Summary: Destined for entertaining draw, but not to be. Shock waves could be felt across Rotterdam as Pedro Empis slotted home the game-winning goal in 87th minute past goalkeeper Rok Vodisek. While Empis will rightfully get all the headlines, it was the vision of Marcus Diamond who unselfishly passed up a contested shot to find Empis in a better position to bang home a monumental goal.


Rating: 7.6 - Big games call for big moments. Pumped up! Pretty good time to nab my third Europa League assist in five games this season.

Player of Game: Marcus Diamond, Feyenoord (7.6)

Summary: Making it 2-for-2 with a 2-0 win for Feyenoord. This time they do it on enemy turf to maintain second place in the league standings. Dylan Vente and Emilian Brie score in quick succession in the middle of the second half to stun Ajax for a second time in three days.

Rating: 7.1 - Boys are playing really well right now. Feels good.

Player of Game: Dylan Vente, Feyenoord (7.9)

Summary: The one game they had to win... Ajax does it in rather convincing fashion. Backs against the wall and they escape to the Europa League semifinals. The tables turned with an early goal by centerback Diego Reyes off a corner kick. Ze Gomes, the leading goal scorer in the Eredivisie this season, torched Feyenoord's backline in the 53rd minute to put the pressure on the road team to score.

Feyenoord went all out, but a counter-attack goal by Kaj Sierhus in the 88th minute sealed Feyenoord's fate — a heartbreaking exit to the competition. Ajax moves on to the semifinals to face Premier League powerhouse Liverpool.

Rating: 6.4 - Didn't show up today. Me or the team. Heck, I barely made it to the field on time after racing in morning (but, no excuses). All the emotions of the previous two wins got slapped back in our face today. A pathetic performance. We can't play like that and expect to beat the worst team in our league, let alone the best team on one of the biggest stages of European football. I'm embarrassed more than anything.

Player of Game: Kaj Sierhuis, Ajax (8.4)

Summary: Feyenoord nearly compounds it's disappointing loss to Ajax with another loss (nearly a draw) three days later. But, Otavio comes to the rescue with a 87th minute winner after ADO Den Haag smacked the post five minutes earlier. Definition of scrapping out a win.

Rating: 6.6 - Poor outing and was subbed off in the 51st minute.

Player of Game: Pedro Empis, Feyenoord (8.0)

Summary: They don't like to make it easy, but Feyenoord scores twice in the second half to erase a first-half penalty kick blunder. The goals from Yassin Ayoub and Kristian Bagger lock up Feyenoord's second place finish and it's place in the Champions League next season.

In other news, there were talks of this being the final game for Marcus Diamond in a Feyenoord kit. The 24-year-old, two-sport British star has been rumored to be upset with his role at Feyenoord and perhaps seeking a return home to play league football in England next season. Of course, this is all hearsay. Diamond has refused to speak with the media about the matter until after the season is over. What we do know is that was Diamond's last game for Feyenoord this season. He will miss the final game of the league season to race one of the notable cycling events of the year, the Giro d'Italia.

Rating: 6.5 - Bombarded by press after the game asking about my future. I gave them the silent treatment because even I don't know what my future holds. I just need some time to step away from football — get on my bike — and figure things out.

Player of Game: Yassin Ayoub, Feyenoord (8.1)

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Summary: The second monument of the season always brings out the best cobblers in the world. Yet, last year's winner Peter Sagan spoiled the show by winning a selective sprint finish. Top favourite Tiesj Benoot is coming off a victory at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and a stage win at the Tirreno-Adriatico.

Also, watch out for female Lorena Wiebes who won the first monument this season at Milano-Sanremo. She became the third female to win a monument in the mixed peloton, joining the likes of Annemiek van Vleuten (2022 Ronde Van Vlaanderen, as Wiebes took second) and Marianne Vos (2023 Liege-Bastogne-Liege). Girl power!


Scrap everything I said before... It's Mads Pedersen winning a close sprint against Benoot, Aaron Verwilst and Wout Van Aert. Sagan comes in over two minutes later to round out the Top 5. Pedersen finished second here last year and adds a second monument to his collection after winning Paris-Roubaix a season ago.

Result: 20th - Dropped a good 40kms from the finish line. Eventually finished 8'13" behind the winners. Second best GB rider though, as fellow countryman Thomas Pidcock took 11th.

Summary: Nine cyclists make up the BOTD, including the likes of Odd Christian Eiking, Grace Garner and Jaka Primozic.


The break has been caught and only 22 cyclists remain in the front group as we cross over the top of the penultimate climb of Aia. 21kms left!


The road gets narrow and then gets steep. Big climb ahead.


Too steep and too narrow for any of the favorites to attack. All we have left is 7kms downhill to the finish line with 21 cyclists still in contention for the win.


