Oscar Onley has emerged from his first full Tour de France GC battle in the Pyrenees feeling more than satisfied with how he has managed to limit the gaps on the top pre-race favourites, to the point where he is running just one place short of a provisional podium placing.
The 22-year-old's storming performance in the Pyrenees culminated with a sixth place at SuperBagnères, 2:09 down on stage winner Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and a step up on GC following the mid-race abandon of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
A DNF in his first-ever Grand Tour in the Vuelta a España in 2023 after just one stage because of a broken collarbone, in what was a hugely promising debut in last year's Tour de France, the Scot made it into a series of third week breaks and completed the race in 39th overall.
As for the 2025 Tour, Onley is punching even further above his weight, with his fourth place on GC boding more than well for the rest of the race. All this from a rider who, as he pointed out after stage 14, had come to the Tour with no GC ambitions at all, and where "today [Saturday] was probably the biggest test [to date] of my long climbing ability."
"It was a hard day," the Picnic-PostNL racer told reporters at the third and final summit finish of this year's Pyrenean stages.
"The break went on the Tourmalet, and UAE were setting a hard pace all day, and I didn't feel so good. But I don't think I was too far off the level."
Onley only struggled a little, though, once top GC challenger Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) blazed away late on and race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), some four kilometres from the line. Up until then, things had gone well and afterwards, it was all about damage control.
"It was quite a good pace that Yates was setting, and I was just hoping they would set that pace as long as possible, really," Onley explained. "It was just all out to the line when they attacked. I did what I could.
"I wouldn't call it [being in] difficulty, just Vingegaard attacked and then everyone was doing their effort from there."
Once the dust had settled on the stage, Onley was able to reflect on a day where he had lost 44 seconds to the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider immediately ahead of him on GC, Florian Lipowitz. At the same time, he managed to distance another Red Bull rival of the calibre of Primož Roglič, 37 seconds first adrift.
"I guess [it's a relief to be out of the Pyrenees]," he confirmed. "One more stage down, one more stage closer to Paris. It's still a long way to go with some pretty tough climbs in the Alps too," he concluded.
"It's nice [to be fourth], and gain a bit of time on Roglič, which helps. It's still a long way to go, though, and a lot can change next week."
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