Three weeks, two crashes, and one stomach bug later, Oscar Onley arrived at the finale of his first Grand Tour with Netcompany Ineos in Granada with some important lessons learned, taking sixth overall and the white jersey of Best Young Rider at the Vuelta a España after a rollercoaster race.
But it all threatened to come unstuck before he really got going at his second Vuelta, with the fourth stage to Andorra making him consider whether it was worth continuing on, having suffered stomach issues overnight.
In the end, he soldiered on through that day, and endured the pain of crashing in the same incident which took Tadej Pogačar out of the race on stage 8, and then coming down again on a crucial climbing day to Calar Alto.
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It wasn’t an easy road, but with a mixture of successes and failures across the 21 stages, Onley agreed that his fourth Grand Tour had had a bit of everything.
“That sums up pretty well. I think when I look back at where I was with the setbacks I had throughout the first two weeks, especially, then actually to still be in that GC position by the end was something I’m quite proud of,” said the young Scot, speaking to Cyclingnews after the final podium ceremony on Sunday evening.
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“Especially on that Andorra stage, I got quite sick overnight, and I was really expecting to – to be honest, I was half expecting to turn off the course halfway through and ride home because, yeah, I was pretty down bad that morning, but so I’m quite happy overall.”
Joining Ineos as a headline signing for 2026, Onley arrived as a big-money transfer, fresh off the back of finishing fourth at the Tour de France, and with a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He was expected to be a main leader, but struggled throughout the season with setback after setback stunting his development.
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Illness saw him abandon Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie, before a scary crash into a ravine at the Tour Auverne-Rhône-Alpes ended his chances of riding the Tour de France for the British squad, escaping relatively unscathed compared to how bad it could have been, but still with a dislocated shoulder.
Thinking back to that Tour, in comparison to the tough road he’s endured this Vuelta, Onley had gained some perspective. This gritty performance and 2026 season could prove to be more useful for his career, in the way he’s had to handle the setbacks and comebacks.
“I think I took last year for granted,” he said honestly, “Like I literally had no setbacks or nothing went wrong in that Tour. I think what I experienced in this Grand Tour is more probably more normal, I would say. Everyone has setbacks during a Grand Tour, and it’s kind of about how you deal with them.
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“The team have been really, really calm around it, and we’ve really made good plans on how to recover from these setbacks, especially that second crash. Initially, I didn’t think it set me back much, but actually, my body didn’t really react in the way I wanted it to, and it took quite a few days to really recover from that.
“So we kind of went into quite conservative mode and really tried to make the most of that, and it made a big difference when it came to well. The first goal was the TT after that, so yeah, it shows that it works.”
Learning from the experience of Jack Haig
Onley celebrates with Haig and the rest of Netcompany Ineos on the final day in Granada (Image credit: Getty Images)
One of the key members of the roster who guided him was former Vuelta podium finisher Jack Haig, whose experience offered a calm shoulder for Onley to lean on, both in hectic finishes and in the mountains. In what was just their first race together, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Scot request the services of the Australian as he develops further as Netcompany Ineos’ main GC rider.
“This was my first race with Jack, so that was also something that I wasn’t sure how it would go in the beginning because obviously, to start a Grand Tour with riders you’ve not actually raced with is something quite unique,” Onley told Cyclingnews.
“But I feel like we, not just Jack, but the whole team in general, clicked straight away. I think from stage 2 on we were really on it, and Jack especially is someone that has been in my position going for GC before, so he understands my thoughts and how I’m feeling towards certain situations.
“I feel I was following his wheel quite a lot on the flatter days, actually, in the finals, and it made me calmer because you know he’s someone that’s not going to take risks and yeah he’s taking it in the smoothest way, which definitely made me feel more relaxed about everything.”
While Onley dropped out of the top five spot he was occupying before the final mountain stage to Collado del Alguacil on Saturday, with a long-range Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) raid jumping him up six spots from eleventh, after the season he’s had it should prove an important performance in his career.
The stage to Alto de Aitana on stage 9 was perhaps the best version of Onley we saw at this Vuelta, finishing second there behind overall winner Enric Mas, but with a more consistent run into racing in 2027, he can expect to aim much higher and back to the levels he performed at during last year’s Tour.
His next race won’t be in the stage racing arena, however, as for the first time this season he will be taking on a one-day race at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, set to play a supporting role for Tom Pidcock and Adam Yates.
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