Summary: A horrendous blunder by Feyenoord goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet to come out of his net and miss play the ball, which allows Joshua King to tie the game on the last kick of the game. So uncharacteristic of the defending league champions to give away crucial points like that.

Rating: 6.3 - Subbed on in the 50th minute. Not used to coming off the bench. But, to be fair, it was a poor game from everybody on the pitch. And Zoet will get scapegoated for this unnecessary draw. Fair or not.

Player of Game: Abdulkadir Omur, Feyenoord (7.1)

Summary: Dylan Klok is quickly becoming a household name. The budding 21-year-old Dutch superstar continues his goal scoring spree this season. Harry Kane, however, denies Feyenoord a memorable win with a equalizing second-half goal.

Still, Feyenoord should happily escape with a draw against one of the best clubs in Europe. Man City also lost star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne for 5-8 weeks with a hip injury. His replacement, Phil Foden, also left the game with a fractured checkbone.

Yeah, Feyenoord wasn't afraid to get physical.

Rating: N/A - Had a chance to change the outcome in the final 10-plus minutes, but that wasn't enough time to make a difference.

Player of Game: Dylan Klok, Feyenoord (8.3)

Summary: Feyenoord doesn't mess about with three first-half goals to put this one away early. Dylan Klok with his league-leading ninth goal of the season. He also scored in his international debut with the Netherlands at the start of the month in a 2-1 loss against No. 1-ranked Spain.

Rating: 6.8 - Halftime sub for Rodolfo Pizarro, who had two assists in the first 45 minutes. He has firmly taken my starting spot for the time being.

Player of Game: Rodolfo Pizarro, Feyenoord (8.4)

Summary: As easy as would expect, even for the Feyenoord B team. This was a chance for those players to prove they deserve some Eredivisie action.

Rating: 8.4 - Taking the most out of the opportunities I'm given. Scored a quality goal in the 47th minute.


But, this showing wasn't enough to get me any playing time against FC Utrecht in a league contest five days later (1-1 draw) or play in the Champions League contest against AS Monaco (3-1 loss, first loss of the season for Feyenoord in all competitions).

Player of Game: Rasmus Nissen Kristensen, Feyenoord (9.6)

- 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: A pedal around Liverpool ends how it should, a bunch sprint.

Result: 67th - Saving my energy for the more pivotal stages of the tour. Lucy has enough support with David Dekker and Ramon Sinkeldam.

Summary: Another bunch sprint to decide a winner.

Result: 39th - Again, not wasting any energy I could need later.

Summary: Marcus Diamond leads the 100-cyclist peloton under 5kms to go. The decisive climb up The Tumble here in Wales.


Sérgio Luis Henao, Dion Smith and Richard Carapaz battle for the lead.


Smith drops off hard. Carapaz is trying to put Henao into the red, and there is an SEG Academy Racing cyclist... Lizzie Deignan slowly creeping up from behind.


Carapaz is riding away! The sheer power in his legs.


Hold on, this isn't over yet. Diamond has found his way back to the front and is closing the gap down. Also moving up to the front is Tiesj Benoot.


Diamond has pulled himself up to Carapaz. 400 meters left.


Carapaz's teammate Ben O'Connor comes out of nowhere and wants to challenge for this win as well.


Carapaz holds on. O'Connor second, Diamond third and Benoot fourth. All four get a 15-second time gap to the rest of the chasers.

Result: 3rd, 2nd GC, 1st Youth - Paced myself for a quality result. I also managed to pick up three bonus seconds earlier in the day by rolling over the final sprint checkpoint in first place after the breakaway was caught.

Summary: For all the pundits that thought this was just another boring flat stage, we have a pair of SEG Racing Academy cyclists in white jerseys pushing the tempo on the final incline heading into Bristol.

That's Ecuadorian RR champion Jhonatan Narvaez leading out the top youth cyclist and second in GC, Marcus Diamond.


