{"id":297860,"date":"2025-07-28T07:01:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297860\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T07:01:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:01:18","slug":"this-brit-was-the-breakout-star-of-the-2025-tour-de-france-is-he-a-future-gc-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297860\/","title":{"rendered":"This Brit was the breakout star of the 2025 Tour de France \u2013 is he a future GC threat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re probably not very familiar with the details of the 2022 edition of the CRO Race \u2013 Croatia\u2019s biggest stage race. But for Team Picnic PostNL, it was one of the first occasions Oscar Onley demonstrated himself as one of the most talented young riders worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just 19 at the time, Onley finished only two seconds down on Tour de France contender Jonas Vingegaard on the key stage between Sinj and\u00a0 Primo\u0161ten, and a few days later, he repeated the result on the road from Opatija to Labin, before sealing third overall in the GC at the end of the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es or the high mountains of the Alps or Pyrenees of the Tour de France<\/a>, but for his sports director Matt Winston, the young Scot\u2019s performances in Croatia were a sign of things to come: “In Croatia, everyone was already thinking, ‘who is this kid?’, but we already saw it coming.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people were surprised when you\u2019re showing that level when you\u2019re 19, 20, and you know he\u2019s going to keep moving in the right direction, for sure, he\u2019s hungry for more,\u201d Winston tells me.<\/p>\n

Daniel Benson is a Tour de France veteran, having covered 14 editions of the race as editor-in-chief of Cyclingnews and Velo, and now running his Substack newsletter<\/a>. Through the 2025 Tour de France, Daniel will be writing a series of dispatches exclusively for BikeRadar, bringing you his unique insight into cycling\u2019s greatest race and, as the Tour develops, a behind-the-scenes view that only a reporter with his contacts book can bring.<\/p>\n

“We never talked about the GC at the start of the year”
\n\"ZAGREB,Onley proved himself at just age 19 in Croatia. Marko Lukunic\/Pixsell\/MB Media\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Three years after that eye-opening ride in the Balkans, Onley finished fourth at the 2025 Tour de France. <\/p>\n

Still only 22, he has battled through cross-winds and crashes from the opening week, survived the Massif Central, Pyrenees, and Alps, securing the best Scottish result in the Tour de France in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coming into the race, Winston talked about racing a \u2018relaxed GC\u2019 with Onley. That meant not giving up time in the first week but also not devoting the entire team to the rider\u2019s needs. The main aim at the Tour was to win stages, and while Onley was a potential prospect for the top-20 or higher, it was never drilled into the riders at the race that GC was a primary target.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never put a number on it, in terms of what he had to do,\u201d Winston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can promise you that we never talked about the GC at the start of the year. We talked about coming here for [stages] and trying to be in the race every day with the whole team. <\/p>\n

“We really weren\u2019t going for GC, but when you find yourself in that position, we\u2019re not going to throw time away. And we said that at the start, too. That\u2019s why I described it as a relaxed GC from the start,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Fourth in Paris, it\u2019s a remarkable feat for one so young, especially when you consider that the rider from Kelso doesn\u2019t ride for one of the major superpowers in the world of cycling. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s not on the roster for Ineos Grenadiers, UAE Team Emirates or Visma-Lease a Bike but the plunck Picnic PostNL team from the Netherlands. <\/p>\n

Famed for producing talent rather than signing it, Onley is a product of their revered U23 team, which has sent a whopping six graduates to the Tour de France this summer \u2013 way more than any other WorldTour squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a guy like Oscar in the team, it motivates everyone to go the extra mile and find that extra edge to stay longer”, says Winston.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s driven by good team spirit, and that\u2019s what we thrive on. Before the Tour, people were questioning our selection, but when morale is high and the team works well together \u2013 which comes from the six development guys who came through the same programme, lived together in Sittard, in the Netherlands \u2013 they\u2019re really bouncing off each other now. They\u2019re loving it,\u201d Winston says.<\/p>\n

As for Onley, his Tour de France has been founded on strong teamwork but also a series of gutsy rides through the mountains. <\/p>\n

He was fifth on the mammoth stage to Hautacam, when yellow jersey Tadej Poga\u010dar blew the entire race apart on the final slopes, and then backed that up with sterling performances in the Peyragudes mountain time trial and on Superbagn\u00e8res. <\/p>\n

If the Pyrenees were the second level of Onley\u2019s Tour project after the solid foundations were laid in the first week, then the Alps were the final touches of brilliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘One of the best development teams in the world’
\n\"LAOnley (third) has shown he can ride with the very best. Dario Belingheri \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Given his age and lack of experience, this was only his second Tour de France start, many felt \u2013 including this journalist \u2013 that the final week of the race could be a step too far for the young rider. <\/p>\n

The likes of Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d and others have far more experience, and the notion was that the longer climbs of the Alps could potentially unseat Onley\u2019s early progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the 22-year-old was arguably even better in the final mountain tests. Granted, he was dropped early on the road to Courchevel (Col de la Loze), but he and his team delivered a masterclass performance, one of the highlights of the entire race, to bring Onley back into contention. <\/p>\n

On the final climb, he was the only rider capable of keeping pace with Vingegaard and Poga\u010dar before finishing fourth on the line and placing himself just a few seconds off the podium. The final mountain test to La Plagne was another tough day, and Onley crossed the line in fourth, a fair result that solidified his fourth place overall in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a super talent. I think we\u2019ve got one of the best, if not the best, development teams in the world. We bring them through, and one thing that we don\u2019t do is put big pressure on these young talents”, says Winston.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that outside of the race, everyone is getting excited about a young Scottish guy from Kelso, but there are six young guys in the team, all working together. Of course, they\u2019re all talented, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re in the Tour de France, but we just keep the pressure off and help them enjoy it. These are the final steps of their development,\u201d Winston said.<\/p>\n

The next big thing?
\n\"COURCHEVELThe gap from Onley to Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard is big \u2013 but he has time on his side. Bernard Papon – Pool\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fourth overall in such a demanding Tour brings up the obvious question of whether Onley can one day return to the race and win it. <\/p>\n

At 22, time is certainly on his side, but the gap between himself and the likes of Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard is immense. <\/p>\n

The Slovenian and Dane have dominated the race since the turn of the decade, but Onley is far younger and his ceiling as a pro rider is still unknown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that he has made a huge jump in the last twelve months and that there\u2019s a growing sense within his team that there\u2019s far more to come in the next few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI started working at British Cycling in 2007, developing talent,\u201d Winston tells me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 18 years down the line and I knew the first time that I met Oscar, that I met others like Max Poole, Tobias Lund, Pavel Bittner and other riders on this team, that these guys had the hunger to step up and be the world\u2019s best riders in a few years’ time. <\/p>\n

“Oscar, he\u2019s a quiet guy for the most part, a reflective guy, maybe a bit too hard on himself. But he\u2019s doing a fantastic job, and sometimes a lot of the pressure comes from himself, but that just shows the character that he is. He just wants to be the best he can be, and that\u2019s something that we can all aspire to,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly been an inspiring Tour from Onley and his Picnic Post-NL teammates.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You\u2019re probably not very familiar with the details of the 2022 edition of the CRO Race \u2013 Croatia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-297860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114929577785042658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}