Summary: Four late attackers have a 30-second cushion over the sprinters with 2kms to go. Leading the race are Lutsenko (black), Valgren (red), Gall (white) and Diamond (pink).


Under the banner! Valgren goes first. Sprinters coming from behind!


Gall kicks. Diamond trying to match.


Gall around Valgren but don't count Diamond out just yet.


Oh my! It's Valgren with an extra gear to take the win!

Result: 3rd - Great riding to be in that lead group in the final kilometers, just didn't have the strength to pass Valgren or Gall. Props to them.

- Each member gets 4.0 points to spread however they like over the 13 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- Stats work on a decimal system starting at 55.0.
- Stats are bumped up in PCM when they hit that number, ex. 55.9 = 55 in-game, and 61.4 = 61 stat in-game.
- The decimal numbers will remain hidden.
- There is a threshold for each stat when more points are needed to increase that stat. It's start off on a 1-to-1 scale where 1 point equals 1 stat upgrade. However, the scales get exponentially further and further apart the closer that stat gets to the maximum of 85. The increasing scale will also remain a mystery.
- Comment below to provide stat upgrades

Summary: The referee glances down at his watch, can't be much time left in this one. Sudan, after being outshot 34-6 (6-4 shots on target) just needs to hang on for a few more seconds to steal a draw.

Careless. Sudan turns the ball over. Nigeria with numbers going the other way. Ndidi plays the ball up the wing to Ehizibue, who whips the ball to the back post. Success gathers the cross and plays across to Hamzat.

Hamzat picks his head up in the box, looking for options. He has two teammates to aim for in the mixer and slides the pass through...


Late arriving Marcus Diamond buries the game-winner with a bullet off his left foot. His fifth goal for his country is a memorable one.

Nigeria fans rejoice. Ecstatically.

Somebody should tell them it's only a meaningless friendly.

Rating: 7.2 - Legendary moment! I needed this to re-establish myself as a key contributor to this team. I deserve to be here. I want to be on this roster when we make it back to the World Cup.

Player of Game: Faisal Haroun, Sudan (8.6)

Summary: The home crowd favourite Gino Mader loses the opening GC lead and stage win to Aussie Rohan Dennis by a couple milliseconds.

Result: 101st (+35") - Who invented prologues? Still beat Grace by six seconds so a good result, hehe. Shoutout to the best placing SEG rider, Kenny Lynch, who finished 9th, 10 seconds off the leaders.

Summary: Marcus Diamond leads us up and over the last climb today with 20kms left. Let's assume the goal was to drop some of the stronger sprinters, but it clearly hasn't worked with Vos and Wiebes alongside him.

The race leader Rohan Dennis was dropped momentarily but rejoins the group on the downhill. Looks like the hills today weren't very decisive.


Mathieu van der Poel keeps the front group together on the downhill in service of Diamond. No luck for any late attackers. Bunch sprint it is.


Oh my! SEG has played a trick on the peloton! Van der Poel slams on the breaks and Diamond starts his sprint way early. The only man smart enough to notice this move is Tim Wellens.

The duo have a gap and the sprinters who were following Van der Poel are completely confused as we go under the banner!


Wellens out of Diamond's slipstream with 500 meters left. Everyone else is scrabbling to recover behind. It's a pretty significant gap.


Wellens wins the stage, but give credit where it's truly due. SEG outplayed the peloton today and Diamond is rewarded nicely with a second place... but no time gap. The race organizers are clearly blind.

And then they decide to gift the race leader's jersey to the home favourite Gino Mader based on today's result even though Dennis finished in the front group on the same time.

Lot of outrage in the peloton right now. And rightfully so.

Result: 2nd, 41st GC (+29") - Organizers wanted their own guy leading the race, what more needs to be said? Stupid but we all know the UCI will turn a blind eye. Props to Wellens on a good, clean sprint to the line.

Summary: Van der Poel is gearing up the peloton for the climb to the finish line. Marcus Diamond must be feeling good again today.


There Diamond goes!


Way too early. Another home crowd favourite, Mickael Jaquier, gets a roar from the crowd as he beats Danny Van Poppel and Lorena Wiebes.

Result: 14th, 41st GC (+29") - Peloton didn't bite on our tricks this time around. Made me look a little foolish.

Summary: Welcome to the final climb of the day up the Villars-Sur-Ollon. It's 11.8kms at 7.2% to reach the finish line and shake up the GC contenders. We have 75 cyclists left in the peloton as we reach the base. Breakaway already caught.


With SEG setting a pretty decent tempo, Adam Yates decides its not fast enough and starts the attacks 7.8kms out. Fraile and Niewiadoma follow.


