Summary: A thrilling start to the Tour! Three riders finish within a second of each other. In the end, it's GC hopeful and last year's white jersey winner Maxim Shirshov who will wear the yellow jersey first this year. He finished 0.16 seconds faster than Mikkel Bjerg and 0.89 seconds faster than pre-race favourite Bob Jungels.

Plenty of GC favourites finish inside the Top 25. Biggest losers today, probably Katarzyna Niewiadoma (97th, +3'07"), Tadej Pogacar (66th, +2'19"), Enric Mas (49th, +1'54") and Marcus Diamond (43rd, +1'45").

Result: 43rd (+1'45") - For it being a 26.4kms ITT, this could have been a lot worse. Just saying. Thinking I can get most of this time back on the Stage 3 cobbles. Never like starting from behind, but this is manageable.

Summary: SEG is off to a flying start in its defense of the green jersey. But this isn't Marcus Diamond, it's 22-year-old Tebiro Pienaar who shocks the field to win the opening sprint stage! His first grand tour stage win nets him the green jersey to wear.

Result: 60th, 42nd GC (+1'45") - Pienaar making us proud! This is exactly why we brought him. It's great to get that first team win out of the way. Takes a ton of pressure off me moving forward, so I can solely focus on the fight for the yellow jersey.

Summary: The first of nine cobbled sectors has arrived. The morning breakaway is a minute up the road. 59kms left.


The first victim: Egan Arley Bernal with a puncture! The three-time winner remains in the peloton, but is at the way back. Also, suffering punctures is stage favourite Wout Van Aert and Sam Oomen.


SEG is putting the hammer down as we enter the third sector. The yellow jersey of Maxim Shirshov has fought back to this leading group, but is clearly struggling. Can't see him surviving much longer.


SEG has exhausted most of its team, but Marcus Diamond still has the green jersey of Pienaar to utilize with 33.7kms remaining.


Pienaar digs deep to cut the front group down to just 15 cyclists with 26.7kms left. Those remaining are:

Pienaar (SEG)
Diamond (SEG)
Van der Poel (SEG)
Van Baarle (Discovery)
Vliegen (Discovery)
Zijlaard (Discovery)
Benoot (Sunweb)
Politt (Sunweb)
Teunissen (Sunweb)
Sagan (T-Mobile)
Jungels (T-Mobile)
Wiebes (AEGON)
Bjerg (AEGON)
Moscon (Tap Portugal)
Senechal (Ridley)

Jungels is poised to take over the GC lead.


The last cobbled sector. Teunissen sets off for the stage win. Diamond and Moscon are right behind him. This had to be done with Wiebes still in the front group. Moscon is now in virtual yellow.


Diamond pushes over his limit and cracks, dropping back to the chase group with 3kms remaining. Still, with the help of his teammates, Diamond outshines many of his GC competitors today.


Moscon wins the stage and will be the next leader of the Tour de France.

Jungels move up to second overall, 26 seconds back. Diamond shoots up to 5th (+2'10"), while the other GC riders all drop a bunch.

Other notable names in the GC standings after today:

4th Bjerg (+1'16")
15th Dumoulin (+5'42")
17th Shirshov (+6'06")
18th Martinez (+6'07")
20th S. Yates (+6'16")
26th Kudus (+7'00")
28th Pinot (+7'08")
45th Buchmann (+9'15")
65th Geoghegan Hart (+10'54")
70th MAL (+11'26")
72nd Eriksson (+11'50")
89th Bernal (+14'10")
92nd A. Yates (+14'43")
94th Sosa (+15'03")

Result: 8th (+1'37"), 5th GC (+2'10") - Huge gaps. Just what I wanted and something we didn't accomplish on last year's cobbled stage. If I can hold my own in the mountains, a spot on the podium in Paris is possible.

Summary: Just one breakaway rider remains as we hit the final climb 11kms from the line. Paret-Peintre can't be pleased to see SEG racing up this incline. Van der Poel is setting a hard tempo with Diamond on this wheel.


