Onley\u2019s fourth place at the Tour was historic for him and huge for Picnic PostNL<\/a>. It was also the result that pushed him into INEOS\u2019 long-term plans. But that ride was framed less as a beginning and more as a ceiling.<\/p>\nJeroen Vanbelleghem was blunt: \u201cOnley finished fourth in the Tour this year. In my opinion, he can\u2019t do better than that given the start list.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went further: \u201cI don\u2019t see him third in that field.\u201d<\/p>\n
The argument is not that Onley is weak. It is that the top of the sport is warped by two riders who distort what \u201cprogress\u201d even looks like. Fourth becomes failure when the same two names keep winning.<\/p>\n
That framing sits uncomfortably close to what Onley himself has already said about his own position. Speaking earlier this winter, he described the gap ahead of him as large and admitted: \u201cI still feel very far away.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is not resignation. It is realism. But realism does not always fit well with Tour winning expectations.<\/p>\n
Dreams, deception and alternative paths<\/p>\n
Vanbelleghem\u2019s conclusion was delivered through a line that has quickly become the defining quote of the debate: \u201cYou can always dream, but most dreams are deception.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is not just about Onley. It is about the environment he has stepped into.<\/p>\n
In the same discussion, he questioned whether the Tour should even be the main target for a rider like Onley at this stage: \u201cSo wouldn\u2019t it be more enjoyable to go for a podium in another Grand Tour?\u201d<\/p>\n
The implication is clear. Giro or Vuelta first. Build confidence. Build leadership. Then return to the Tour when the landscape changes.<\/p>\n
It is a line of thinking that actually mirrors Onley\u2019s own words from earlier in the winter, when he openly spoke about other Grand Tours as realistic targets in the coming years. The difference is tone. Onley frames it as opportunity. The pundits frame it as limitation.<\/p>\n
INEOS between belief and reality<\/p>\n
INEOS have not signed Onley to aim for fourth. They have signed him because he looks like someone who could become more. But this analysis shows how narrow the definition of \u201cmore\u201d has become.<\/p>\n
Vanbelleghem summed up his view of the current roster with a simple challenge: \u201cThey should forget about that with this selection.\u201d His \u201cthat\u201d was clear. Winning the Tour.<\/p>\n
The danger is not that Onley is not good enough. The danger is that he is being dropped into a story where only one ending is considered success.<\/p>\n
Fourth at the Tour used to be a triumph. Now it is framed as proof of a limit.<\/p>\n
For INEOS, the coming seasons will test whether they can build patiently around Onley, or whether the pressure to beat Pogacar and Vingegaard immediately will turn belief into burden.<\/p>\n
And for Onley himself, the challenge is not just climbing mountains faster. It is surviving inside a dream that, in the words of his critics, risks becoming deception if it is forced to arrive too soon.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And that is where the doubts begin. Pressure at the top Bobbie Traksel said the mood around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,163619,66980,6495,188663,57600,85,6494,2845,39562],"class_list":["post-426609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-giro-ditalia","tag-ineos-grenadiers","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-kevin-vauquelin","tag-oscar-onley","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-vuelta-a-espana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426609","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=426609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Onley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/onley-vingegaard-pogacar-688b80062ee5e.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n