"I'll see if I can get there" - Oscar Onley has eyes locked on a possible sensational podium in Paris

While the development of the eighteenth stage of 2025 Tour de France hinted that Oscar Onley would be among the defeated men of the day when Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe and 8th overall Felix Gall dropped Onley halfway into the stage, the 22-year-old made a remarkable recovery and dropped all his opponents on the final climb to cross the line 4th on the day.

"I just did what I could there," Onley said afterwards. "I gave it my everything."

"On the Col de la Madeline it was tough." When Vingegaard with Pogacar launched on the penultimate climb of the day, Onley didn't panic and chose tide at his own pace towards the top. "I felt good but I’m just not at the level of those guys when they attack really all out, and I think it showed at the end of the stage that they went pretty hard up there."

The Picnic PostNL eventually came together with a rather large group about a minute and half behind the leaders on top, but accompanied mostly by Pogacar's and Vingegaard's domestiques, it was actually difficult to keep the group going. Thus the team made a rational call and chose to wait for Onley's teammates Frank van den Broek and Warren Barguil further group down the road to then bring everything together before the Col de la Loze.

"The team did a super job to then bring me back ahead of the last climb. From there, I just dug in and gave what I had to the line."

Onley found way better legs on the final climb of the day and was even able to keep up with the pace of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar as the trio flied up to the highest point on this year's course. In final meters he lost a few seconds to the two stars, but more importantly 3rd Florian Lipowitz lost 1 minute and 39 seconds after his daring attack in the valley.

Suddenly, Onley can dare to dream of a sensational podium with only 22 seconds separing him from a massive success. "The gap now to the podium isn’t much, so we’ll give it everything we have tomorrow to see if we can get on there."