"People don’t believe that, but that is the truth" - Oscar Onley is surprising fans, team and himself with brilliant Tour GC run

Oscar Onley is a rider that has displayed very strong climbing abilities throughout the past few years but nothing would've prepared him to enter the final week of the Tour de France in fourth place, well within range of the final podium and the youth classification. This came as a surprise to himself and even Team Picnic PostNL.

“I’ve said from day one that we weren’t here to fight for the GC,” team DS Matt Winston shared with Road.CC. “We were going to do a relaxed GC, which basically means we’re not going to throw time away. But if we were to lose time, we’d accept that. But as it happened, Oscar had done a fantastic job. He’s been in the race every single day, and now we’re in the position we’re in.”

Onley finished in the Top5 of the Tour Down Under and UAE Tour; 9th at Itzulia Basque Country and finished inside the podium of the Tour de Suisse - beating João Almeida in a mountain stage as well. Hence, he had proved to have strong form into the Tour, however few would've expected him to be more than a Top10 contender at best. The 22-year old Scottish climber had not previously raced a Grand Tour fighting for the overall classification and it wasn't the exact plan coming into this Grand Boucle either.

“Oscar’s level has shown he’s been able to be in the GC and hold those positions. But we also know Oscar is a super-talented rider, and he’s worked really closely with our team since coming out of the junior ranks with our Expert group". Onley showed tremendous legs on the hilly stages of the first week and has been steadily climbing the overall classification throughout the second week, now ending up in fourth place, 1:25 minutes away from Florian Lipowitz who holds both the third place and white jersey.

But it doesn't come as a shock, taking into consideration what he's done as a youngster. “He’s shown glimpses of that in the past. In the Tour of Croatia a few years ago, he was sprinting against Jonas Vingegaard. So, it’s not surprising that he’s made those steps now".

“We didn’t come here to do a GC, I keep saying it. I think people don’t believe that, but that is the truth, we came here for stage results," Winston adds. "We’ll keep focusing on the day results with the other guys, there’s a few potential breakaway days, sprint days maybe. And when it comes to the GC days with Oscar we’ll race as hard as we can, and see where we end up in Paris".