I didn't want to make any assumptions, but this is what I thought was going to happen. Van der Poel pulls off to unleash Diamond. A move not only for the stage win, but possibly the yellow jersey!


The Great Britain national champion goes past Paret-Peintre. Kudus and Gaudu are trying their best to bridge across the gap.


Diamond over the top in first, but have to say the peloton has done a good job of keeping this attack in check. 8.7kms left, mostly downhill.


Martinez jumps across the gap to Diamond. Five cyclists in the closest chase group: Wiebes, Gaudu, Jungels, Kudus and Paret-Peintre.


Kudus makes the leap across too.


Martinez used Diamond to perfection for a brilliant stage win. Something to at least dull the pain caused by yesterday's rough stage.

No time gaps awarded across the first 58 cyclists across the line.

Result: 3rd, 5th GC (+2'06") - Gained four bonus seconds for finishing third. Perhaps a tad too aggressive and impatient to attack a stage like this, but I was feeling good. Shouldn't hurt me too much with two flat stages ahead to recovery from the effort. Also, got to give props to my teammates. We have a good team here.

There was major news after the stage. Defending champion, Ivan Sosa, decided to withdraw from the race to focus on other races. Hard to blame him, being over 15 minutes behind after four stages.

Summary: Not sure who decided this was a flat stage. The finish line is on top of a 2.7km climb at 5.5%. Wiebes likes her chances, but Diamond is doing his best to stick on her wheel.

The rest of the contenders have dropped away surprisingly.


Diamond has the stamina to outlast Wiebes on the climb! For a second straight Tour, Diamond will win a stage! Last year it was Stage 6, today it's Stage 5! Great Britain can celebrate tonight!


As an added bonus, Diamond is rewarded with a six-second gap over Wiebes and 12 seconds over the peloton.

Result: 1st, 4th GC (+1'44"), 2nd Points, 3rd KoM - And here I thought today was going to be a rest stage. I saw Wiebes accelerate with about 1.6kms to go. Knew she was going to struggle to hold that pace for that long. Got in her slipstream and took advantage. Moved up a spot in GC because Wiebes' teammate Bjerg couldn't keep up on the climb.

This Tour is off to a fantastic start. Can't ask for much more.

Summary: Lorena Wiebes finally picks up her first win of this year's Tour. It's her eighth grand tour stage win in her career.

Result: 44th, 4th GC (+1'44"), 6th Points, 3rd KoM - There's that rest stage I was looking for. More climbs coming tomorrow.

Summary: The first real climber's stage with seven categorized climbs. The first Cat. 1 climb of Col de la Faucille sees the yellow jersey of Moscon getting dropped. Jungels now the virtual GC leader.


Only 16 of the best climbers remain in the lead group as we reach the top of the Cat. 1. Diamond leads the way for some valuable KoM points. The other 15 cyclists are:

Jungels (2nd, +26")
Bjerg (5th, +2'32")
Martinez (11th, +5'57")
Shirshov (12th, +6'06")
S. Yates (14th, +6'16")
Kudus (18th, +6'54")
Quintana (20th, +7'09")
Pinot (23th, +8'00")
Roglic (24th, +8'56")
Buchmann (27th, +9'15")
Geoghegan Hart (35th, +10'54")
M.A. Lopez (43th, +12'18")
Bernal (51st, +14'06")
Masnada (57th, +15'21")
Latour (99th, +25'01")


The same 16 riders make the turn onto the final climb with 7.3kms remaining. The yellow jersey group is 2'10" behind them. Who makes the first attack?


No attacks. Just hard tempo from GCN Racing. Six cyclists can't keep up: Quintana, Roglic, Shirshov, Pinot, Bjerg and Masnada.


Hard to remember a stage like this. 10 climbers sprinting to the line!


