Summary: A boring first half tried to bleed over into the second half. Both teams, however, salvage a goal to get something out of this form building friendly. We move on swiftly.

Rating: 7.0 - Felt good to back on the pitch for 90 minutes.

Player of Game: Oualid Elyounoussi, Jong Feyenoord (7.1)

Summary: Three first-half goals from Bilai Basacikoglu, Cheick Toure and Nick Foss lift Feyenoord to its fourth Super Cup win in the last five years. FC Utrecht tried to make it interesting with two late goals, but Nick Foss sealed the deal with a stoppage time goal in the 91st minute.

Rating: 7.2 - Assisted Cheick Toure's goal with a low-driven cross before getting subbed off due to fatigue in the 65th minute. Solid debut, I'd say. Plus another trophy added to my accolades.

Player of Game: Nick Foss, Feyenoord (8.8)

Summary: Jong Feyenoord scores early and often in a 4-1 rout.

Rating: 7.9 - Five minutes before crawling off to the bench, I slipped Thijs Visser behind Homburg's backline for another assist. So, let me count... That's eight total assists in my last six games. Not bad.

Player of Game: Marcus Diamond, Jong Feyenoord (7.9)

- Each member gets 6.5 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.

Summary: Harry Tanfield and Luke Rowe spoil the sprinters by jumping out in front of the peloton with 6kms to go. The late attack caught everybody off guard and the chase was unorganized.

So, a surprising RR champion emerged.

The sprinters were led home by Lucy van der Haar. She will surely be disappointed her teammates, Marcus Diamond and her sister Grace Garner, didn't help bring back the two late attackers.

Result: 8th - Before we start pointing fingers, I didn't realize Lucy had that much left in the tank. Also, I thought the other big teams would lift a finger. Nope. In hindsight, should I have helped chased? Probably. Live and you learn. Grace did well to sprint to a 12th place as well. Again, should she have helped chased? Probably.

Lucy wasn't too pleased after the race, so Grace and I kind of hid in my hotel room for the rest of the evening (well, until we went out for a ride).

Summary: Great day for some racing. Not so great for the cyclists that got caught up in two early crashes, but let's look past that.


Getting close to the finish now, as 22 lead cyclists conquer the Tienne du Dragon climb for the final time. Wait, we are getting word that one brave soul has used this as a launching pad to go for glory.


Flying down the other side of the hill is Marcus Diamond!


It's a bold move because there is still a long ways to go, about 5kms, to reach the finish line. That's enough time for the chasers to lock in.


Diamond is doing everything in his power to keep everybody behind him. But our power metrics show the riders behind him are sprinting at least three times faster. Diamond will need to find some more juice or he is going to get caught on the line.


What a finish! So unbelievable close. But Diamond does it by inches. Check that, centimeters. Stunning way to get win No. 2 on the season.

Result: 1st - I thought I lost. I saw Giacomo Nizzolo going zipping past me as I lunged for the line. I didn't believe my eyes when I saw the photo finish. It doesn't get much closer than that. Party time!

- 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: What a terrible way to start the season for Danny Bakker — a red card 93 seconds into the match. Feyenoord will be disappointed to only find one goal from 21-year-old budding star Dylan Klok after playing a man up the whole match.

Rating: 6.9 - Happy I got a start, but not a dazzling debut like I'm know for. We still got three points and that's really all that matters.

Player of Game: Nick Foss, Feyenoord (8.1)

Summary: Feyenoord takes it to the former Jupiler League side with three first-half goals. Go Ahead Eagles pull back two goals in the second half with only three shots on target. But, not enough.

Rating: 7.9 - Slipped through Nick Foss for the opening goal and with my final touch of the game before getting subbed I used my head (I know, I'm just as surprised as you are) to score my first goal for Feyenoord!


Player of Game: Dylan Klok, Feyenoord (8.6)

Summary: All hail Dylan Klok. Four first-half goals skyrockets Klok to being the top goal scorer so far in the young Eredivisie season. Winger Nick Foss rolled an ankle but should be able to go by next week. While Feyenoord continues to score in bunches, the concern has to be the leaky defense. Given up three goals to NAC isn't a good sign.

Rating: 6.7 - Surprisingly, despite all the goals scored, I didn't do much.

Player of Game: Dylan Klok, Feyenoord (9.7)

Summary: Late substitution Bilal Basacikoglu comes to Feyenoord's rescue with a game-tying goal in the 85th minute. Looking at the stats, a draw was more than deserved after dominating possession and getting off more shots.

