Oscar Onley: 'I want to return to the Tour to confirm my performance'

The 2025 Tour de France was a journey of discovery for Oscar Onley, the young Scottish talent who realised he could compete for the podium in professional cycling’s biggest race.

The 22-year-old finished fourth in the overall standings, 12:12 behind Tadej Pogačar, after losing the podium battle in the final week to Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). The German rider managed to gain 40 seconds on stage 20 to La Plagne, securing third place and the white jersey for best young rider ahead of Onley.

The two riders were the revelations of the 2025 Tour, engaging in a thrilling duel behind the dominant Pogačar and Vingegaard. Onley's consistency was particularly impressive, as he climbed from 11th after the time trial to 7th and finally 4th overall.

"At the start of the Tour, there was no focus on the general classification," Onley revealed. "But after the time trial, I found myself in a good position and was told to give it my all. In the following days, I naturally slipped into the top 10."

The Scotsman achieved important results such as fourth place in the Rouen stage and third on the Mur-de-Bretagne, competing on equal terms with champions of the calibre of Pogačar and van der Poel.

After the Tour of Britain, Onley will compete in the Canadian Classics and the World Championships in Rwanda, where he will share the leadership of the British national team with Tom Pidcock. But his main goal is to return to the 2026 Tour de France to build on the good results he demonstrated this year.

"After racing the Tour, you don't want to do any more Grand Tours because it's simply on a different level," he explained. "I've never raced the Giro and only did one stage of the 2023 Vuelta, but the Tour is much bigger than any other race. At least for now, I'm really motivated to come back and try to confirm my performance."