Simon Yates, the mountain sprinter! Ahead of Bernal and Diamond.

New leader of the Tour de France? Bob Jungels! 1'14" ahead of Diamond.

Result: 3rd, 2nd GC (+1'14"), 2nd Points, 1st KoM - The French newspapers are starting to stir speculation that I could match Eddy Merkx's dominating 1969 performance by winning the yellow, green and polka dot jersey in a single Tour.

I'm laughing off the added attention, but what if they're right?

Summary: Morning breakaway caught and KoM leader Marcus Diamond causally rolls over the top of the HC climb of Col du Lein for maximum points. I guess nobody wants to challenge the Brit in this competition.


Base of the final climb up Verbier and GCN plays its first card.

Buchmann (11th GC, +8'49") attacks. Nobody follows.


Buchmann caught. Here goes Simon Yates, Martinez and MAL.


That's the winning move. Martinez claims his second stage win.

Result: 12th (+1'21"), 2nd GC (+2'06"), 3rd Points, 1st KoM - Didn't have the legs today. Bad daily form. Lost 52 seconds to Jungels.

Summary: On the dirt roads up the Cormet d'Areches, Marcus Diamond launches his attack in hopes of gaining time on Bob Jungels. It's a risky move with 28kms left in the stage, but it could pay off. Jungels is caught off guard at the back of the favourites group.

Still around 10 breakaway riders up the road.


Wasted effort by Diamond. Everything comes back together on the foggy downhill. Breakaway man Kilian Frankiny hides in the clouds to win.

Result: 13th (+1'14"), 2nd GC (+2'06"), 3rd Sprint, 2nd KoM - My first attempt to crack Jungels fails. Having doubts he can be beat. Also, lost my KoM lead to breakaway rider Sam Oomen. Back into my Great Britain national championship jersey following the rest day tomorrow.

Summary: Some of the favourites start attacking with 9.5kms left to climb: Simon Yates, Quintana, Martinez and MAL. Still 29 cyclists left in the yellow jersey group to chase them back and roughly 10-15 breakaway riders up the road still to catch.


All the contenders stick pretty close together on the climb after the four earlier attackers are pulled back. But, with 1km left to go, we see both 3rd overall Bjerg and 2nd overall Diamond hitting a wall.


A third stage win goes to mountain goat Martinez. The Colombian is slowly but surely climbing up the overall standings. Now just 4'06" back of Jungels and occupying a spot on the podium.

Result: 17th (+1'33"), 2nd GC (+3'07"), 3rd Points, 3rd KoM - Becoming clear that I can't match my competitor's pedal strokes in the mountains.

Summary: Long chase for the favourites on the final flat. But the trio of Roglic, Diamond and Martinez has the GCN duo of Bernal and Buchmann in their sights approaching the last corner. All the other big names of the Tour are in a group 13 seconds behind them.


Looks like it will be Roglic vs. Diamond for the stage win...


DIAMOND! Just too fast. It won't really help his GC cause but he will surely take a second stage win as a solid consolation prize.

Result: 1st, 2nd GC (+2'57"), 3rd Points, 2nd KoM - Textbook win. Much thanks has to go to Mathieu van der Poel, who gave everything he had left to make sure the GCN duo could be caught by the finish line.

Summary: Surprising attack from yesterday's winner and 2nd overall Marcus Diamond on today's final categorized climb of Cote de Bois du Plot de la Fage. That's a mouthful.

Diamond wants to catch the BOTD 1'12" up the road with a steep downhill to the finish line straight ahead. 36kms remaining.


Diamond couldn't get across the gap and neither could the peloton. It's the first win of the Tour for the breakaway. Looking at the profile again, makes complete sense.

The winner: Jhonatan Narvaez.

Result: 33rd (+50"), 2nd GC (+2'57"), 3rd Points, 2nd KoM - Tried, failed. Same old story, sadly. But, congrats to my former SEG teammate Narvaez for winning his first Tour de France stage. I have fond memories riding with Jhonatan when he was at SEG from 2022-23.