Rating: 6.4 - Came on at halftime for a struggling Nick Foss. Pizarro moved out to play wing and I took over at CAM. Again, wasn't very effective. Probably was the reason why Feyenoord decided to pull the trigger on bringing Otavio in three days later.

Player of Game: Branco van den Boomen, AZ (7.5)

Summary: A pretty big shake up in the Nigeria side following the World Cup. Jay-Jay Okocha wants to experiment with new players and setups. Some of the new faces include the so-called wonderkid from Spain in John Hamzat, the increasingly rare sweeper defender Henry Williams and 21-year-old midfielder Samson Usman.

It didn't really matter who they would have thrown out there, this was always going to be a sizable win against Burundi, ranked 146th in the world. Nigeria has moved up to 25th after the World Cup.

Rating: 7.1 - Getting used to my new role. We could also end up using a two CAM formation in the future to keep Kelechi Iheanacho in the Starting XI. Either way, Hamzat is here to stay and I have to prove I deserve to be on the field at the same time as him.

Player of Game: Alex Iwobi, Nigeria (9.2)

- Each member gets 6.5 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.

Summary: Coming in as the top favourites, SEG Racing Academy will be disappointed with a fourth place finish. And even more discouraged with last year's winner Marcus Diamond losing contact with the TTT unit and giving away an additional 10 seconds. Work ahead if they want to overtake Team Dimension Data.

Result: 4th - Slipped off the pedals late and it cost me a few extra seconds. A stupid mistake that I hope doesn't end up hurting me later.

Summary: This stage was always going to be for the strong sprinters.

Result: 10th - Didn't quite have the top end speed.

Summary: Ascending the penultimate climb, Marcus Diamond is trying a long distance attack. An 11-man morning breakaway is threatening to take the win 4 minutes up the road and SEG Racing Academy still has Lizzie Deignan in the peloton if this move backfires.


A handful of other favourites, including the yellow jersey of Amanda Spratt, have caught up with Diamond going up the final climb.


However, none of them are going to catch solo breakaway man Kristijan Durasek. He came into the stage over a minute and a half back of yellow, so it's going to be close if he can surpass Spratt for the GC lead.


Spratt does lead the chasers home for second place, and loses 1'07" to Durasek. She saved her GC lead. Much thanks to Marcus Diamond for pushing the pace.

Result: 6th, 4th GC, 1st Youth - Made the smart team move and it worked out for me individually. Still have an outside chance to win the tour tomorrow, but Spratt is looking really strong.

Summary: Marcus Diamond tried this move yesterday, and the peloton was waiting for it today. The Brit is unable to create any distance off the front and that will end any chance he had at defending his title.


Ryan Gibbons will beat the tour winner Amanda Spratt to the line for the stage win. It will be the third win of the season for Spratt, the seventh overall pick in the Entry Draft held at the start of the year.

Result: 17th, 4th GC, 1st Youth - What else was I supposed to do?

Summary: Spectacular views as the cyclists take off from the coast of Engenes and head more inland to Narvik in the Northern part of Norway. The race itself, however, was quite boring. No attacks and 57 cyclists sprinted toward the line to decide the winner.


Denmark man Soren Kragh Andersen, accustomed to bumpy Northern European terrain bested Aussie Simon Clarke for the opening stage win. Close chaos behind for the next 20 spots.

Result: 5th - Used my big frame to block out some competitors. Not a bad result but no time bonuses awarded in this race, so just being in the front group was the main thing.

Summary: Big crash with 35kms to go has everyone in panic for what should have been an easy sprint stage. The chase back is handled well though and everybody is grouped together 10kms later.


No, you aren't looking at more pictures of the first crash. Another huge crash wipes out most of the peloton with 11kms to go. Only 13 cyclists have managed to avoid the wreckage and create a gap up front.


Bryan Coquard goes down as the lucky one today. Not only does he take the stage win, but those 13 cyclists up front earned a 1'16" gap to the rest of the field.

Result: 41st - Caught up in both crashes, as did everyone else wearing the SEG Racing Academy colors. Luckily no major injuries for us. But four cyclists did withdraw after today's wackiness.

Summary: We skip right to the climb to the line. Time to see how the crashes yesterday have hindered (or not hindered) the punchuers.


Not much separation to be seen as the finish comes into view.


Marcus Diamond looking strong today. He surges into the lead.


Merhawi Kudus uses Diamond's slipstream to overtake.


Kudus holds off Diamond for the win. The duo also gets a 13-second gap to everybody else. That would have been more helpful if both of them didn't lose time yesterday due to the crashes.

Result: 2nd, 10th GC, 1st Youth - No shame losing to a guy like Kudus. We had a nice friendly chat after the race. Cool guy. Also, no way we get that 13-second gap if we are racing in Belgium.

