Onley: "I was up all night before this stage."

It's been a cursed season for Oscar Onley, who must have cursed the cycling gods once again after revealing that he had been struck by illness on the eve of the first major test of the Vuelta a España.

The British rider, fourth in last year's Tour de France, has been dogged by ailments and crashes since his sensational switch to Netcompany-Ineos, and is tackling the Vuelta after missing the Tour through injury.

Onley placed fourth on the short stage 4 through the Andorran Pyrenees, the first mountain stage of the race after the cancellation of stage 3, snatching third place from a select group of top riders who finished behind dominant solo winner Tadej Pogačar.

However, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Onley: "Considering I was up all night in the bathroom, I'm actually quite happy," he said in a short interview with the organization's media team at the finish line.

When asked if he suffered from stomach problems, he simply confirmed: "Yes."

Onley then admitted that the red jersey on Pogačar's shoulders is now out of reach and that, in fact, he is running a different race, for second place.

Onley was the only rider able to respond when Gall tried again on the Coll d'Ordino, but the chasing group expanded to include six riders at the finish, with Primož Roglič, Jarno Widar, Enric Mas and Sepp Kuss also present.

"It went well," Onley said of the collaboration. "It was a little complicated, but overall it worked out well."

Onley, who had a disappointing time trial in Monaco, moved up to fifth in the overall standings, 3:45 behind Pogačar but, in terms of more relevant benchmarks for the podium race, he is just 24 seconds behind second-placed Roglič and 13 seconds behind third-placed Mas.