'I don't know if I can really be up there' – Oscar Onley to discover Tour de France GC limits as race hits Pyrenees

He may have impressed so far, but Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) is about to discover just what he can achieve in this Tour de France, as the race enters the mountains and the general classification battle heads up even further.

The GC standings have already been kicking off in this race so far, and Onley is currently seventh after finishing fourth and third in the two uphill finishes in Rouen and Mûr-de-Bretagne.

In front of him, key favourites Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) have already taken chunks of time out of each other, but the fight for yellow is set to ramp up even further as the second week gets underway, with a finish to Hautacam on Thursday, a mountain time trial on Friday, and Luchon-Superbagnères on Saturday.

In the top 10 after a strong week, Onley is certainly not throwing away thoughts of GC, but is being realistic about what his goals are, and that's not necessarily changed just because he finds himself placed well overall.

"I still want a stage win, that's the ultimate goal of being here. I don't know if I can really be up there on the GC – we'll find out tomorrow probably," Onley told Cyclingnews ahead of stage 11.

"I think it's already been a successful week for me, but now I want to try and step up another level and get closer to that [stage] win."

Onley has come impressively close to winning already, enjoying the style of racing, though that will change as the race hits the high mountains in the Pyrenees and Alps.

"It's been raced quite aggressively. I think just the style of the stages encourages that kind of racing, with these steep and short climbs. You can't really take it easy, you have to be fighting to be at the front anyway with positioning and stuff," he said.

"So it was a good first week, but now the racing changes quite a bit after today, and it's quite a different situation to the first week."

Only riding his second Tour de France, Onley still has limited experience of the climbs that are to come in the second week, but didn't seem too concerned about facing a relative unknown in the next few days.

"I don't know the climbs in the Pyrenees so well. I know a couple of them that we do, but none of the finishing climbs," he said. "But in the end it's just up to the legs – if you can follow, you can follow, and if not, then you can't. So it's not so much tactics involved."

Despite his own lack of experience, Onley can call upon some useful wisdom from his team, who have often had a climber up there at this point in the Tour, and have a focus on nurturing younger talents.

"Warren [Barguil] has been in this situation before, and also Matt [Winston], our DS, he's had this experience with Romain [Bardet] and other riders in the past as well. So he's been really good at keeping me calm and telling me what to expect from certain points in the race, which has been nice."

How the rest of Onley's race pans out really depends on what happens on the Hautacam, which will be the first indicator as to whether he keeps on at the GC grind, or swings back towards trying to win a stage – also not a simple ask in this race where the GC riders are racing hard every day.

"If I do lose time on GC, then I'll probably have to switch completely and maybe lose more time the next day, and then from there try and get in the breaks," he said. "But it's also difficult on the mountain days, because Visma and UAE can control those a little easier than on today or Monday's stage, for example."

However, what's sure is that Onley is riding high after a hugely impressive first week, and is ready to go again after the rest day.

"Definitely yesterday I was quite tired, but I feel like I have more energy again today," he said. "So I'm looking forward to the next few stages."

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