Narvaez has provided a phenomenal launching pad. With his work done, Diamond is sprinting away. No one in the peloton has reacted fast enough to this brilliant team move pulled off by SEG Racing Academy.


And it's going to pay off big. Marcus Diamond with an emotional win in his home country. Narvaez follows him home for second place.

The peloton has gone missing. It ends up being a 23-second gap for the SEG duo. Good enough for...


A new race leader. Diamond trades white for yellow.

Result: 1st, 1st GC, 1st Youth, 1st Team - Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree?

Summary: If it worked yesterday, why not try it again?

SEG Racing Academy is using the same tactic with Jhonatan Narvaez paving the way for Marcus Diamond on the final incline of the day. This time, however, Richard Carapaz is paying more attention and has found the back of Diamond's wheel.


Narvaez pulls off. It will be Diamond v. Carapaz as the rest of the field fades in the distance.


Carapaz nips Diamond on the line. Narvaez coasts in for third place, but his positioning between the two leaders and the peloton will be costly.

No time gaps awarded.

Result: 2nd, 1st GC, 1st Youth, 1st Team - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Shame Carapaz figured out what we were doing this time around.

Summary: A surprise win for the morning breakaway. The peloton didn't feel like chasing hard on the dangerous wet roads. As a result, thankfully no crashes today.

Result: 58th, 1st GC, 1st Youth, 1st Team - Stayed out of trouble.

Summary: A crash with 72kms to go sees a weird three-way split in the peloton. SEG protected Marcus Diamond and the yellow jersey well with five of them in the small front group.

With such a long ways to go and the breakaway doing well to stay ahead, SEG decides not to push this and lets the peloton regroup. More action isn't found until 7kms out.


Diamond isn't waiting for other cyclists to attack him. The yellow jersey is putting the pressure on everybody else to catch him. It's a bold move. Maybe even reckless. But, here we are. The home fans are going nuts.


Somehow, this move is actually working. Diamond has caught the remaining breakaway riders on the downhill.


Diamond is going to have to lead this group to the line. Nobody is going to help the yellow jersey. Not even his own teammate David Dekker, who followed Diamond across the gap and is now gassed. Also wanting to bridge the gap in the distance is Tiesj Benoot.


Diamond has dominated his home tour. He deserves another stage win after this showing. Pure class to ride away like that.


Ohhhh... No. Johan Le Bon plays spoiler and wins from the breakaway for a second straight day. What a crazy 48 hours it has been for him.

Diamond will have to settle for second and increase his GC lead out more. The top 15 cyclists today earned a 1'40" gap. Why such a big gap? Well, there was a massive crash taking the final corner into the finish.

Both Richard Carapaz and Jhonatan Narvaez were involved.

Result: 2nd, 1st GC, 1st Youth, 1st Team - Seconds away from a perfect day, I slip to second and then hear the news about Narvaez. Also, Lucy van der Haar was involved. Both had some nasty scraps after the stage, but luckily no broken bones.

The only thing left standing in my way from winning the Tour of Britain is an 8.8kms individual time trail. What could possibly go wrong?

Summary: Marcus Diamond built up a 52-second gap to Tiesj Benoot. Time to see if that will be enough. Benoot is listed as a pre-race favourite, while Diamond has been known to struggle against the clock.


Both are now on the course. It's hard to imagine Diamond losing 52 seconds over a 8.8kms course, but anything could happen.


Through the only time check, Benoot is the sixth fast with a time of 5'59" and is seven seconds slower than the fastest time set by Julian Braun.


Diamond rolls through... Wow. Is that right? Surely not.

Diamond is absolutely flying. He stops the clock at 5'53" for the second fastest time behind Braun. He doesn't just want to win his home tour, he wants the stage win as well.


Benoot stops the clock at 9'59" but all eyes are on the man behind him. Diamond is having the ride of his life right now with the crowd pushing him to go even faster.