They're screaming to the finish. The cyclists in the first four spots are arguably the fastest cyclists to win a selective sprint: Marianne Vos, rainbow jersey man Michael Matthews, Felix Gall and Marcus Diamond.


And surprisingly, that's the order of how they finish! The lone lady shows up men with a stunning sprint. Vos wins her first stage of the season by besting the World Champ.

Result: 4th - Not too bad. Three world-class riders on the podium, so I'll happily take fourth and move on to the next stage. Grace getting into the breakaway and going for the KoM jersey — albeit not getting it — was an added bonus for a decent day on the road.

Summary: Gregor Muhlberger (over five minutes behind in GC) is the last remaining breakaway man as the dewindling peloton hits the final climb just under 10kms to go. The pace in the peloton is being set pretty high by Grace Garner. Her boyfriend Marcus Diamond is right on her wheel. The ideal position for the couple.


One glance at each other and Diamond gets the hint... Garner is spent and Diamond hits the accelerator. What an attack this is!


Diamond nearly pulls back Muhlberger as The Guardian takes control of the pacing of the peloton for Kwiatkowski and Bernal.


Diamond over the summit first. The peloton closing in...


It's not the biggest of gaps, but Diamond is trying to make this stick! I mean Marianne Vos was able to pull this off yesterday... Why not Diamond? Muhlberger is just along for the ride at the moment.


Under the banner! They have a chance!


Muhlberger around the outside...


For the win! Muhlberger sat on Diamond's wheel and gets reward for his long day in the morning breakaway. Diamond will be upset not to get his first stage win of the season, but will be delighted to trade his white jersey for yellow...

Wait, I take that back. The race organizers decided not to give a gap to the front two cyclists. Meaning Diamond is robbed of the stage win and the race lead. Wow!

Result: 2nd, 2nd overall - Pissed. That's (explicit). (Explicit) (Explicit) (Explicit) [Diamond was dragged away by his girlfriend and couldn't be reached for further comments.]

Summary: The longest stage of the tour belongs to the breakaway. The peloton didn't have enough energy after a hard-fought stage yesterday. They come in a minute and 15 seconds later. Felix Gall keeps yellow, and 20 cyclists enter the Stage 4 ITT with the same time as Gall.

Result: 43th - Finished in the front group, barely. Nearly paid the price for my effort yesterday, although I did pay for my comments: A 5,000 euro fine and a stern talking to from my girlfriend.

Summary: Top two on the stage shoot up to two top in GC: Tom Dumoulin and Laurens De Plus. Both best stage favourites Larry Gooden and Stefan Kung.

Result: 70th, 19th GC (+1'45") - Not the most comfortable on a TT bike. Not a good result, but kind of expected at the same time. Still two hilly stages left to make up that time lost.

Summary: We pick up the action on the last categorized climb, and here we have Marcus Diamond struggling to keep up. We saw a crack in his armor at the end of Stage 3, but this is still quite a shock.


Rough rough day for Diamond. He comes in over five and a half minutes behind the front group of 23 riders that sprint to an invisible finish line.

Result: 37th, 27th GC (+7'16") - Bad daily form is costly.

Summary: Interesting strategy for SEG Racing today after a rather disappointing day yesterday. They have put three riders in the 10-cyclist morning breakaway: Marcus Diamond, his girlfriend Grace Garner and Harry Zuurman. Let's see how this plays out for them.


Eventually only Diamond remains, with Oomen, Gogl, Grosschartner, Guerreiro, Longo-Borghini and Teuns. Shinking peloton is 1'45" back with 18kms left.


Gogl, who already has the KoM jersey won for the tour, is going for the stage win as well at the base of the final climb. Looks like Diamond and Longo-Borghini are the only two that have energy left to follow the attack. This could be the winning move with the peloton still lurking 2 minutes back with 8.5kms remaining.


Diamond leads the trio under 5kms to go. Now the climbing really starts!


Diamond is setting a pretty hard tempo. Looks like chasing after the KoM points all day has finally caught up to Gogl. Longo-Borghini, who was the third wheel, has to maneuver around Gogl and keep up with Diamond.


The smirk on Diamond's face is he sheds off both Gogl and Longo-Borghini. But, he can't get too cocky, he still has 3.3kms to the top with gradients in the double-digits.


The shoulders have started to rock. Diamond is in trouble now. The tank is almost empty, but the stopwatch reads a minute lead over a charging Enric Mas.


And there he is...


Mas carries on to win the stage, but comes 12 seconds short of besting Tom Dumoulin for the overall win. Diamond settles for 5th on the stage after a gutsy ride.

Result: 5th, 16th GC (+7'16"), 1st Youth, 2nd KoM, 3rd Points - Teammates deserve a bunch of praise for today's result. Grace and I make a pretty good team. Decent tour with it all said and done. Could have been better, could have been much worse. We take it and move on.

