir Lüc]

And lastly, as per recent custom, the

ALL-TIME STAGE WINNERS

	Team	Stage Wins	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
	Banqeu da Cézembre (BDC)	53	11	15	20	5	2
	Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	43	6	5	11	13	8
	Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	19	3	4	4	6	2
	Cyclohexane (CHX)	18	-	8	2	5	3
	Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	17	-	3	9	5	-
	Mençeis/Gagnheirs (MMM)	17	5	11	-	-	1
	Cézembre Fieschă (CFA)	16	-	2	9	5	0
	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)	8	-	1	1	4	2
	Kinetic Racing (KIN)	4	3	0	-	1	-
	Team In The Wind (KIN)	3	-	-	-	-	3
	els Averatxeirs (ATX)	2	-	2	-	0	-
	Valcürïăs (VAL)	2	2	0	-	-	-

Two teams, Ardita and Manilows, took part in at least a TCAT leg but did not win a stage.

[Sir Lüc]

And that's pretty much it. See you in about two weeks for the opening of registrations for TCAT France, and don't forget to check Wittenberg for any stray podcasts that might land in the meantime:)