“I know that in cycling, it just doesn’t get harder than the Tour de France. So having done that, it gives me so much confidence going into other races.”
Oscar Onley knows that having not just survived but thrived when confronted with the toughest challenge of his life, everything else will now feel easy.
Well, perhaps not easy, but far more manageable than would have been the case just a few months ago.
This summer, Onley became the first homegrown Scot for three decades to both start, and finish, the Tour de France.
Those three weeks of his Tour debut were, admits the 21-year-old, quite an “eye-opener” but the fact he coped so admirably with the toughest race in the cycling calendar, and arguably the toughest challenge in the sporting world, has given him a new-found self-belief.
Onley, who rides for Dutch-based Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, did far more than merely make up the numbers in this summer’s Tour.
In the opening stage, he was a vital member of the DSM squad that claimed the yellow jersey for Romain Bardet while it was on stage 17 that Onley made his mark personally, finishing fifth in the treacherous French Alps.
His final placings of 10th in the youth classification, 24th in the Mountains and 39th in the General Classification (GC) were just reward for a rider who has quietly but diligently worked his way to the upper echelons of the sport.
And while he’s been in the professional ranks for two years now, it was those three weeks in July that have done more for his mindset than anything else he’s encountered on a bike.
“The Tour was a great experience and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to do it,” he says.
“It’s so much bigger than any other race I’d done and at times, it felt like a different sport so it was a great learning experience and it gives me a lot of motivation for the future.
“A few times, I got into the breaks and put myself in a position to go for a result.
"But physically, I need to get stronger so that I’m fresher in those final moments of the stages.
"Mentally, it was very challenging too – you have to be switched on for 21 days and that takes its toll. You have to just accept that you’ll be suffering all day.
“The Tour is such a high level so it’s a huge confidence boost to have gotten through it.”
Those 2000-or-so miles of this summer’s Tour took surprisingly little out of Onley’s legs and he was back competing just weeks later, with a fine performance in Poland’s Tour de Pologne in which he claimed top ten finishes in both the GC and the mountains classification.
It’s this coming week, however, that will be a particular highlight of Onley’s season.
He rarely races in Britain these days, with the European mainland his typical hunting ground but this week, the Scot will make his first competitive appearance on British soil for two years. And it couldn’t come in a place closer to his heart.
The 2024 Tour of Britain begins today in Kelso, which also happens to be Onley’s hometown.
Stage one will snake round the Scottish Borders before finishing in Kelso’s market square, with the race then heading south of the border, finishing in Felixstowe on Sunday.
For Onley, who is having the season of his life, the location of this week’s opening stage is a twist of fate that couldn’t have worked out any better.
“It’s so exciting to be racing in Britain, and especially the first stage in Kelso, that’s special” he says.
“I’ll be going for the GC – the course doesn’t suit me perfectly but hopefully it’s a hard race and I'll have a few chances.”
Also in the hunt for GC glory will be Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock, while Onley’s fellow Scots Sean Flynn, Michael Gill and Callum Thornley will also be on the start-line.
Onley may have personal ambitions over the coming week but perhaps of even greater significance is the message he’s sending to aspiring Scottish riders, many of whom will likely be on the roadside today; that becoming a world-class road rider is far from a fantasy.
And the importance of this is not lost on the Kelso native.
“Hopefully kids will see where I’ve come from and what I’ve managed to do and it’ll make them believe it’s possible,” he says.
“I really believe that Scottish kids can do this if they enjoy riding their bike and they put in the work - the pathway is definitely there to make it to a high level.”
Onley’s season is drawing to a close and already, he’s looking towards 2025 and how he can utlise the experience he’s garnered this year.
Appreciating his progress is not, admits Onley, a skill of his but perhaps it’s this critical mindset that’s already seen him become one of Scotland’s most successful road cyclists of recent times.
“I feel I’ve still got a lot of room for improvement and I’m setting my targets a bit higher for next season,” he says.
“Sometimes I need to take a step back and appreciate what I’ve done this season because I’m not great at that – I’m always looking forward. The coaches of the team say I’m too hard on myself.
“I’m proud of what I’ve done so far, but I definitely want to go for bigger results and better performances in the future.”
It’s a future that’s indisputably bright.
