Words by Daniel Benson

Oscar Onley is ready to repeat history for Scotland and go stage hunting at the Tour de France.
 

By his own admission, 2024 has been a year of highs and lows for Oscar Onley but the Scottish climber is ready to make his Tour de France debut on Saturday as he targets a stage win in the biggest race in the men’s calendar.
 

The Team dsm-firmenich PostNL climber has already had a breakthrough season, winning the Queen stage of the Tour Down Under, and recently finishing a highly creditable eighth overall at the Tour de Suisse. There have been setbacks too, with two broken collarbones disrupting his campaign but the Tour debutant has remained upbeat, and with the support of the team he’s looking to make history for himself, and Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.
 

In fact, Onley could also make history for his nation. He might not be the only Scottish rider to start the Tour in the last couple of decades but he’s certainly the first natural Scottish climber since Philippa York made her debut in the race as Robert Millar back in 1983.
 

That year Millar won a stage, and would go on to win two more during a glittering Tour career that also included a King of the Mountains title and a fourth overall in Paris. By coincidence, Millar's first stage win came on the road between Pau and Bagnères-de-Luchon, and this year’s race has both a stage and finish in Pau, and also crosses Bagnères-de-Luchon on stage 15. The omens of an Onley success story are already stacking up.
 

“As a fellow Scot my main advice for Oscar is don’t get sunburnt but really he's in a unique position as the only Scottish rider in the race,” Philippa York told us ahead of the Tour.
 

“On a support level, normally there will be a Scottish fan at the start or finish of every stage, so that will be a nice aspect for Oscar that should make him feel a bit special. He’ll also have a lot more support than in previous eras because of social media. Everyone can follow him online and I think more fans will engage with Oscar because they know more about him and his life,” she added.
 

“A bit like Oscar, I turned up in 1983 for my first Tour as a part of a team, but I was the climbing aid to the team leader. I wasn’t second in the team but I was looked after on the climbing stages. I think that Oscar will be in a similar position in that he’ll get chances. He might stay with someone like Romain Bardet for as long as possible in the breaks but he might find himself in a really good position because when he’s on form he looks like a really talented climber.”

Onley himself recently arrived in Florence for the Grand Depart and is in fine spirits after the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL line-up for the Tour de France was announced earlier this week. The 21-year-old came through the Tour de Suisse with flying colours, after only coming back to action for the race following his second collarbone break of the season at Amstel Gold Race. He battled through an incredibly tough parcours in Suisse, and went up against many of the GC favourites for the Tour de France to secure eighth overall. After a period of altitude training both before and after Suisse, Onley is raring to go for the Tour.

“I had good results in the Tour de Suisse and I was really happy with my level then,” he said during the build-up to the Tour this week.

“It was my first race back again but before that I had a long stint at altitude, so I wasn’t really sure how I’d go but after Suisse I went back to altitude for nine or so days. I’ve been working hard but I’ve made sure that I’ve not overdone things. I’ve made sure that I’ve had the right balance, and so far I feel really good. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks.”

Onley’s calm and mature approach in recent times has stemmed from his own personality as a laid back but determined rider but also the fact that the team have worked to support him as much as possible since he came through the ranks of the Development program at the start of 2021. The Scot was down to race the Tour de France back in December of last year following meetings at training camps, and that trust from the management and the coaching staff hasn’t wavered, even after the injury setbacks.

“We went over my calendar back in the winter, and from there it’s always been on the race programme. That’s a really big credit to the team for putting their trust in me. I didn’t have the stage win at the Tour Down Under at that time and I hadn’t had any of the results that I’d had this year, so it was a little bit of a risk from them to say I was doing the Tour but I hope that I’ve proved that I should be here,” he said.

At every stage Onley has looked to find the positive in whatever situation he’s found himself in. Crashes and injuries are an unfortunate part of the sport, but the youngster approach has been to use each knock as a chance to rebuild and grow - both on and off the bike.

“It’s always important to keep challenging and keep moving forward. I’ve learned this year that it’s important to take breaks,” he said.

“Obviously you’d like to choose when those breaks are and relax a bit more but performance wise I think that I’ve shown that maybe you don’t need to be on it all the time and that having a week off here or there can benefit you in the long run. We now know that I can get into good shape by just training, and that I don't need a lot of race days to get into good shape so for the coming years, there are things that I can take away from this year that will help going forward.

“What I can take away from Suisse is that it’s the highest-level race that I’ve done so far in terms of everyone being in form ahead of the Tour. If you look at the top ten in the race, almost all of them are going to the Tour, so maybe my result in Tour Down Under looks better on paper, but maybe Suisse is a better result for me personally. It was nice to confirm that I could be up there in the longer mountains.”

Tour ambitions

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL head into the Tour de France chasing stage wins. An all-for-one, one-for-all approach will see Fabio Jakobsen target the sprints, while Onley will form a crop of climbers that includes veterans Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet. On paper and in practice it’s a mouth-watering prospect for the high mountains.
 

Most Tour de France debutants would consider simply completing the race a major achievement, but Onley isn’t shy when it comes to sharing his hopes for the race.

“I can say that I’m going for experience but to be honest, I’m optimistic, I’m ambitious and I want to go for a stage win,” he said.

“If I play my cards right, and everything lines up on a certain day then I don’t see why I can’t go for a stage. There are few that I've picked out but obviously it’s difficult when you’re looking for a breakaway because that’s not guaranteed every day. Finding the right day will be tough but then it’s all down to the legs and I hope that I'm good enough to be up there.”

Whatever happens, the youngster knows that back home in Kelso, Scotland he’ll have an army of tartan fans cheering him on as he seeks to become the first Scottish climber to win a stage of the Tour de France since Millar in the 1990s. He may have been born in London, England but Onley sees himself as a Scot through and through and any glory he can achieve over the next three weeks will represent a major steppingstone both for him and his home nation.

“As a rider who has come up through the Scottish scene and raced there throughout my youth, it’s quite a big moment. There’s myself and Sean Flynn on the team, so there’s two Scots in the WorldTour. But at the Tour I hope that it shows to the younger riders who are coming through the ranks that it is possible and that you’re not that far off from something that’s quite big,” he said.

“Back home I know that there will be a lot of people excited in my hometown of Kelso, also in my local club and across Scotland as well. It’s quite exciting for them to see someone coming through I think.”