It illustrates perfectly Oscar Onley’s understated personality that he calls his history-making ride at the Vuelta a España “pretty good”.
This is quite the understatement by the Scot; Onley’s feat of winning the white jersey, which is awarded to the top-finishing young rider in the three-week race, was the first grand tour jersey won by a Scot for nearly forty years, with the last being Philippa York (who rode as Robert Millar), who won the mountains classification at the 1987 Giro d’Italia.
And given Onley had begun this year’s La Vuelta off the back of months heavily disrupted by illness and injury, the 23-year-old from Kelso could have been forgiven for getting far more excited about his performance in Spain than he has.
That’s not quite Onley’s style, though.
“It was just nice to finish the race - it's not been the smoothest of seasons so to just get some race days in and get that rhythm again was good,” said the Scot, who also finished sixth in the general classification (GC) standings at La Vuelta.
“Coming into the race, I had high ambitions and I didn't really meet the goals I set myself but I was pretty close. I wanted to try and win a stage, which I was fairly close to doing, the white jersey was a goal but I also wanted to be a bit higher up in GC.
“But there were a couple of times, especially on stage four, that I thought I was going home because I was pretty empty that day. So to not lose everything and have a fairly consistent three weeks - I was happy. It's always nice to get a jersey, especially in a grand tour, so it's a nice memory to have.”
Onley’s La Vuelta result was the highlight of his debut season with Netcompany–Ineos, who he joined late last year from Team Picnic–PostNL, with whom he’d spent five years as part of, firstly, the development squad and then, latterly, the main team.
His move to Netcompany–Ineos came off the back of a spectacular 2025 which was most notable for Onley’s fourth-place finish in the GC standings at the Tour de France.
Joining one of the leading cycling teams in the world could have felt like quite the weight upon the young Scot’s shoulders but rather, Onley has felt surprisingly relaxed throughout his rookie season for the team.
“To be honest, I feel like there's been less pressure on me this year - Ineos is such a big team and there's so many great riders in the team so, in almost every race I've gone into, I’ve had a co-leadership role. So while I haven't always performed how I wanted in the races, someone else has stepped up and got results so that's really good for the atmosphere within the team.
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"I'm really enjoying myself with the team and I just need to focus on what I need to do and make the best plans with the team around me.”
Onley has one more major race to tick-off before he can hang-up his helmet for this season, and that’s the World Championships Elite Road Race, which takes place on Sunday in the Canadian city of Montreal.
Ahead of Onley lies just over 273km of racing and while the Scot has had only two weeks to recover from the exertions of La Vuelta, he believes he’s in as good shape as he could have hoped for heading into this weekend’s race, in which he finished in sixteenth place in 2024.
“I've recovered pretty well from La Vuelta, actually, and it’s a good time frame - not too close but also not too far away where you start to lose form," he says.
“Two years ago (at 2024 Worlds), I put myself in a position to get a good result but I just didn't have the legs in the last 20k to finish it off so I'm hoping that with two more years of racing in my legs, I'll be able to go a bit longer this time.”
Onley is one of three British men who will head into this weekend’s road race with aspirations of challenging for a podium spot, the others being Adam Yates and Tom Pidcock. With the best road racer in the world, Tadej Pogačar, absent following a crash at La Vuelta, this World Championship is more wide open than it would otherwise have been. And with only two British winners in the history of the event - Tom Simpson in 1965 and Mark Cavendish in 2011 - a third British victory would be historic.
Onley, who is also joined in the GB team by his fellow Scot, Callum Thornley, is, as expected, understated about his prospects but also acknowledges he and his compatriots have the quality to be contending for medals.
“If everything goes right then why not (challenge for a medal)?”, he asks.
“There's a lot of variables that can come into play - if you get up the road early, with the right guys, then it can be hard for the others to bring a group like that back. It's just about being aware of what's going on.
“Pogačar is the best cyclist in the world but just because he's not here, there are still so many other riders at such a high level. With myself, Tom (Pidcock) and Adam (Yates), we (GB) maybe don't have the outright favourite but we hopefully have numbers that we can use deep into the race, and that's where our strengths can come together. If we work well together and cover any moves, I think we're in with a good shot.
“But in the end, it's about the legs. The strongest rider is going to win.”
