{"id":32431,"date":"2025-07-30T12:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T12:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/32431\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T12:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T12:37:10","slug":"hes-capable-of-much-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/32431\/","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019s capable of much more"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

And as mentioned, once seeing first hand Onley’s abilities, it didn’t take long for Winston and Picnic PostNL to sit up and take notice. \u201cWe already knew he had the potential to be a top rider,\u201d Winston says. \u201cThe British system doesn\u2019t involve a lot of bunch racing, unlike in the Netherlands, so in his early years he had to work on his race craft. We first saw his real quality in the 2022 Tour of Croatia, when he went toe-to-toe with Jonas Vingegaard. That\u2019s when we realised: this is heading in the right direction. He\u2019s capable of much more. But thankfully, he remained under the radar until this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witnessing the growth, teammate Tim Naberman<\/a> has been mightily impressed by Onley so far, but like Winston, doesn’t believe the Scot has hit his ceiling just yet. “\u201cHe\u2019s a really quiet lad. He jokes around at the dinner table and it\u2019s always great to have him around. But when it comes to racing, he\u2019s fully focused,” explains Naberman. “Off the bike, he\u2019s as calm as can be. Just a really relaxed guy to work with, and we get along very well \u2014 Oscar\u2019s just a lovely colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n

And despite rumours of a departure following his Tour de France breakthrough, Naberman insists Onley is right where he needs to be. Oscar really fits in here,\u201d he says. \u201cHe was very inexperienced when he joined us, and this team is brilliant at guiding young riders to become the athletes they are today. That\u2019s been crucial for Oscar. He needed structure, and he embraced it \u2014 everything from nutrition and training, to preparing together for races. That\u2019s what helps all of us perform at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Onley\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cOscar has matured very quickly and developed strongly in recent years, but in the last four weeks alone, he\u2019s taken another massive step forward \u2014 especially in his leadership role,” Winston adds. “He\u2019s clearly communicated what he expects from his teammates, and that\u2019s been great to see as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team boss does urge a little calm though. Whilst Onley’s performance was impressive, Winston doesn’t want to immediately jump to hailing the Scot as an imminent Maillot Jaune winner. \u201cHe has a wonderful future ahead of him, but we shouldn\u2019t get ahead of ourselves after this fourth-place finish. We\u2019re not going to sit him down this winter and say, \u2018Right, let\u2019s win the Tour in 2026.\u2019 Our focus remains on development,” he explains. “That said, with the way Oscar has ridden this year, we can\u2019t deny that he could become a genuine contender. The competition, of course, is fierce.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as for those transfer rumours? \u201cThere\u2019s always a risk of other teams trying to poach riders \u2014 especially in today\u2019s cycling landscape, with wealthy teams able to buy out contracts. I just hope Oscar sees the value in staying with Picnic PostNL. We\u2019ve had some good conversations about that earlier this year,” he concludes.\u00a0\u201cHe knows how we\u2019ve helped shape him into the rider he is today. I can see how passionate he is about this team \u2014 how he leads, how we take his ideas seriously. I\u2019m confident we can continue to work together for a long time and help him become a truly outstanding rider. He fits in perfectly here. He\u2019s found his home. Of course, you never know what the lure of big money will bring, but I hope this Tour has opened the eyes of other young talents as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And as mentioned, once seeing first hand Onley’s abilities, it didn’t take long for Winston and Picnic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-32431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}