Diamond looks around at his teammates and its made clear they don't have much left and he is forced to attack late to follow this attack.


However, it doesn't stick. Everybody back together with 4.5kms left.


In the shadow of the trees, Diamond kicks off the second round of attacks. Grosschartner and Fraile are the first to respond with Yates caught a little off guard.


Yates does get across the gap, so Diamond stops working.


This allows a handful of others to bridge across to the four leaders, including Geoghegan Hart, Shirshov, Moscon, Pinot, Niewiadoma, Beeckman and Nibali.

Shirshov and Moscon can't hang to contest the final sprint, won by...


Tao Geoghegan Hart over his fellow countryman Yates. Fraile third.

Result: 5th, 6th GC (+25") - Gave it one strong dig. Maybe I win the stage if I just wait for the sprint at the top. But, my attack was the one that created some gaps. Worth the attempt.

Summary: Superstar sprinter Lorena Wiebes survives the HC climb up Simplonpass to take a rare mountain stage victory.

Result: 4th, 6th GC (+25"), 3rd Points - Despite the team's best effort, we didn't make today hard enough to drop the pure sprinters.

Summary: Coming up on the summit of the final climb and we get the first major move! Geoghegan Hart is attacking the yellow jersey of Adam Yates. Marcus Diamond grabs Yates' wheel.

That's three Brits blowing up this race!

In front of them is the last remaining breakaway rider Alex Howes and long-range attacker Pinot, who went from the base of the climb. Still 3.8kms to the top.


It's the five of them coming together. 2.4kms left to climb!


Howes dropped. Diamond leads the four leaders over the top with a 35-second gap back to the others. 9.7kms remaining. All downhill. Who can recover the best?


Before the plummet to the finish, eight riders drag themselves back to the leaders. They are Bjerg, Roglic, Howes, Shirshov, Frankiny, Fraile, Beeckman and Moscon.

Everyone starts battling for position.


Nooooo. Look away. It's a very nasty crash on the downhill. Diamond hit the pavement first after getting shoulder checked off his bike by Geoghegan Hart, who was trying to get around a narrow corner. Fraile, Frankiny and Roglic crash into Diamond.

What a disaster... The live pictures looked nasty, but we are hopefully this isn't too serious for the sake of these four riders.


Thank goodness. All of them are getting back on their bikes.


Adam Yates wins the stage ahead of today's villain Geoghegan Hart.


You love to see it. The determination. Diamond sprints home to lead the second group of favourites to the line. The grimace in his face. He will lose 1'37" to the front group, and probably a stage win today.

Result: 9th (+1'37"), 9th GC (+2'12"), 5th Points, 3rd KoM - Didn't have to time to confront Geoghegan Hart after the stage because I was sent directly to the hospital. Thankfully, the x-rays came back negative. No broken bones, somehow. Doctors watched the replay on my crash and said I was extremely lucky.

Sore and battered, but you know I'll be on the start line tomorrow.

Summary: Here we go! Diamond goes early at the base of the final climb up the Tiefenbachferner. It looks like a desperation attack, but he does have his fiancée and SEG teammate Grace Garner in the 18-cyclist breakaway 2'22" up the road.


What a sight to behold this is. Diamond rides up to the breakaway where Grace is waiting to pull him further up the climb.


Grace pulls off with 8.3kms to climb. Reports have Diamond with over a minute gap to the chasers. Breakaway rider Diego Ulissi is wheel sucking.


Diamond is hammering on the pedals! Ulissi throws in the towel with 6.1kms remaining. The gap continues to grow over the other favourites who don't know what the right course of action is back in the peloton.


Under 5kms to go and unbelievably Diamond could be on the verge of taking the race lead with this attack. He needs 2'12" for yellow. But, with an ITT on Stage 9, Diamond needs probably closer to 4-5 minutes.

Still a long ways to go.


Light (and the finish) at the end of tunnel. Words can't describe this. After crashing yesterday, Diamond is destroying the favourites today with the help of his soon-to-be wife. What a wedding gift this could be.



Start the clock...


Adam Yates saves his yellow jersey by sprinting to the line for second. He comes in 1'51" behind Diamond, who skyrockets up to 2nd overall and takes the KoM lead as a result of today's performance.

Result: 1st, 2nd GC (+17"), 3rd Points, 1st KoM - Grace completely sacrificed herself, so I just had to win. For her. For us. Love her so much. Six more days until we tie the knot.

Summary: Short sprinter stage goes to the fastest lady, Lorena Wiebes.

