When Oscar Onley joined Picnic PostNL's WorldTour squad in 2023, fast-tracking his step up from the development squad, the Scottish rider secured an unusually long deal, taking his contract through to the end of 2027. In the years since, plenty has changed for the rapidly developing rider, and the next change that could be on the cards is his team.
It may be late in the season, but even as the 23-year-old was rounding out his early pre-season training in Australia, with a hit out at the Tour of Bright, the doubt was rising. Will the rider who came fourth overall at the Tour de France this year still be in Picnic Post NL colours in 2026?
"For now, yes. We'll see. But yeah, it's still things up in the air a little bit," Onley told Cyclingnews in an interview on the sidelines of the presentations for the local race at the Bright Brewery on the weekend.
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Despite the late-season uncertainty, Onley didn't give the impression that he already had one foot out the door. He will head from the Tour of Bright directly to a team camp, and discussed the process of planning for the year ahead with his team.
"To be honest, I haven't spoken about the calendar other than [the Tour] Down Under for next year yet," Onley told Cyclingnews on Saturday evening. "That will happen next week, when we're at team camp, which is normal at the December camp to talk about the year."
Still, what is clear as Onley travels back from Australia is that plenty has been going on behind the scenes in Europe.
Onley is undoubtedly a valuable asset for Picnic PostNL, delivering the squad's biggest UCI points haul by far in 2025 – more than the next three top point scorers in the team combined – and with enormous potential for the next two seasons given his rapidly accelerating trajectory. The squad, which operates on a more slender budget than most, isn't the only one that can see his worth, and it appears that the rider is firmly in the sights of others with more cash to splash on a potential contract buyout.
Daniel Benson's Cycling Substack reported in recent days that Ineos Grenadiers are working on signing Oscar Onley for 2026 in a last-minute transfer. The team's newly-appointed Director of Racing, Geraint Thomas, was quick to outline that returning the team to the top step at the Tour de France again was his big goal.
From 2012 to 2019, the British squad dominated at the French Grand Tour by winning seven of the eight editions across those years with four different riders. Their 2018 winner, Thomas, also put them back on the podium with third on the GC in 2022, but in the last three editions, even the lower steps have been beyond reach.
Given Onley's performance in July at what was then just his second Grand Tour, coupled with other strong results like third overall at the Tour de Suisse, it is not hard to see why Ineos Grenadiers may see him as a good fit.
When asked if he was considering Ineos, Onley told Cyclingnews: "It's quite obvious that there's going to be interest in me after coming fourth in the Tour, and there's been, I think, probably 15 teams that have reached out to my manager or reached out to the team directly.
"And you know … you also have to capitalise on what I've done this year, but, yeah, I can't really say so much just now."
However, with the opening WorldTour race of the season at the Tour Down Under now little more than six weeks away, the answer to the question of which team he is riding for in 2026 is bound to become clear soon.
