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.

[Sir Lüc]

Stage 10  »  Aurillac  ›  Le Lioran

A tough stage peppered with categorised climbs saw a large breakaway never being allowed to get too far, with Tadej Pogacar's (BDC/CFA/CHX/CJO/GHS/MMM) team deciding this too was a day for general classification riders to win (specifically, him). Perhaps surprisingly, upon the breakaway being caught, it was Richard Carapaz (BDC/CHX/CJO) who immediately attacked to try and go for a long shot win, but he too was reeled back in by the Slovenian en route to another stage win.

Second was Evenepoel (CFA/CJO/REX/VFL), in front of Seixas (CFA) and Lipowitz (CHX/GHS/REX), with Ayuso (EVC/REX), Skjelmose (MMM) and Vingegaard (BDC/EVC/VFL) completing the chasing group. Bad day for Del Toro (CHX/EVC/GHS/MMM/REX/VFL) then, who finished eighth but paid up to one minute to Evenepoel and the others, therefore slipping four places in GC. Rounding off the top 10, Pidcock (EVC/REX) finished 9th despite a crash while descending in the final stages, and erstwhile attacker Carapaz had to settle for 11th.

Fourth consecutive stagewin for REX, a feat only matched by Velocostă (during France 2025), GHST (Spain 2024) and Banqeu de Cézembre (Italy 2024). And the odds for a fifth and maybe sixth win in a row look great, as a sprint is assured today and likely tomorrow, REX being the only team that can count on effectively three sprinters.

Standings after stage 10:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	4825	+762
2nd	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	4461	+677
3rd	(+1)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	4382	+699
4th	(-1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	4307	+596
5th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	4137	+504
6th	(=)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	4082	+528
7th	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	3261	+519
8th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	3183	+679
9th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	2669	+579

As mentioned, today sees the sprinters getting involved again. Very difficult to see REX not winning this one as well if Bittner, Pedersen and Godon all keep finishing in or near the top ten. If that doesn't happen, the non-Pedersen/Bittner teams might get a shot if their sprinter wins; Kooij (BDC/GHS) and Kanter (CHX) would seem the strongest candidates, but non-TCAT Merlier seems difficult to beat at the moment.