"I wanted to gain a bit more time" - Oscar Onley again bows before Joao Almeida in seventh stage of Tour de Suisse

Tour de Suisse 2025 is a big race for Oscar Onley. The 22-year-old Brit is still only discovering his limits but he's already up there, fighting for stages and overall victory against the likes of Joao Almeida. The seventh stage brought a second place for the Picnic PostNL leader.

"We went hard on the second-to-last climb and the plan was to attack across to Frank, but yeah, he just didn’t have enough time [advantage]," Onley shares about the team tactics for today's stage in a press release.

Whereas the attacking plan didn't work out, Onley's teammate Van den Broek came in handy to pull the front through the valley after penultimate climb Bürgenstock where the group of favourites split up. "We did a really good job in the valley, keeping it controlled, and then it was just down to the legs on the final climb."

Those who expected even greater fireworks on Emmetten climb must've been somewhat disappointed. Except the acceleration(s) of Felix Gall, the favourites were mostly looking at each other. "It was hard - there was a bit of a headwind, so it wasn’t easy to make the difference," Onley explains.

And so the battle for stage win came down to a sprint where Onley secured another bittersweet second place, losing once again to Joao Almeida: "I guess I’m happy with the result. I wanted to gain a bit more time, but Alaphilippe is really strong and Vauquelin is going well too, so there wasn’t much I could do."

Thus the GC shall be decided in the final mountain time trial. Riders will once again ride to Emmetten. But this time they won't stop here and ride further five kilometers at 10% to Stockhütte. For Onley, this is the final opportunity to climb back onto the podium. "The plan for tomorrow is to go as hard as I can in the time trial and see where I end up. There are no tactics and you can’t control anything, so I’ve just got to do what I can do."