"It's definitely sparked a bit of a dream I guess" - Oscar Onley, Scotland's new Tour de France hope

22-year old Oscar Onley was one of the most promising talents in the peloton already but no-one would've expected or prepared him for the Tour de France he was about to have. The Scottish climber finished his second Grand Boucle in a shocking fourth place at the end of a brutal race where he was close to reaching the podium and white jersey.

It's a massive achievement for the new team leader, who stepped up after the retirement of Romain Bardet only just over a month ago. Team Picnic PostNL had been looking for a new leader and Onley stepped up in this Tour de France, only weeks after finishing on the podium of the Tour de Suisse where he also won a stage.

However his GC ambitions at the start of the Tour were at best a Top10, or potentially fighting for stage wins in the mountains. But a very strong first week and a surprisingly good time-trial saw him go into the first really difficult stage in the Massif Central in seventh place.

Onley never purposefully lost time and continued to test himself to see how far he could go in the mountains, and as the days passed by he continued to loos just as strong, whilst several GC riders abandoned the race or cracked in the mountains. Onley left the Pyrenees in fourth place and then kept it in the third week where he threatened Florian Lipowitz.

"I guess this is a really big moment in my career. I don't really realize it yet but I think just from talking to other riders in the bunch, going forward, we have something to build on and an exciting project for the future," Onley told CyclingWeekly in Paris. "It's definitely sparked a bit of a dream I guess".

On the queen stage Onley had great support from Frank van den Broek and Warren Barguil, and after being the rider who matched best Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on the Col de la Loze, he came within seconds of the podium. But in La Plagne he couldn't match another emerging climber Florian Lipowitz.

But this result not only is a great achievement, but puts new goals and dreams into what is certain to be a very bright future. "I hadn't ever thought about a top five in the Tour before, so to get it on my first try at GC is quite something. I'm excited for the future."

Onley concluded his second Tour, the first time aiming for a Grand Tour GC, with a sketchy circuit in Paris where he could enjoy the result. "That was a pretty crazy circuit. It's a good job the times were neutralized I think. It was really nice, the last time up Montmartre, I could kind of soak it up with the guys around me," he concluded. "It was quite cool. Coming onto the Champs-Élysées on the first couple of laps, it was pretty special. It has been a really special three weeks, with the whole team".