Summary: Some breaking news to start this broadcast with Marcus Diamond waving in desperation to get a replacement front tire. We have 78kms to go, as Diamond slips out of the 43-cyclist peloton that is chasing a 10-cyclist breakaway.


Maybe Diamond got off lucky. 100 meters up the cobbled sector there is a crash of 13 cyclists, including Wiebes, Teunissen, Naesen, Demare, Moscon, Verwilst and Allegaert.


The biggest beneficiary out of this mayhem is Tiesj Benoot. The Belgian goes on to win the famed Hell of North classic for the second time in his career -- doing so in solo style with a 1'18" gap over a 11-cyclist chase group, which contained crashers Wiebes (3rd), Moscon (6th), Verwilst (8th) and Teunissen (9th).

Result: 33th (+10'14") - Stupid tires. Still a three spot improvement over last season, I guess. Plus, I was racing for an eighth straight day so cut me some slack.

Summary: Up and down, and round and round. After 251kms, a selective bunch sprint decides this classic. And it's quite a shocker with Vincenzo Albanese winning his first classic over race favourites Felix Gall and Michal Kwiatkowski.

Result: 27th (+1'24") - Got to work on my stamina. I was in the front group until we hit the final incline, then my legs gave way. Still a three spot improvement over last season, I guess. (I'm sensing a theme...)

Summary: Revenge is sweet. Gall tops Kwiatskowski and Albanese to avenge his second place in the Amstel Gold Race three days ago.

Result: 15th (+51") - Stuck with the front group until the final incline again. No past performance to base this finish off of, so not sure what to think. Regardless, didn't have much time to process this result... Got to get to my football game! "Grace getting in the car! Let's go!"

Summary: Breakaway is pulled back with 20kms to go.


That's the launching pad for Marcus Diamond, who gives a little friendly wave to his girlfriend Grace Garner who spent the day in the breakaway. Following Diamond we have Kwiatkowski and Gall.


Adam Yates single-handedly shuts down that move. So we have 18 cyclists up front in one group with 7.5kms to go. Two steep inclines left.


Kwiatkowski and Gall slip away from the bunch on the first incline.


The gap doesn't hold but they hold off the chasers. Kwiatkowski beats Gall to the line! The first monument win of the season for the former World RR Champion.

Result: 12th - Hung in there all the way to the end. Even put a little dig in to stir things up. Top 10 would have been cool, but a solid day. Heck, Grace even got in the breakaway and I didn't have to listen to her talk all day... Shhhh... Don't tell her I said that. Love you Grace!

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Summary: The pink jerseys of... no not SEG Racing Academy... But, instead, of T-Mobile lay down the fastest time today to give a new shade of pink — the maglia rosa — to 24-year-old German Andres Bub. The TT specialist will cherish this moment.

Result: 14th, +1'35" - The team brought mostly sprinters, not time trialists for this one. Got to say we are lacking mountain support as well.

Summary: Caleb Ewan celebrates his first win of the season!

Result: 11th, 99th GC (+1'35") - I know the importance of being at the front of these nervous sprints across these first few days. I don't want to get caught up in another demoralizing crash.

Summary: The first major attack of the Giro belongs to Hugh Carthy as the 74-cyclist peloton is closing on the last breakaway rider, Chris Hamilton. This attack comes with 19kms to go (7.3kms from the top of the final climb).


Carthy is shutdown. Attack No. 2 belongs to Nairo Quintana!


That doesn't stick... Here goes Ilnur Zakarin with last year's winner Harm Vanhoucke on his wheel. Some fireworks on the opening mountain stage!


That doesn't work either. Now here is two-time winner Pierre-Roger Latour on the move with Vanhoucke on his wheel. 2.4kms to the top!


A gap opens for Latour! And now his teammate Adam Yates is trying to bridge across to put two Astana riders up front. What a bold team move.


Latour over the top! With American Brandon McNulty attacking past Yates to move into second place. A strong chase group behind them with 37 cyclists looking to pin them back on the steep 10km descent to the finish.


A split over the top, 37 quickly turns into just 13 cyclists chasing Latour, McNulty and Yates. They are: Bardet, Carapaz, Bjerg, Morton, Gallopin, Zakarin, Diamond, Carthy, Meintjes, Bayard, Quintana, Albanese and Vanhoucke.

Biggest names missing: Padun, Longo-Borghini and Ravasi.


Morton gets antsy with 6kms to go and attacks. They have nearly pegged back Yates and could see Latour and McNulty in the distance.


The group wisely sticks with Morton's pace, as he brings back Yates and then catches Latour and McNulty (who didn't work well together). So we have 16 cyclists in the front group with 3.6kms remaining.

Scanning the group... somehow Marcus Diamond is still here. A name we haven't said a lot today but is probably the fastest finisher remaining if he has the stamina.


