"It was basically all-out to the line after Vingegaard attacked" - Oscar Onley moves up to 4th overall after stage 14

This Tour de France edition seems to be one that favors young, emerging talents. Such as Oscar Onley. The leader of Picnic PostNL started the Tour without any specific objective in mind, but is now well on his way to finish the race in top-5 overall, albeit Paris is still nowhere in sight.

"It was a hard day again; with the break only going on the Tourmalet and then UAE set a hard pace during the stage," Onley said in a press release. "It was quite a good pace that Yates set on the last climb and I was hoping that they would do that for as long as possible."

The pace however didn't fit the agenda of 10th overall Felix Gall whose acceleration was later countered by Jonas Vingegaard who felt like there was no more space for waiting: "It was then basically all-out to the line after Vingegaard attacked and I did what I could."

Onley couldn't quite keep up with the best riders, but managed to limit losses on his won to emerge from the fog as sixth rider of the day, a minute behind Tadej Pogacar. Although he didn't gain any time on the riders ahead of him in the GC, the 22-year-old continues to impress.

"It’s one more stage down and one more day closer to Paris but it’s still a long way to go and we still have some pretty tough climbs to cover in the Alps next week. I’m continuing to surprise myself," Onley admits that he didn't think a 4th place overall after two weeks of racing was possible.

"We didn’t really come here with any big GC ambitions pre-race, and today was probably the biggest test of my long-climbing abilities in my career so far. It’s nice to be in fourth and gain some time on a few guys, but it’s a long way to go and a lot can change next week."

Onley is currently some minute and a half behind 3rd overall Florian Lipowitz who is also his main rival in the youth competition. Kevin Vauquelin and Primoz Roglic currently both sit a minute behind the Picnic PostNL rider whose odds of a nice GC result heading into the third week are not too grim.