Summary: Up 3-0 after 10 minutes, this one was a stroll in the park for Limerick FC. Two goals for David Whyte and William Fitzgerald.

Rating: 7.4 - Mostly a bystander. Just got a decent rating because the team won by so much.

Player of Game: David Whyte, Limerick FC (9.5)

Summary: Hat trick for Glen McAuley. Limerick got its shots off, but couldn't keep pace with Glen. A harsh three-goal deficit given the flow of the game. Limerick left to lick its wounds.

Rating: 6.7 - I was on the field. That's about it.

Player of Game: Glen McAuley, Cork City (9.5)

Summary: A cup final for the ages. Five days after getting slapped around by Cork City in league play, Limerick FC gets its revenge with its first Munster Senior Cup trophy since 2015 — knocking off defending champs Cork City in the process.

Early goal in the 17th minute by Jack Massey put Limerick in control. Then, defender Alex O'Hanlon picked the perfect time to score his first goal for Limerick in the 56th minute.

Jack Barthram allowed Cork back in the match with a poor challenge in the box. He was booked and Chris Fagen slammed in the ensuing penalty shot.

Limerick fans sat on the edge of their seats for the final 25 minutes. Attack after attack by Cork City was fended off until the final whistle.

Limerick cup champions again!

Rating: 6.2 - Gave away too many balls in the midfield and nearly cost us the game. Instead, Barthram takes a bunch of the heat and I sneak under the radar while celebrating my first major victory as a professional footballer. Doesn't matter how it happened, at the end of the day this achievement still ends up on my resume.

Player of Game: Alex O'Hanlon, Limerick FC (7.7)

- Each member gets 5.0 points to spread however they like over the 36 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- 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.
-Locked stats can't be upgraded.
-Comment below to provide stat upgrades.

Summary: Saving energy and good positioning were key in this bumpy but flat rated one-day race. As expected, a bunch sprint ended the day.


Result: 3rd - Unable to get around Edward Planckaert and Barnabas Peak. But managed to nip well-known Mathieu Van Der Poel on the line for third. I'll certainly take that. Good start to the month.

Summary: Narrow roads cause problems. Not a lot of happy sprinters at the end of this one, and you can't really blame them.

Result: 29th - Honestly, just happy there wasn't a crash. This was a sketchy race and I backed off in the final kilometers to avoid a possible injury. The race organizers deserve to be sued after this one.

Summary: Twisty streets through the city of Horsens allows a few of the morning breakaway riders to barely stay away. Again, not a course designed with the cyclists' safety in mind. One big crash did occur.


Result: 12th - That was pure chaos. Came out alive, though. I have no interest in coming back to Denmark anytime soon.

Summary: Drama early on as race favourite Marcus Diamond is on the tarmac. Weather conditions are dangerous, but the race is pushing on. The lightning strikes aren't close enough to force a cancellation, and the wet roads are just an obstacle to be conquered. Diamond, despite getting covered in mud, looks okay to continue.


EvoPro Racing just can't catch a break. As soon as they get Diamond back into the peloton, another crash. This one takes down Belgium cobbler Lionel Taminiaux — winner of the Triptyque des Monts et Chateaux earlier this season.


When the dust (and rain) settles for a moment with 10kms go, only 11 cyclists remain in the lead and surprisingly both crash victims Diamond and Taminiaux are still here.


Then there were five on the final cobbled sector.


Three... Taminiaux, Diamond and Frederik Backaert.


Two... The EvoPro duo with a stunning performance in Belgium.


But who gets the win? Both deserve it. Only one can have it...


Diamond comes off Taminiaux's wheel to secure his fifth professional win over his teammate. Perhaps a little redemption after what happened at the Triptyque des Monts et Chateaux. Either way, hats off to both cyclists.

Result: 1st -

Summary: Passing of the torch. After three seasons of dominating the Great Britain ITT Championship, 35-year-old Geraint Thomas takes third place this year behind 22-year-old winner Larry Gooden and 24-year-old runner-up Matthew Gibson.

