Kelso cyclist Oscar Onley targeting Tour de France stage win after third-place finish
Kelso cyclist Oscar Onley followed up his fourth place in last Tuesday’s stage four of this year’s Tour de France by going one better three days later.
The 22-year-old, riding for Netherlands-based Team Picnic PostNL, finished Friday’s 122-mile stage seven in Brittany from Saint-Malo to Guerledan third, only two seconds behind Slovenian winner Tadej Pogacar.
That took him back up to seventh in general classification, two minutes and 49 seconds behind then front-runner Pogacar, 26, and he held onto that position going into today’s day off despite not managing any further top-ten finishes in the three stages in between, placing 36th on Saturday, 49th on Sunday and 14th on Monday.
He’d fallen to three minutes and 24 seconds off the pace by then, with Ireland’s Ben Healy leading the way in 37:41:49 and Pogacar 29 seconds behind in second place.
Stage 11 tomorrow, July 16, is a 97-mile loop around around Toulouse in Occitania and stage 12 of 21 the day after goes 112 miles from Auch to Hautacam.
Onley was pleased to pull off his highest tour placing thus far on Friday but is targeting topping that by the time this year’s race ends on Sunday, July 27, in Paris, saying: “The guys and team once again did a super job to protect me and look after me throughout the stage.
“It meant I could just focus on the final as much as possible and not have to worry about anything else, and they positioned me for the first time up the Mur-de-Bretagne perfectly.
“I wouldn’t say I was thinking too much tactically on that final climb, but when you have the legs, it’s easier to make the right decisions when you’re on the limit.
“It was cagey for the first three, but behind I think everyone was on their limit from the start of it as it was a really strong pace into the bottom of the climb.
“It was just all-out sprint to the line in the end and we can be pleased with the third place. Of course, to get a win would be nice, but there’s a long way to go in this Tour de France.”
Team coach Matt Winston added: “The team did a really good job to look after Oscar throughout the day.
“You could see on the TV images how they were working hard on the front to keep him in position and bring him into the closing lap in good shape.
“On the last climb, Oscar could show again just how strong he was.
“It was a really nice third place after some great teamwork and something we can continue to build on.”
2025’s tour is the former Kelso Wheelers member’s second after finishing 39th in general classification and as tenth young rider on his debut last year.