Summary: Almost everybody could have seen this move coming. The youthful and energetic Marcus Diamond is going for glory on the final incline of the four-day tour. Surprisingly, a slow response from the field. Diamond did a good job of hiding his white jersey and attacking on the apex of the final corner going up the hill.


Not only could nobody follow, there is a significant gap there.


Car get out of the way! Diamond is coming through.


The courageous Brit has done it. Diamond wins his third race of the season, 10th of his young career. That said, he will be disappointed not to get a gap here on the final stage to improve on his 10th GC placing.

Result: 1st, 10th GC, 1st Youth - Might have celebrated a tad too early and didn't gain any extra seconds. But, when a gutsy attack like that works out, you got to celebrate, right?

Summary: Amanda Spratt kicking off the fireworks with an attack 16kms from the finish. She breaks away solo.


Spratt is pulled back 5kms later, but here she is going again.


Spratt experiences the same result: Caught 5kms later. Now, a new attack. It's Marcus Diamond, who has had a very active month. He is coming off a stage win in his last race using a similar late attack. Although, there aren't any hills here to help create separation.


Diamond leads an angry chase group into the town center of Veenendaal.


The remaining sprinters have reached Diamond. It looked like he just ran out of gas in the final 600 meters. But, it was probably the right move. No way he would have challenged for the win with how fast this finish is.


Two Belgians battle for the win. Enzo Wouters overtakes Edward Theuns.

Result: 4th - Both Alex Vogel and sprinter Bram Welten had bad form days, so I had to take matters into my own hands. The attack almost paid off. But, still, a fourth place against some top-tier sprinters is nice.

Date	Race	Winner
1-Aug	PostNord Danmark Rundt	Arnaud Démare
1-Aug	Volta a Portugal	Tanel Kangert
4-Aug	Hansa Bygg Kalmar Road Race	Rasmus Tiller
4-Aug	Tour de Pologne	Julian Alaphilippe
4-Aug	Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian	Jesús Herrada
5-Aug	La Poly Normande	Elia Viviani
6-Aug	The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah	Mikel Landa
7-Aug	Vuelta a Burgos	Egan Arley Bernal
9-Aug	Czech Cycling Tour	Amanda Spratt
11-Aug	KOGA Slag om Norg	Edvald Boasson Hagen
13-Aug	BinckBank Tour	Nils Politt
15-Aug	Tour du Limousin - Nouvelle Aquitaine	Natnael Berhane
16-Aug	Arctic Race of Norway	Jhonatan Restrepo
16-Aug	Colorado Pro Classic	Lucas Hamilton
19-Aug	EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg	Caleb Ewan
21-Aug	Baltic Chain Tour	Barnabas Peak
21-Aug	GP Stad Zottegem	Edward Theuns
22-Aug	Arnhem-Veenendaal Classic	Enzo Wouters
23-Aug	Deutschland Tour	Bauke Mollema
25-Aug	Vuelta a España
25-Aug	Omloop Mandel-Leie-Schelde	Christophe Noppe
25-Aug	Bretagne Classic-Ouest France	Arnaud Démare
26-Aug	Ronde van Midden Nederland	Elmar Reinders
26-Aug	Croatia-Slovenia	Jaka Primozic
29-Aug	Druivenkoers - Overijse	Edward Theuns
1-Sep	Brussels Cycling Classic
2-Sep	OVO Energy Tour of Britain	Marcus Diamond In
2-Sep	Schaal Sels
2-Sep	Circuit de Fourmies
5-Sep	Tour of South Bohemia
7-Sep	Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
8-Sep	De Kustpijl
9-Sep	Chrono Champenois
9-Sep	Tour du Doubs
9-Sep	Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
12-Sep	Grand Prix de Wallonie
14-Sep	Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
15-Sep	Coppa Agostoni - Giro delle Brianze
15-Sep	Primus Classic
16-Sep	GP Jef Scherens - Rondom Leuven
16-Sep	Coppa Bernocchi
16-Sep	Judendorf-Strassengel
18-Sep	GP Industria e Commercio di Prato
18-Sep	Giro della Toscana
20-Sep	Coppa Sabatini
21-Sep	Omloop van de Westhoek
22-Sep	Memorial Marco Pantani
22-Sep	Tour de l'Eurométropole
23-Sep	Gooikse Pijl
23-Sep	Grand Prix d'Isberques
23-Sep	Trofeo Matteotti
26-Sep	World Championships ITT
27-Sep	Famenne Ardennes Classic	Marcus Diamond In
30-Sep	World Championships	*Marcus Diamond In

- 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