Summary: Stunning view. Only 36 cyclists left in the peloton trying to drag back 13 cyclists still lingering up front with 34kms left.


We said it before, but we will say it again. Diamond on the attack. He is using the penultimate climb this time and has teammate Schelling up the road leading the race from the breakaway.


The peloton says no to that, but Diamond kicks again when Schelling is caught with 5kms to go. Diamond isn't going down without a fight.


Nothing. Counter attack from MAL, followed by Buchmann and Kudus.


That does it. The trio breaks free. Kudos to Kudus on the win!

Result: 14th (+26"), 2nd GC (+2'57"), 3rd Points, 2nd KoM - Can't keep attacking like this. It's going to lead to a very bad day. Yet, I continued to press my luck. Roll the dice. Maybe, just maybe, I'll hit a jackpot.

We lost teammate Harry Tanfield after the stage due to illness.

Summary: Breakaway survives. Sprinters didn't want this one badly enough. Huge win for PCT wildcard Direct Energie. First professional victory for 22-year-old Frenchman Hugues Colombel. What a moment!

Result: 51st (+44"), 2nd GC (+2'57"), 3rd Points, 2nd KoM - Without Tanfield, we didn't have the horsepower or help from other teams to bring the BOTD back for Pienaar. He was a little grumpy after the stage, especially since he didn't get to wear the white jersey for the first time in over a week. Bayard finally recovered from an awful first week, losing 45-plus minutes on the cobbled Stage 3, to regain the U25 lead.

Summary: GC attacks coming on the penultimate climb of Col de Soudet. It's Buchmann (7th overall), Kudus (8th) and MAL (11th) on the move after GCN Racing basically exhausted a lot of its domestique firepower to get the 27-cyclist BOTD back within six minutes.


Strong pace setting by Eriksson, for his captain Martinez, brings those three favourites back near the base of the final climb of Port de Larrau.


Green jersey attack! It's Martinez going 13kms from the finish!


Jungels has no more T-Mobile teammates around him. He is forced to pull back Martinez himself, who is completely gone in the distance. Yellow jersey is under some pressure here for the first time all Tour!


More attacks against Jungels! MAL goes again and starts a chain reaction with Geoghegan Hart (12th overall), Quintana (9th), Shirshov (6th) and Roglic (10th) countering to get on his wheel.

Jungels doesn't look good. Diamond, 2nd overall, not much better right next to him. With 9.2kms left to climb, panic could soon set in. Reports have Martinez two minutes ahead of Jungels and the gap is growing!

Martinez is eventually joined by MAL, Bernal and Geoghegan Hart. Not what Jungels wanted to see. All his rivals working against him.


GCN teammates Bernal and Geoghegan Hart work together to take down a host of Colombians in the final meters — MAL, Martinez and Quintana. A fantastic double for GCN. Basically wrapping up the team competition.

Jungels crosses in 13th, +1'18". But he will see his overall lead grow by three seconds because there is a new man sitting second overall: Martinez. Diamond picked the wrong day to have a bad day.

All those silly attacks these last couple of days finally caught up to him. He drops two places to fourth overall. Losing spots to Martinez and Simon Yates, who had a very quiet but excellent climb to finish 8th on the stage.

Result: 18th (+3'06"), 4th GC (+4'45"), 4th Points, 4th KoM - Worst feeling in the world when you see everybody riding away from you and you don't have the power to keep up. Morale crushed. Thankfully, there is the final rest day tomorrow to regroup and recovery.

Summary: The BOTD wins this one without much effort from the peloton. Once again, a youngster in the break is rewarded. This time it's Samuel Chalita collecting his first professional victory for TAP Portugal.

Result: 26th (+12'11"), 4th GC (+4'45"), 4th Points, 5th KoM - No attacks from the GC contenders today. We all finish on the same time. SEG had Ide Schelling and Mathieu van der Poel in the BOTD, but both didn't have the strength to fight for the stage win.

