With just over two weeks until the Tour de France, Britain’s 22-year-old Oscar Onley has set out his stall by winning stage five of the Tour de Suisse in a photo-finish sprint ahead of João Almeida after a brutal day in the mountains between La Punt and Santa Maria in Calanca.
It is the man from Kelso’s second professional win (after he took a stage of the Tour Down Under in 2024) and the strong performance sets him in good stead before La Grande Boucle, starting on July 5, where he will be a key general classification (GC) rider for his team Picnic PostNL.
Not only did he beat Almeida, Tadej Pogacar’s key UAE Team Emirates XRG lieutenant, on the queen stage of the race, he also finished ahead of seasoned Tour de France riders such as Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor). The victory proved the young man’s credentials as a climber as he moved up the GC to fourth place, 1min 21sec behind the race leader Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
The stage was held in memory of Gino Mader, who tragically died descending the Albula Pass in the 2023 version of the race, aged 26. And after a memorial ceremony and the unveiling of a statue at the location of his crash, the racing began.
A select group of GC riders (including Almeida) made it to the bottom of the 4.5km, 9.8 per cent gradient ascent of the Castaneda (the final of four category-one climbs) which wound its way up to the finish line of Thursday’s stage. But it was Alaphilippe who attacked first, launching on the rough and narrow concrete slopes.
The group behind was led by Onley, who looked the most at ease on the mountain, and he soon bridged across to the Frenchman, leaving the group behind. The Scotsman, who looks like one of the two best riders in the race, then took to the front of the pair and laid down a hard pace with a high cadence which Alaphilippe could only hold for so long before falling back into the group six or so seconds behind.
Almeida, who won stage four ahead of second-placed Onley on Wednesday, attacked out of the group and eventually caught the 22-year-old, but when the pair reached the final 200m, Onley launched a sprint which the Portuguese rider could not quite match. The two crossed the line side by side but the younger man just pipped the UAE rider to the win.
Onley also finished ahead of Alaphilippe on a stage that included four category-one climbs
TIM DE WAELE/GETTY IMAGES
“I knew I was in good shape and I was feeling good this week,” Onley said, “but obviously with Almedia here, he’s been really strong this week so far . . . but I felt good today and gave it a go on the last climb.”
The Tour de Suisse, along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, is seen as one of the warm-up races for the Tour de France and winning the queen stage will fill the young man with confidence before the Grand Départ in Lille.
Last year he made his Tour de France debut at the age of 21 and managed to finish 39th, with his best result a fifth place on a hilly stage 17 between Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Superdévoluy. He looks set to return in 2025 and he will be buoyed by his performances in the mountains in Switzerland so far and be eyeing a strong GC performance and possibly a stage win.
After losing time on the first stage (along with other GC contenders) during a chaotic and torrential day, Onley will hope in the final three stages he can continue to eat away at the deficit he still has behind Vauquelin, who finished Thursday’s stage in fourth, 57sec behind, and perhaps more importantly the 42sec gap to race-favourite Almeida in third.
“I haven’t looked at the GC yet,” Onley said, “but obviously quite a few of us lost a lot of time on that first stage so I was quite disappointed. But Warren [Barguil], one of my team-mates, and also the coaching staff, and the team were quite supportive of me and saying how long the week is and how hard it is and this makes such a big difference by Sunday — but obviously to think like that is quite hard at the time, but I just keep trying to chip away every day.”