Result: 22nd, 2nd GC (+17"), 4th Points, 1st KoM - Didn't put forth too much effort with the ITT tomorrow. I will win the KoM competition, but looking at my competitors, I doubt I keep my Top 5 GC placing.

Summary: Through the first of three time checks. Here is the situation:



Up the small incline to the second time check. An update:



And across the finish line to complete the 2025 Tour de Suisse!

Result: 29th (+1'30"), 4th GC (+1'45"), 4th Points, 1st KoM - If I don't lose 1'37" on the Stage 6 crash, I would have finished eight seconds behind Adam Yates. Still can't scoff too much at 4th overall, an iconic stage win and being the King of the Mountains winner. Wedding time!

Summary: Larry Gooden wins his fifth straight NC TT title despite 23-year-old Corey McLeod putting on some pressure in the typical UK rain.

Result: 11th (+2'14") - Best ever result in this race for national pride. In pretty good form, I guess, after returning from the honeymoon. Grace Garner-Diamond, not so much. She finishes 41st, over 5 minutes behind.

Summary: The Great Britain RR returns to Stanfordham after a year absence. The organizers like this route because it has shown to produce different winners, from late attacks to organized bunch sprints.

We pick the action up with 38kms to go. SEG has control the pace in the pack most of the day, but now Astana rider Thwaites is going solo off the front to catch the six morning breakaway riders.


The audacious move gives the peloton a carrot to chase and when Thwaites is caught with 32.5kms to go, his teammate and Tour de Suisse winner Adam Yates goes on the attack. With a flat-ish route like this, this is probably Yate's best chance to win today.


I guess they tried. But, everyone is back together with 24.4kms left.


10kms left and it's GCN Racing doing a bulk of the work now for sprinter Lawless so no further attacks can sneak away.


Geoghegan Hart with the leadout with Lawless behind him, followed by Townsend and Lucy van der Haar. Still 5.5kms left, so hopefully Geoghegan Hart has a lot left in his tank.

Otherwise, GCN has timed this horribly, horribly wrong.


Diamond senses the pace dropping slightly. This is his moment!


It's chaos behind. Regardless if Diamond makes it or not, this is a great team move with Van der Haar saving her legs for a sprint if needed.


Wow! That's the banner already! Diamond is flying!

Pidcock and Banks are trying to bridge the gap. The sprinters are setting up for their grand finale as well. The drama is unfolding fast!


Elizabeth Banks out of saddle and looks like the only one who could catch Diamond on the line. The 34-year-old is not only looking to win her first race in the mixed peloton, but become the first female to win the Great Britain road race.


Diamond grits his teeth and puts his head down. The rising superstar of British cycling would love to ride around in a special jersey throughout the Tour de France starting next week.




Result: 1st - YYYYYYYEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Let's carry this momentum into the Tour de France, shall we.

- Each member gets 4.0 points to spread however they like over the 13 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- Stats work on a decimal system starting at 55.0.
- Stats are bumped up in PCM when they hit that number, ex. 55.9 = 55 in-game, and 61.4 = 61 stat in-game.
- The decimal numbers will remain hidden.
- There is a threshold for each stat when more points are needed to increase that stat. It's start off on a 1-to-1 scale where 1 point equals 1 stat upgrade. However, the scales get exponentially further and further apart the closer that stat gets to the maximum of 85. The increasing scale will also remain a mystery.
- Comment below to provide stat upgrades

Summary: 90 minutes wasn't enough, but 97 minutes was. Ivory Coast stormed out of the gates with a goal in the first 25 seconds. Nigeria fought back with a strong second half, getting the equalizer by Alex Iwobi in the 47th minute. But, Marc Diallo's second goal in the first extra time carried Ivory Coast across the finish line and knock Nigeria out.

Rating: 6.8 - Didn't make much of an impact and was subbed off in the 58th minute because of that. Tough defeat. Nigeria fired head coach Manu Garba after the match and replaced him with Fidelis Ikechukwu.

Player of Game: Marc Diallo, Ivory Coast (8.7)

- Each member gets 8.0 points to spread however they like over the 36 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- Only stats that aren't locked can be upgraded.
- Stats work on a decimal system starting at 1.0.
- Stats are bumped up in FM when they hit that number, ex. 2.9 = 2 in-game, and 13.4 = 13 stat in-game.
- The decimal numbers will remain hidden.
- There is a threshold for each stat when more points are needed to increase that stat. It's start off on a 1-to-1 scale where 1 point equals 1 stat upgrade. However, the scales get exponentially further and further apart the closer that stat gets to the maximum of 20. The increasing scale will also remain a mystery and is different from the cycling progression scale.
-Comment below to provide stat upgrades.