Summary: Very rarely do you see a circuit stage in the Tour de France, but the town of Bayonne gets special treatment today.

The rain dampens the peloton mood to do any chasing. The 14-cyclist BOTD nearly laps the field as they contest the stage victory. Frenchman Alexis Gougeard delights the home crowd by finishing first.

Result: 38th (+8'25"), 4th GC (+4'45"), 4th Points, 5th KoM - Easy day. Looks like everybody is saving their energy for Prat d'Albis tomorrow or, more realistically, Mont Ventoux on Stage 20. Teammate Ide Schelling did well to finish sixth today.

Summary: Nearing the summit of the penultimate climb, Bob Jungels is getting dropped with Dumoulin! GCN with an incredibly pace to shake the resolve of the yellow jersey. Jungels will have a long downhill to try and reconnect before the final climb up Prat d'Albis.

The other nine riders in the Top 10 are all ahead of Jungels now. Drama!


More favourites dropped as only 10 cyclists make up the front group as we fly down the mountain side. Who is still here?

Martinez (2nd GC, +3'00")
S. Yates (3rd, +4'06")
Diamond (4th, +4'45")
Bjerg (5th, +4'49")
Shirshov (6th, +7'34")
Roglic (8th, +9'13")
MAL (9th, +9'19")
Geoghegan Hart (10th, +9'46")
Bernal (12th, +12'06")
Kudus (14th, +16'26")

Which means, the main riders to miss this split are Jungels (1st), Quintana (7th), Buchmann (11th) and Dumoulin (13th).


All four dropped favourites hitch back onto the leading group as we start the final climb. Took a lot of effort to get back to the front, how much energy do they have left in the tank?


Bernal launches the first attack! Everyone tries to follow.


Jungels cracks again! This time he is in serious trouble. 7kms left.


Bernal with another dig. No one dares to follow this move.


Eventually MAL decides it might be worth to cross the gap. 3.8kms left.


All the attacks in the front group have been neutralized, but the end results does see Diamond in trouble off the back.


Bernal goes once more and this one sticks! He has really come alive in the last week of this Tour in hopes of salvaging a Top 10 overall finish.

Martinez crosses in second place to extend his green jersey lead. But, more importantly, starts the clock against Bob Jungels. He needs three minutes, but will want even more with the ITT coming on Stage 21.


Diamond recovers nicely to pass the struggling riders of Roglic, Kudus and Bjerg before the finish line. Limiting his losses well.


Here he is. Bob Jungels. Finishing 15th. He doesn't even bother looking up at the clock. He already knows. The unthinkable has happened.

Jungels loses over five minutes to Martinez!


New leader of the Tour de France after 18 stages: Daniel Felipe Martinez.

Result: 7th (+1'42"), 4th GC (+3'18"), 4th Points, 6th KoM - The pack worked together today to crush Jungels and it worked. My teammates kept the pace high at the start of the race and GCN did the rest at the finish. Jungels dethroned. Massive shake up to the GC standings.

The very fast stage also saw 14 riders miss the time limit, including a valuable helper of mine in Ethan Hayter.

Summary: Last day for the sprinters. SEG is controlling the peloton trying to hunt down the last breakaway man, Lampaert.

Lucy van der Haar leading the charge, followed by Pienaar and Diamond. Looks like the Great Britain RR champion is going to sprint for the stage win despite Mont Ventoux lurking tomorrow.

That said, a stage win for Diamond could give him a great chance at defending his green jersey from a season ago.


Van der Haar makes the catch! 1,900 meters left. Slight uphill kick.


She pulls off. Former stage winner Pienaar hits the front. Almost too fast as a gap opens up between himself and Diamond.


Pienaar is too fast and doesn't even realize Diamond hasn't kept up!


