It's been a tough season so far for Oscar Onley at Netcompany Ineos, and the early stages of the Vuelta a España have been no exception, but things are looking up as he now seems to have ridden through the rough patch.
Ahead of Tuesday's stage 4 Onley had spent the night grappling with stomach problems, nevertheless he managed to finish fourth in the challenging stage in Andorra and settled into fifth place overall, at 3:45 behind race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) but only 13 seconds off third-placed Enric Mas (Movistar) and 24 seconds away from second-placed Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Onley also took the lead in the youth classification.
That position held through Wednesday's stage 5, which ended with a bunch sprint won by Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), and what's more the 23-year-old seems to be on the improve.
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"I'm pretty much back to normal now, I think," said Onley after stage 5. "I feel fine on the bike and, obviously, yesterday seemed to have pretty good legs, so yeah, I'm still in good shape, I think."
Even though the day ended in a bunch battle, it wasn't an easy stage with three category 1 climbs and a category 3 challenge topping out within 5km of the finish line, plus there were crosswinds.
"We said before the start that with the wind and the climbs in the final, we had to really be switched on today. And again, the boys really nailed it into every section that we wanted to be in front, we were there. And yeah, especially Ben [Turner] and Josh [Tarling], they did some really big turns today, so it was really good," said Onley after finishing safely within the bunch.
"The first goal was to protect me, and then after the last climb, we were just going to reassess."
With a bunch dash on the way and Axel Laurance in position a chance to chase the stage also arose for the French rider, but he did have to chase it alone.
"He did really well considering he was by himself for the last 5km," said Onley of teammate Laurance, who finished fifth.
The stage victory may have been out of reach, but Onley setting along the path to recovery is clearly a positive turn for the team. A shoulder injury may have meant he had to miss the 2026 Tour de France, where he finished fourth while riding with Picnic PostNL last year, but now it looks like the Scottish rider is in with a fighting chance at his first Grand Tour with a new team.
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