‘It’s quite naive to think it’s clean throughout the whole world’ – Oscar Onley is realistic about doping’s continued presence in cycling

Ineos Grenadiers’ latest Grand Tour hopeful, Oscar Onley, has asserted that doping could still be an issue within professional cycling during a recent, wide-ranging interview with the BBC.

The 23-year-old Scotsman has become one of the sport’s rising stars in recent seasons, producing top-10 results at the 2025 UAE Tour, Itzulia Basque Country and Tour de Suisse before finishing fourth at last year’s Tour de France while riding for Picnic-PostNL.

He recently made a high-profile move to Ineos Grenadiers, and his performance in France last year means Onley will assume the mantle of the British squad’s Tour de France leader, hoping to emulate the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, who is now the team’s head of racing.

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However, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) well ahead of the pack in the Grand Tour stakes, Onley is realistic about his chances of winning in France this July.

“I still feel very far away,” Onley admitted. “To the front two, there is a big gap from the rest of us, but I definitely feel that, in the next couple of years a podium finish is definitely possible if things go the right way for me.

“And there are also two other Grand Tours in Italy and Spain, where sometimes the competition’s slightly less deep. If it goes the right way, then why can’t I try to win one of those?” His confident tone was a world away from the hesitant, almost bewildered post-race interviews of last year’s Tour, suggesting Onley’s potential on cycling’s grandest stages might have dawned on him.

The youngster was also asked for his take on the sport’s current relationship with performance-enhancing drugs. In light of the recent flurry of biological passport cases, no one should be naive about doping in professional cycling, and Onley is certainly unconvinced the sport is entirely clean.

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“I can’t speak for other sports, but I know how much we get tested and how much I personally get tested as well throughout the year and throughout the Tour,” he explained. “I believe the sport’s come a long way in the past 10-15 years. I also don’t believe it’s completely clean.

“I think it’s quite naive to think it’s clean throughout the whole world, but I think it’s in a better place than it was before I started cycling. It’s not much I think about. I can only compete with who I am up against. I am not riding along thinking, ‘this guy might be getting an advantage over me’. It’s not really the thought process I or many other riders have.

“You have just got to focus on yourself and trust that everyone else is playing by the rule book. With the guidelines we have, I think it is very hard to cheat nowadays.”

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A proud Scotsman, Onley grew up in and around the Borders town of Kelso, not far south of the capital, Edinburgh and the start of the 2027 Tour de France.

“It is something I’m really looking forward to. I think the UK and Scotland really put on a good show whenever big events come to the country, such as the Commonwealth Games or the road world cycling championships in Glasgow a couple of years ago.

“I have not been able to experience something like this in Scotland yet, but I really hope I can be there next year on the start line in Edinburgh and take everything in and to see friends and family there will be quite special.”

While his move to Ineos was announced just before Christmas, Onley’s 2026 race programme is yet to be announced.