Oscar Onley pulls out of Paris-Nice

Ineos Grenadiers stage racing specialist Oscar Onley has been forced to quit Paris-Nice with illness.

The 23-year-old was a non-starter on stage 6 of the race on Friday morning.

Onley was lying 10th overall at the time, 11:23 down on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) after being beset by crashes and mechanical issues on stage 4's ultra-tough stage, when mass pile-ups and atrocious weather conditions wreaked havoc in the peloton.

A star last-minute signing for the British WorldTour squad in 2026, Onley had been part of the Ineos Grenadiers winning line-up for the stage 3 team time trial, only for his GC bid to collapse 24 hours later.

Onley's teammate Kévin Vauquelin continues in the overall battle, lying fourth overall at 6:09 down on Vingegaard.

With difficult weather conditions, all-out racing and a large number of crashes, Paris-Nice has been beset by a very high number of abandons this year, with 15 riders pulling out on stage 4 alone, amongst them race leader Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), who fell heavily with other riders on a high-speed descent.

Three other riders were listed as DNS (did not start) on stage 6's hilly leg from Barbentane to Apt alongside Onley: Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Spanish National Champion Iván Romeo (Movistar) - also ill - and Rick Pluimers (Tudor).

Signed in December from Picnic PostNL as a top stage racing contender, in a bid to bolster Ineos' Grand Tour GC goals following his breakthrough fourth place in the Tour de France last year, Onley had a very promising start to his debut season with the team, finishing fourth in the Volta ao Algarve.

His next event is scheduled to be the Volta a Catalunya in late March, but following his Paris-Nice abandon, no new date has yet been put on his return to racing or if he will now switch to a different program.