Across the line. Not quite. Diamond is two seconds short of winning another stage. Regardless, the disappointment is short lived, as he is the undisputed winner of the tour. It's been a memorable week for the 22-year-old on home soil. And to think there were rumors that he nearly decided to go to the Vuelta a Espana instead.


Result: 2nd, 1st GC, 1st Youth, 1st Team - I don't think I have ever been this happy before. After Grace and I settled our differences and made-up before the race, I rode my heart out to win this tour and nearly won the stage. It was incredible. Grace basically tackled me with a bear hug when I finally got back to the team bus.

I had to pull back from the tight hug. Something sharp jabbed my neck.

"Hey, you are wearing my earrings," I said.

Grace responded with a seductive look in her eyes.

"Don't worry, you'll be getting your present tonight."

Summary: The breakaway is all but caught when Lizzie Deignan decides to attack. Interesting move from SEG, as it looks like her teammate Marcus Diamond wasn't prepared for this move.


Deignan has caused a split with nine riders up front and group Diamond 25 seconds back. Diamond, of course, can only watch now and not chase down his own teammate.


The front nine hold on to take the stage. Deignan eighth and Diamond leads the chasers home for 10th. Maybe SEG should have allowed Diamond to make the opening move?

Result: 10th - Deignan, who is retiring at the end of season, saw her opportunity to perhaps get one final victory before calling it quits. I don't blame her for trying.

Summary: Welcome to Austria for a long, long day in the saddle. The winner of this mountainous marathon will certainly deserve a special rainbow jersey for next season. In total, 266kms with a nasty climbing circuit around Innsbruck to end the day. Let's see who still has legs to climb at the end of the season.



The first attacks end up producing the four crazy cyclists who will take up the challenge of riding in the breakaway of the day.

Let's learn more about them:

Soren Kragh Andersen (The Guardian) won a stage in the Arctic Race of Norway and is a former 2020 Danish RR champion. Not the best climber but has decent stamina to make it to the finish.

Ian Boswell (UnitedHealthcare) comes from small American CT team and hasn't won anything since 2018, where he won a stage and the GC in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in Spain.

Simon Geschke (T-Mobile) is the oldest cyclist in the breakaway at 36 and last won the 2021 Tour La Provence in France. Hard to imagine Geschke will be able to keep up over 260-plus kms.

Tobias Foss (Joker) is the youngest cyclist in the breakaway at 25. Back in March, Foss won a stage in the Volta ao Alentejo and followed that up by being the best young rider at the Tour of Norway in May.

With 200kms to go, they have built up an eight minute gap.


At 150kms left, the gap is down to 5'40" with the peloton being led by Great Britain's Alex Wood. They have to like their chances today with the likes of Hugh Carthy, veteran Chris Froome and Simon Yates. And, oh, don't forget dark horse Marcus Diamond. Top form for him recently.


Italy is now turning the screws up front as we hit 75kms remaining. The peloton is down to 44 cyclists chasing Boswell and Geschke (two minutes ahead) plus Foss and Kragh Andersen (one minute ahead) after tangling up in a crash. There were some long-range attack attempts, but the peloton is moving too fast right now to let anyone slip off the front.


Three riders make a go for it, 73kms to go, from the peloton: Simone Petilli, Lucas Hamilton and Daan Olivier.

Petilli is reeled back with 48kms to go.

Kragh Andersen and Foss at 46kms to go.

Hamilton at 45kms to go.

That leaves a trio of Olivier, Geschke and Boswell. Spain is setting a high tempo to reel them back sooner rather than later as well.

Boswell caught with 43.5kms left. Geschke at 42kms. And, finally, Olivier at 41.5kms. That leaves 35 cyclists up front coming to the top of the third to last climb.


That has triggered an attack from last year's World RR Champion Michal Kwiatkowski. He is defending his title with a vicious move. Who can follow? Anybody?


