Talossan Cycling Association Tour Season 5 Leg 2: Barcelona -> Paris

[Glüc]

The heat is absurd... I saw a story on it and how everyone is basically swaddling themselves in ice when they're not competing.

Yeah it's wild. I get nauseous just thinking about having to physical exercise for more than 10 minutes at 40C, and these guys just do 150-200 km of cycling at high speed in those temperatures day after day. How do they even think about stagewins or classifications? I'd only be concerned with not actually dying...

[Glüc]

Stage 9   »   Malemort  ›  Ussel

The stage was shortened yesterday because of the extreme heat. A short stage usually means a lot of activity however, and the hilly terrain favoured attackers, so everyone wanted to be the in the break, thinking an attack would likely be succesful. It would take a long time before a definite break was formed, eventually including Van der Poel (REX/VFL), T.H. Johannessen (GHS/VFL), Pidcock (REX/EVC), Baudin (GHS/CHX), and a couple others. Only these four reached the finish before the peloton, where some riders never quite gave up the fight and made it a close race until the very end. Van der Poel won the sprint, followed by Johannessen and Pidcock.

A much reduced peloton finished only 6 seconds behind the quartet with Pedersen (MMM/REX/EVC) finishing in 6th place overall. The only rider from the top 10 GC not to be present in the peloton and dropping out of contention for top 10 was Vacek.

It was a big score for Els Talossaes Rexhital, who take over the lead from the Menceis in the standing.

Standings after stage 9:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(+1)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4063	+777
2nd	(-1)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	3784	+416
3rd	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	3711	+583
4th	(-1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	3683	+398
5th	(+1)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	3633	+681
6th	(-1)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	3554	+505
7th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	2742	+160
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	2504	+206
9th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2090	+170

Today is a much needed restday. Tomorrow, we will go into the Massif Central for a stage with a lot of vertical meters spread out over many climbs. A day for the more punchy climbers and gc guys, with Pogacar realistically being the big favourite.