“It’s a desperate move by the INEOS Grenadiers” – Leading British cycling figure questions Oscar Onley transfer

Oscar Onley’s move to INEOS Grenadiers looked, on the surface, like the natural next step for a rider who had just finished fourth at the Tour de France. A British climber stepping into Britain’s most decorated team felt logical, ambitious and timely.

Brian Smith sees it very differently. Speaking on the road.cc Podcast, the former professional rider, team manager and long-time commentator did not question Onley’s ability. He questioned the situation surrounding the move, the timing, and the environment the 23-year-old is stepping into at a pivotal moment in his development.

“Oscar Onley shouldn’t have gone to INEOS.” That is the line that frames everything that follows.

Smith made it clear that, in his view, Picnic PostNL was the ideal place for Onley to continue his progression after his breakthrough Tour. “I’d have suggested that he should stay at Picnic-PostNL. And the team could have invested in two or three riders, which they did with James Knox.”

He believes the environment around Onley last season was a key part of why the Scot was able to ride so freely to fourth in Paris. “I feel as if Picnic-PostNL developed him and it’s a group he enjoyed being part of, more of a family team who were there to support him, asking him to do the best he can.”

That atmosphere, he suggests, is very different from the one Onley now enters. “And now he’s been taken out of that environment, to an environment where it’s ‘we have to deliver’.”

Smith also revealed how late the transfer unfolded. “I was led to believe that this was so late in the day this happened that Oscar’s flight to the Tour Down Under was already paid for, that’s how late it went.”

To him, that timing is significant. It does not suggest a long-term, carefully planned project. It suggests urgency. “Okay, it’s big money. But I think it’s a desperate move by the INEOS Grenadiers, because they’re under severe pressure to deliver in grand tours, especially at the Tour de France. If the figures I’ve seen published are true, it’s a huge amount of money to buy a rider out of their contract.”

That pressure, Smith believes, is the real story behind the move.

When asked to summarise his concern, Smith did not hesitate. “Pressure. Pressure’s the word.”

He believes that is the single biggest difference between the environment Onley leaves and the one he now joins. “And the big thing he’ll have, which I don’t think he would have had with Picnic, is the pressure.”

In Picnic PostNL, Onley was allowed to grow into a leader. At INEOS, he arrives as part of a team that needs a leader immediately.

Smith framed the sporting challenge in the clearest possible terms. “Can Oscar Onley beat Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel? That’s the big question.”

His answer is pragmatic rather than dismissive. “I think he’s better looking at a Giro or a Vuelta if he wants to win a grand tour for them.”

That view aligns closely with Onley’s own recent comments about the gap to the very top and the realistic routes to a first Grand Tour victory. The difference is that INEOS are defined by one race above all others. “There’ll be huge pressure on him to deliver a big performance. Can he do it? I hope he does. But he’s up against some anomalies in cycling, probably the best ever era of grand tour riders.”

That line captures the balance in Smith’s view. Support for the rider. Doubt about the circumstances.

Onley’s fourth place at the Tour de France did not come in isolation. It came after a season in which Picnic PostNL built their entire approach around him. Team roles, race programmes and tactics were designed to support his growth.

Smith believes that process was still underway.

In his eyes, the move to INEOS interrupts that curve. A rider still learning what he is capable of has stepped into a team where patience is not part of the vocabulary.

He is no longer the rider being protected. He is the rider expected to deliver.

Smith’s concern is not about whether Onley can one day win a Grand Tour. It is about whether this is the right moment, and the right place, for that journey to continue.

He does not doubt Onley’s talent. He doubts the environment.

The shift from a “family team” to a “we have to deliver” team is, in his view, the central risk. A rider who was allowed to grow now has to perform under the heaviest spotlight in British cycling.

And that is why, in the bluntest terms possible, Brian Smith believes Oscar Onley should have stayed exactly where he was.