Kwiatkowski enjoys a solo ride down the mountain side, but is quickly reunited with the 26-cyclist peloton when he reaches the bottom. Still everything to play for with 33.5kms remaining.


Let's run through the 26 cyclists who have survived so far coming up to the penultimate climb. Surely they deserve some recognition.

Moscon, Formolo. Aru, Ciccone.
Power, Matthews, Haig, Morton.
Polanc, Mohoric, Roglic.
I. Izagirre, Soler.
Zakarin, Nych.
Jungels.
Carthy, Diamond.
S.L. Henao, Chaves.
Kelderman, Dumoulin, Oomen.
Antunes.
Kwiatkowski.
Benoot.


More fireworks! It's Chaves, followed by Oomen and Jungels.

That won't break free.


Jungels goes again and now gets a gap.

Losing contact behind is Izagirre, Polanc, Aru, Formolo and Antunes.


Now, Diamond and Haig have done everything they can for their leaders and have hit the wall with 23kms to go.


Turns out Jungels made the calculated move and is rewarded with his first rainbow jersey in his career. First for the country of Luxembourg as well.


Result: 17th - Came in with the mindset that I was going to be last helper available for whatever teammate needed me. Safe to say I did my job and then some. Carthy took 12th and I slotted into 17th. There wasn't a cyclist who finished ahead of me that is younger than me, so the future looks really bright.

- 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

What an awesome awesome race in Britain! Just brilliant, amazing riding from the whole team and especially Marcus to earn that GC win in the home tour. Love it! Also great that Grace and Marcus made up.

Really really nice ride in the WC too obviously, a shame Chaves couldn't take the win, but love it from Marcus, top 20 is really solid.

Summary: Feyenoord should issue an apology to the 44,000-plus spectators that showed up to this one. Chanting in the rain for a nil-nil game. VVV doesn't register a shot in the entire contest, but Feyenoord misses chance after chance to draw a very winnable game.

Rating: 6.8 - Can't even get a full game in. Subbed off in the 56th minute. I wasn't even having that bad of a game, compared to the rest of the team. I'll happily hop on a long flight to Australia to join Nigeria. I really need a change of scenery right now.

Player of Game: Jairo Riedewald, Feyenoord (7.1)

Summary: Two evenly matched teams, but Nigeria sneaks out a win with a 50th minute game-winning goal by Kelechi Iheanacho. Spanish import John Hazmat also scored his first goal with the club.

Rating: 6.3 - I blame jet lag. Solid win from the team, nonetheless.

Player of Game: Moses Simon, Nigeria (7.6)

Summary: Scottish import Dapo Mebude nets his first Nigeria goal. Looks like Kelechi Iheanacho will have some competition or maybe a new striker partnership is in the works. John Hamzat and Alex Iwobi also tacked on two late goals to inflate the final scoreline a bit.

Rating: 6.9 - Played a full 90 minutes for change, so that was nice. Other than that, didn't do much on the pitch beside providing link up play. Two of my passes led to an eventually assists on a pair of goals.

Player of Game: Alex Iwobi, Nigeria (9.0)

Upon returning to the Netherlands, I didn't get my number called in Feyenoord's next three matches. I watched helpless from the bench.

Eredivisie Match Day #9: Draw 3-3 against Excelsior.
Champions League GS#3: Lost 3-2 against Borussia Dortmund.
Eredivisie Match Day #10: Win 3-0 against rival Ajax.

Summary: Another 5-0 walloping from Feyenoord in the KNVB Beker Cup. No mercy from the reigning Eredivisie champions against a semi-professional side.

Rating: 8.9 - I can clearly handle my own against lesser competition. However, despite all the scoring, no goals or assists for me in this one.

Three days later, I still found myself on the bench as Feyenoord drew 0-0 again on Match Day #11 against N.E.C. More points slipping away.

Player of Game: Rasmus Nissen Kristensen, Feyenoord (9.3)

- 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.