Speak of the devil! There he goes! Diamond going early trying to catch the group sleeping. The man paying the most attention is Carapaz, another favourite who has had a quiet day up until this point.


Big burst of speed! But does Diamond have enough juice?


I don't think so... Here comes everybody else!


Experience pays off! Last year's winner Harm Vanhoucke strikes first in a thrilling attacking display on the first mountain stage. Yates nips Diamond for second place. What an entertaining way to get this Grand Tour rolling!

Result: 3rd, 14th GC (+1'20") - First Grand Tour stage podium! Nearly my first win. That was something. Surprised myself that I was even in the front group going over the last climb. If I can keep up with the pure climbers for the rest of the tour, I like my chances for a good GC result.

Summary: Up and over the Cat. 2 climb with 39 cyclists remaining in the peloton and the breakaway already caught.

A few big names missing from this elite group: Steven Kruijswijk (8th GC), Rudy Molard (10th GC), Cyril Gautier (17th GC) and Nairo Quintana (19th GC). All of which got caught in a crash on the downhill and have a massive challenge in front of them to rejoin the leaders.


We have now reached 5kms to go with the final climb in front of us. 35 cyclists remain. Along with the names above, Pierre Rolland (11th GC) is now also missing from this selective group.


The race to the top is won by the pink jersey of Romain Bardet!

Result: 33rd (+3'37"), 19th GC (+5'07") - Got thrown off the back of the main group on the final climb. Rough result but we can bounce back.

Summary: What was supposed to be a recovery day turns chaotic as crosswinds split the peloton into multiple parts with 15kms to go. It's going to take a while to sort out where all the GC contenders. They certainly aren't all up the front with the pink jersey of Romain Bardet.


A massive gust of wind happens right as Polska Travel sets up its sprint train for Gaviria. Six cyclists escape off the front: Leadout man Lecroq for Gaviria, followed by Looij, Ewan, Demare and Diamond.


It's Andre Looij taking the win and an absolute mess behind. Going to be extremely difficult to award any time gaps with cyclists all over the road. Oh, here is the verdict... Top 86 cyclists finish on same time.

Then a 3'42" gap, which sees Adam Yates, Hugh Carthy and best U25 rider Bayard Florent lose time. Then another group behind them at +6'30" sees the AG2R boys of Pierre Rolland, Rudy Molard and Cyril Gautier lose a bunch of time.

Result: 8th, 15th GC (+5'07"), 1st Youth - Stay alert at the front and handled the crosswinds perfectly. Can't ask for more and now I'm wearing the white jersey!

Summary: We start today with the first rainfall of the tour. The peloton is being cautious in the hopes of avoiding the first big crash of the event.


Very very dangerous conditions as we reach 20kms to go. A hard-charging peloton is still 41 seconds behind the morning breakaway and the rain is coming down hard. It's hold your breath time, hope for the best and fear for the worst.


With the peloton doing a sloppy job reeling back the breakaway, Carapaz decides to attack with the banner and barely the breakaway in sight. Diamond chases this move after having team orders to stay back with a teammate — Ivar Slik — in the breakaway.

While our cameras were watching this, the shuffling in the peloton has caused the dreaded crash we all feared was coming...


It splits the peloton. Luckily none of the big names are involved.


Duncan Burgess, a 24-year-old Aussie, wins the stage from the breakaway. Gaviria leads the peloton home 33 seconds later.

Result: 12th (+33"), 15th GC (+5'07"), 1st Youth - Weird stage with the rain. Peloton didn't want to push too hard and it allowed the break to win. I put in a half-hearted dig at the end to mark Carapaz mostly.

Summary: It's finally here. The day most cyclists in the peloton have been dreading and the one day Marcus Diamond has been dreaming of.

It's unknown how much time Diamond can make up on a stage like this, but you know him and his SEG teammates are going to do everything in their power to blow this stage up in hopes of creating massive time gaps.

The opening attacks already prove today is going to be a crazy day. 30, yes 30 cyclists manage to get in the morning breakaway.


But here we are with 1.6kms to go and the pink jersey of Romain Bardet (66COB) is still in the peloton. What a ride by him. In fact 23 cyclists are here with Diamond, plus Demare and Ludvik 15 seconds up the road looking for the stage win.

Other GC contenders who have survived today include: Albanese (3rd GC), Gallopin (4th) and Bjerg (13th).


Demare wins it. Bardet somehow, someway finishes 9th ahead of Diamond. Race organizers were generous with not a lot of time gaps as well. Many of the cyclists who feared this stage have survived.

Result: 10th, 13th GC (+5'07"), 1st Youth - Cobbles weren't decisive at all. I had a slim hope I could pull on pink after today... Now, I don't think I can realistically get a Top 10 overall. This one hurts. I needed to make up time here and I didn't.