Result: 23rd - Average I'd say. I feel like I say this every year, but I'm not a TT guy. Finished three minutes and 48 seconds behind Gooden.

- Each member gets 3.0 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: A pair of goals by Belgium striker Arne Naudts, plus a penalty converted by Sam Strijbosch was enough to keep VVSB at bay.

Rating: 6.7 - Feeling things out and getting my boots wet.

Player of Game: Arne Naudts, Helmond Sport (8.8)

Summary: Oh no. Helmond Sport put forth a great effort to nearly knock off an Eredivisie side that was a point away from relegating a season ago, but disaster strikes. Two minutes after Nassim Amaarouk drilled a free kick to give Helmond a 1-0 lead, Marcus Diamond found himself at the wrong place the wrong time.


Rating: 6.7 - Stijn van Gassel made the first save, but the deflection hit my backside and trickled into the back of the net. Tough way to draw a game and not the kind of impression I want to be making.

Player of Game: Nassim Amaarouk, Helmond Sport (8.2)

Summary: One shot on target, one goal for Berchem Sport. Helmond Sport peppers the Belgium side with four different players scoring.

Rating: 8.3 - Picked up an assist off a corner kick on the second goal by Jeroen Verkennis. Just the performance I needed to build confidence heading into the regular season. Is it enough to earn a starting spot? We shall see.

Player of Game: Ilias El-Arguioui, Helmond Sport (8.7)

- Each member gets 5.0 points to spread however they like over the 36 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- 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.
-Locked stats can't be upgraded.
-Comment below to provide stat upgrades.

Summary: Morning breakaway reeled in with 35kms to go. Will a late attacker try to break free or is predicted sprint finish on the cards?


Geraint Thomas doesn't want a sprint. On the final incline, he is followed by Scott Thwaites, Marcus Diamond, Thomas Pidcock and Ian Stannard.


None of them volunteer to do the pace making and a 21-cyclist peloton picks them back up with 9kms to go.


Sprint finish it is then. The 36-year-old Manx Missile still has the legs to defend his national road race title from last year. Hats off to the veteran.

Result: 18th - Started my sprint way too early. Disappointing with my mom and little sister waiting for me at the finish line.

Summary: Beautiful day overlooking Boundary Bay. We are in the south part of Vancouver near the U.S. border for lower tier one-day race.


Fast forward to 7kms to go and the morning breakaway of five has been caught. Pavel Sivakov thinks he get beat the tempo being set on the front and accelerates.


Surprisingly, Sivakov succeeds in pulling eight cyclists away from the peloton. The best sprinters left in this group are Jan-Willem Van Schip and Marcus Diamond.


But this won't be the winning move. The peloton catches up right before the banner. It's anybody's game now.


Blasting out of the chasers group and into the lead is Martin Laas, arguably one of the fastest men in the peloton. But did he get too excited? The finish is still 1,000 meters out.


Diamond has been waiting and waiting. He could have attacked 2kms ago and could have followed Laas, but no. The Brit has waited until now and finds a gap on the outside. Maybe he learned his lesson after the NC RR.


Or, Diamond has waited too long... This is final push to the line.


Inspiring performance from Marcus Diamond. What a sprint!

Result: 1st - Chalk down career win No. 6. I could get used to this...


The only thing missing was Alycia.

It was then, standing on the podium, I saw her off to the side of the stage. I jumped down and I approached her. She smiled and we hugged.

"Hey, thanks for coming. You didn't respond, so I thought you weren't going to show up."

"Yeah, I wasn't sure. Glad I did though, congrats on the win."

"Thanks. I would have won by more if I knew you were watching."

"I see somebody is still full of themselves."

"Hey, I'd do anything to see that pretty smile again."

I immediately regretted saying that. Too forward and way too cheesy. And yet, she laughed. She had a look in her eye and I decided to go in for a kiss. Alycia backed away at the last possible moment.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I'm kind of seeing somebody else right now."

So, that's why she was ghosting me. I felt like I had taken a sucker punch to the gut, and wished I was still on the podium basking in all my glory. Heck, even the podium girls provided a couple of kisses.