Pienaar was waiting and waiting for Diamond to fly out of his slipstream, but it never happens. Pienaar has a shocked expression on his face as he cross the finish line in first. Surely not what SEG wanted, but hard to complain about a stage win!

Result: 7th, 4th GC (+3'18"), 3rd Points, 6th KoM - Pienaar launched like a rocket. It was crazy. Simply couldn't keep up. SEG's fourth stage win. Two for me and two for Pienaar. However, this result means I probably won't win the green jersey again this season.

Current point standings with Mont Ventoux and the Stage 21 ITT left: Martinez (169), Wiebes (155), Diamond (145) and Pienaar (145).

Summary: One of the most famous climb in cycling: The sunny slopes of Mont Ventoux. Here we are almost halfway up and the yellow jersey of Martinez is tucked way back in a large peloton. He doesn't seem concerned at all. None of his GC rivals have made any indication that they want to challenge Martinez today.

The BOTD is 8 minutes up the road as well. A boring penultimate stage.


Finally! Some life. 4th overall Marcus Diamond is going to give it a go with 8.7kms left to the summit.


Diamond goes solo for a while but is eventually caught by five others.

Martinez (GC Leader)
S. Yates (2nd, +1'31")
Geoghegan Hart (8th, +7'28")
Quintana (12th, +10'36")
Kudus (13th, +15'05")

A very selective group. They have a minute gap on everybody else.


This is great! Geoghegan Hart attacks, Kudus and Quintana follow. Martinez, Yates and Diamond all look at each other.


Martinez wants to stamp his authority on this race, attacking with 1.5kms to the top. Diamond and Yates try to hang on for dear life. Quintana is quickly passed.


Kudus watches them fly by as well coming to the banner.

A pair of Polish riders from the BOTD crossed the finish line 1-2. Former World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski tops female Katarzyna Niewiadoma on Mont Ventoux. They got up there so quick the photographers weren't ready for them. So, sorry, no celebration photo.


The first major GC contender to cross the line is Geoghegan Hart in 12th.

But, the yellow jersey of Martinez wasn't too far behind in 14th. Finishing with Martinez were Simon Yates, Diamond and Bernal, who rode across the gap to them in the final 800 meters.

Result: 17th (+3'38"), 4th GC (+3'18"), 3rd Points, 6th KoM - Matching Martinez on Mont Ventoux gives me hope that one day I'll be able to win the Tour de France. It's not going to be this year. Heck, I could easily slip outside the Top 5 on tomorrow's time trial. But, I'm right there. Motivation for next season.

Summary: The riders that have the most to gain today are 3rd overall Bob Jungels, 5th overall Mikkel Bjerg and 6th overall Maxim Shirshov.

Some tense nerves in the start house.


Through the first time check with 23.4kms remaining. The fastest time through goes to Tom Dumoulin with a 12'20". Updated GC standings:


No changes yet, but Diamond is under pressure from Bjerg now.


Through the second time check and Diamond can't look back as Jungels as slowly catching him. Dumoulin still holds the fastest time at 21'26".

The updated GC standings:


Bjerg has moved past Diamond for fourth overall. Shirshov needs 51 seconds for a Top 5 finish. And Jungels only takes nine seconds off Martinez from checks 1-2.

Roglic overtaking Buchmann for 10th overall.


Here is Simon Yates rolling through the third and final time check. He hasn't been under too much stress today. Does that change coming to the finish? We do have a new best time! Bjerg is now the man to beat!


Yates with a sizable 43-second gap to Jungels. The real battle is for 5th overall. Diamond is clinging onto a 21-second advantage over Shirshov. They battled for the white jersey last season. Shirshov won that. Can Diamond hold on to prevent Shirshov from stealing a Top 5 finish from him this year?


All-out sprint to the line on the Champs-Élysées! Every second counts!

The clock stops... 43'30". Diamond doesn't know what that means. We do. By our calculations, Diamond found another gear coming to the line and extended his 21-second advantage over Shirshov to 37 seconds! Fifth place overall for Diamond!


