Onley heads to the Tour de France with a simple, yet challenging goal: "The next part of the puzzle"

Oscar Onley has completed his second year as a pro rider with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL. 2023 he already showed some nice results, but in 2024, he broke through. He won a stage in the Santos Tour Down Under and finished fourth in the GC. He then achieved good results in the Tour of Switzerland and Poland. In the fall, he finished second in both the Tour of Britain and the Gree-Tour of Guangxi. It was a promising year for the only 22-year-old British rider. Yet one result he will never forget: the Tour de France, where he did not perform as hoped. And that is precisely his goal for 2025, he tells Cycling Weekly.

To the Bristol news site, Onley says he was never a great talent and did not expect to ever become pro. He talked about his idol, Andy Schleck. "I guess when I first started watching the Tour de France, it was him and Contador that were going for it. For some reason I took more of a liking to Schleck than Contador and I always wanted him to come out on top in their battles. I guess the first memory I have of the Tour was actually on the Tourmalet when they were going head to head in the mist. That's something that kind of sticks out in my memory actually."

Text continues below photo

Onley enjoys life as a cyclist 

Another thing that has stuck with him is the advice people gave him during his short career. "A lot of people say to enjoy it. When I was younger that really, really annoyed me, because I thought that was just an obvious thing to say. Now that I'm a little bit older, and now that it actually is my job, I guess I understand what they mean when they say enjoy it."

"It’s because there are parts that are obviously really hard, so if you don't enjoy it then you can't make a career out of it. There's days you don't enjoy and there's moments you don't enjoy, but you have to enjoy the whole process and the whole way of living I think and for me that's the key."

Text continues below photo

A stage in the Tour as headline for 2025

And if that key continues to be found, great things can happen. Onley has made a goal of the Tour for 2025; this year was a little bit disappointing, so you could call it a revenge of sorts. "I want to win a stage of the Tour de France I think. I got the experience from the Tour last year, and I hope to step up a level and hopefully be a bit closer to the front end in those races and those high level races. If I could win a stage there then that would be a really satisfying goal to achieve."

"I had a few days, a few days in the break last year, but only really one day competing for a result. In the end I was fifth but I had a few days where I was getting into the break, but I didn't really have the legs to finish it off. So that's now the next part of the puzzle, continuing in the break and making it to the end of the race," concludes a positive Onley, who was still involved in a crash at the end of December.

Read also

New wolves Schachmann and Hayter criticize Red Bull and INEOS: "Bikes designed for them, not for me"

📸 Van der Poel pushes training partners to the limit in Spain with first edition of 'MVDP Classic'

Wout van Aert receives praise: "He could live in Monaco, and drive a red Ferrari"

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get every week the latest news about CYCLING in your inbox!

Subscribe