Summary: The puncheurs can't be separated and a peloton of 41 cyclists sprints to the line in one big cluster. A surprise winner with Chinese cyclist Zhang Zheng nipping everyone at the finish.

Result: 10th - Not bad given the level of competition here. If it was a flat finish, then I think I could have grabbed a few more spots.

Date	Race	Winner
1-Jul	Danish Championships	Mikkel Frolich Honoré
1-Jul	Swiss Championships	Sébastien Reichenbach
1-Jul	Kazakh Championships	Vadim Pronskiy
1-Jul	Canadian Championships	Marc-Antoine Nadon
1-Jul	Norwegian Championships	Odd Christian Eiking
1-Jul	USA Championships	Tejay Van Garderen
1-Jul	Russian Championships	Alexandr Kulikovskiy
1-Jul	Portuguese Championships	Ruben Guerreiro
1-Jul	Polish Championships	Alan Banaszek
1-Jul	Czech Championships	Zdenek Stybar
1-Jul	Ukrainian Championships	Timur Maleiev
1-Jul	Great Britain Championships	Mark Cavendish
1-Jul	Irish Championships	Sam Bennett
1-Jul	Slovenian Championships	Matej Mohoric
1-Jul	Italian Championships	Giulio Ciccone
1-Jul	Slovak Championships	Michael Kolar
1-Jul	French Championships	Bryan Coquard
1-Jul	Austrian Championships	Daniel Auer
1-Jul	Spanish Championships	Ion Izagirre
1-Jul	Belgian Championships	Tiesj Benoot
1-Jul	Solidarnosc et des Champions	Dayer Quintana
1-Jul	German Championships	Marcel Kittel
1-Jul	Dutch Championships	Tom Dumoulin
4-Jul	Sibiu Cycling Tour	Edward Ravasi
6-Jul	GP Internacional Torres Vedras	Sergey Chernetskiy
7-Jul	Tour de France	Egan Arley Bernal
7-Jul	Int. Österreich Rundfahrt	Tadej Pogacar
8-Jul	White Spot / Delta Road Race	Marcus Diamond
15-Jul	Tour of Qinghai Lake	Esteban Chaves
25-Jul	Grand Prix Cerami	Wesley Kreder
25-Jul	Prueba Villafranca-Ordiziako Klasika	Merhawi Kudus
26-Jul	La Tour Alsace	Evgenii Kazanov
27-Jul	VOO-Tour de Wallonie	Ivan Sosa
29-Jul	GP Kranj	Zhang Zheng
31-Jul	Circuito de Getxo	Patrick Konrad
31-Jul	RideLondon-Surrey Classic	Jose Alfredo Rodriguez
1-Aug	PostNord Danmark Rundt
1-Aug	Volta a Portugal
4-Aug	Hansa Bygg Kalmar Road Race	Marcus Diamond In
4-Aug	Tour de Pologne
4-Aug	Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
5-Aug	La Poly Normande
6-Aug	The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah
7-Aug	Vuelta a Burgos
9-Aug	Czech Cycling Tour	Marcus Diamond In
11-Aug	KOGA Slag om Norg
13-Aug	BinckBank Tour
15-Aug	Tour du Limousin - Nouvelle Aquitaine
16-Aug	Arctic Race of Norway
16-Aug	Colorado Pro Classic
19-Aug	EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg
21-Aug	Baltic Chain Tour
21-Aug	GP Stad Zottegem
22-Aug	Arnhem-Veenendaal Classic
23-Aug	Deutschland Tour
25-Aug	Vuelta a España
25-Aug	Omloop Mandel-Leie-Schelde
25-Aug	Bretagne Classic-Ouest France
26-Aug	Ronde van Midden Nederland
26-Aug	Croatia-Slovenia	Marcus Diamond In
29-Aug	Druivenkoers - Overijse

24-year-old Egan Arley Bernal wins his third straight TDF title nearly three minutes ahead of Emanuel Buchmann and the next French hope Leo Vincent. Green jersey to Arnaud Demare and KoM to Zdenek Stybar.

- Each member gets 3.0 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