The final stage winner? Felix Grosschartner! He didn't win any of the time checks but saved everything he had for a fast finish. A surprise winner.


The 2025 Tour de France winner: Daniel Felipe Martinez. What a comeback after being down over six minutes after Stage 3. The 29-year-old Colombian attacked his way to not only win his first grand tour, but the green jersey and three stage wins as well.

Joining him on the podium: Simon Yates and Bob Jungels.

Result: 46th (+1'47"), 5th GC (+3'37"), 3rd Points, 6th KoM - After sitting 2nd in GC for so long, fifth overall could feel like a disappointment. But, I don't want to feel that way. This is an amazing accomplishment for not only me, but the SEG team. We rode our hearts out. And I know we will be even stronger next year. Can't wait!

Summary: Only 28 cyclists/sprinters remain in the lead group as we go past Big Ben with 6kms left.


Zwift with the leadout for Bayung van Steeden. Peak and Diamond following that, while further back Tiller makes the first move early with Pienaar sticking on his wheel.


Pienaar changes his mind and hooks onto Peak's wheel when he sees his teammate Diamond marking Tiller's move to the front.


Tiller was just a decoy! While everybody was watching him, his teammate Rodriguez stormed to the front and leads under the banner.


Tricky but not tricky enough. Rodriguez kicked too soon...


The fastest man will be the odds on favourite. Pienaar was patient and found the optimal time to pounce. SEG was a little unorganized, but Pienaar cleans up the mess with a solid win.

Result: 6th - Our sprint train just never came together, so Pienaar and I freelanced. I'd say it worked pretty well. Lucy van der Haar finished 13th. Grace joined us for drinks after the race. Cheers!

- 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: New signing Lucas Moura connects with old reliable Timmy Abraham for the first goal of game and season for Fulham! It only takes them five minutes to get off and running.

Malo Papin cut the party short with an equalizing goal in the 19th minute.

The game was decided 11 minutes later when Papin failed to properly clear a corner kick. The ball went right back out to corner kick taker Moura, who pumped the ball back into the box. Benjamin Garre headed the ball down into the path of Marcus Diamond.

He looked up, took a dribble inside the 18-yard box and uncorked a perfectly placed left-footed strike into the bottom right corner.


Rating: 8.7 - Game-winning goal to jump start the season. Not bad. Was also told after the match it was my 250th league appearance as a professional footballer, so that's pretty cool.

Player of Game: Marcus Diamond, Fulham (8.7)

Summary: A feisty, scoreless first half spills over into the second half when Eduardo Henrique takes Marcus Diamond down from behind for his second yellow card of the match, leaving Stoke to defend with 10 men.

Yet, a defensive breakaway down turns into the opening goal for Stoke. Munir powers home a cross from Giancarlo Chiarini in the 67th minute. The humiliation didn't end there. Stoke passed the ball around Fulham at-will before setting Kasey Palmer up with a goal in the 77th minute.

Rating: 6.6 - For some reason head coach Adam Lallana decided to play me as the lone striker for the first 70 minutes of the match. Considering we didn't score any goals, I doubt he will make that decision again.

Player of Game: Munir, Stoke City (8.8)

Summary: Fulham escapes Bristol on a late winner from Jonathan Leko, assisted by Timmy Abraham. Marcus Bettinelli with his first shutout of the season to fend off a scrappy Rovers' attack.

Rating: 6.9 - A lot of effort just to beat a Sky Bet League Two side.

Player of Game: Timmy Abraham, Fulham (9.0)

That, but more importantly, I don't think it's possible to undo with the in-game editor without messing up other things. There are lots of things I can tinker with in FM and PCM that allows me to have the community to vote on stuff, but FM moving Diamond to a new club is one of those things I don't how to undo/fix. Therefore, no choice given. Wish it was different as well. But we carry on.