Oscar Onley began last week’s Volta a Catalunya with the sort of youthful exuberance and innocence that only 20 year olds can have. “You don’t really think about it because it just happens naturally,” he said of starting his first WorldTour stage race.
By the end of the week and two breakaways later, he was a spent figure. It had been an exhausting seven days. He’d come up against his own limits, faced down numerous savage ascents, and learned a thing or two about racing with the very elite on the toughest of stages. “The level’s a bit higher than what I have been used to so far,” he analysed. “I haven’t got the best legs to hold onto the top guys yet.”
