{"id":63103,"date":"2025-08-13T03:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T03:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63103\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T03:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T03:13:09","slug":"i-expected-to-crack-completely-oscar-onley-reflects-on-tour-de-france-breakthrough-and-sets-sights-on-rainbow-jersey-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63103\/","title":{"rendered":"“I expected to crack completely” \u2013 Oscar Onley reflects on Tour de France breakthrough and sets sights on Rainbow Jersey in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nA quiet storm through the mountains<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of happened naturally,\u201d he explained of his stealthy rise into the top ten. \u201cI just kept riding my race and suddenly I was right up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t without crisis. In the high Alps, particularly on the stage to Col de la Loze, Onley looked briefly out of his depth.\u00a0\u201cThere were a couple of points in that stage where I thought, \u2018That\u2019s it \u2013 top five, top six is gone.\u2019 Felix Gall was up the road, I had no teammates around, and I was completely surrounded by UAE and Visma guys. It was just me and Johannessen, and we couldn\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that moment, his GC bid looked doomed. But then came a message from his directeur sportif, Matt Winston<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me the guys were coming back \u2013 though I\u2019m pretty sure he gave me time gaps that were a bit smaller than reality, just to keep me motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

It worked. His teammates \u2013 most notably Frank van den Broek \u2013 reconnected with him before the final climb and buried themselves to get him back into contention. From there, the race unfolded in Onley\u2019s favour. He didn\u2019t just survive the Alps \u2014 he raced through them with composure and intelligence well beyond his years.<\/p>\n

\"Onley<\/p>\n

Onley climbed alongside Vingegaard & Pogacar during the Tour<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never done climbs like that \u2013 especially not with those riders\u201d<\/p>\n

The performance came as a surprise to many \u2013 not least Onley himself. \u201cAfter Suisse, we knew I was climbing well, but I\u2019d never done climbs that long before, not at this level,\u201d he said. \u201cI expected to crack completely. But I was in decent shape, and there wasn\u2019t much pressure. We just took it day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, what made Onley\u2019s Tour all the more impressive was how unforced it seemed. There were no big solo moves, no headlines written in bold breakaways. Just consistent, smart riding. A rider not just surviving, but learning \u2013 and thriving \u2013 on the job.<\/p>\n

Rwanda on the horizonSince Paris, Onley has already been back in action, finishing a solid 13th at the Cl\u00e1sica San Sebasti\u00e1n. But all roads now lead to Rwanda and the World Championships<\/a> \u2013 the season\u2019s next major target. He\u2019s currently training at altitude in Andorra, trying to replicate the unique demands of the Rwandan parcours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the big goal now,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m at about the same height here as the Worlds course. Not everyone can do that right now, so hopefully that gives me a bit of an advantage. If I can build properly, I think I can go a step further than last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll share leadership duties with Tom Pidcock<\/a> \u2013 a dynamic that could either unlock the perfect tactical pairing or, as Onley acknowledges, hinge on race-day circumstances. \u201cIt\u2019s a course that suits him as well. He\u2019ll be coming off the Vuelta, so it\u2019ll depend on how he\u2019s feeling. It\u2019s a bit like Li\u00e8ge in profile, but how the race is ridden will decide everything.\u201d\"Onley\"\/<\/p>\n

Can Onley back up Tour breakthrough with a strong Worlds?<\/p>\n

A glimpse of what\u2019s to come<\/p>\n

Oscar Onley\u2019s Tour wasn\u2019t a swashbuckling, spotlight-stealing breakthrough. It was something more lasting \u2014 a steady, well-earned statement of intent. In a race stacked with firepower from UAE, Visma, and others, Onley held his own with far less support and far less expectation.<\/p>\n

And that, perhaps, is what makes it so exciting. Because he didn\u2019t explode onto the scene. He climbed into it \u2013 one measured effort at a time. As the sport eyes the future, Scotland might just have found its next GC star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A quiet storm through the mountains \u201cIt kind of happened naturally,\u201d he explained of his stealthy rise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-63103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}