Onley: It's a good and a bad thing knowing just how tough the Tour is

The Herald Scotland

9 hours ago

When he lines up this weekend at the Tour de France, the Scot knows exactly what's coming.
It's three weeks and 3320km of bike racing and, for good or for bad, Onley knows exactly what the race will entail, and how it will feel. And he knows it's not going to be easy.
"I'm really excited to be racing the Tour again. This year, I come in with a few less unknowns and I have a better idea of what I need to do,' he says.
'During the three weeks of racing, you just have to accept that you're going to have bad days and certain stages are going to be very, very tough.
'I know quite how hard those last few days of the race are, so that maybe makes it a little bit more daunting.
'There are upsides of knowing what to expect because I can prepare myself, but there's also downsides because I'm well aware of just how tough a race the Tour is.'
Over the past few years, Onley has transitioned from a young rider with plenty of potential to a World Tour team rider who is riding the biggest races in the cycling calendar.
(Image: @Dario Belingheri/@Getty Images)
The 22-year-old from Kelso, who rides for Team Picnic PostNL, made his Tour de France debut last summer, making history by becoming the first Scottish-developed rider since Robert Millar three decades previously to ride the world's greatest bike race.
Onley applied himself admirably in his maiden Tour, ultimately finishing tenth in the youth classification and 39th in the general classification.
Last year's Tour was followed by a second-place finish in the general classification at the Tour of Britain, with Onley cementing his status as a bona fide world-class road racer.
2025 has seen Onley continue to build his resumé, leading to the Scot once again be selected in Team Picnic PostNL's Tour de France squad.
Onley may still be only 22 years old but a year makes quite a difference at the sharp end of elite sport and the Scot admits he feels like a considerably more experienced rider this summer compared to the rookie who made his Tour debut last year.
"This year I go into the Tour having gained so much more experience, not just from last year's Tour, but from other races too. The different situations that I've been in all add up so it means that whenever I find myself in a certain position, there's more chance of me knowing how to handle it,' he says.
'And physically, I feel good. Towards the end of last season, I felt like I'd stepped-up physically - doing these hard races builds your engine and makes you more resilient each year.
"This season, I feel like I've earned a little bit more respect from the other riders.
'I've been talking to some of the bigger riders and competing against them week in, week out, and you start to realise that actually you are at this level and you deserve to be here. So I definitely feel less daunted this year.'
The 2025 Tour will begin in Lille and will remain within France for the entire three weeks, finishing in Paris on the 27th of July.
Onley may feel physically and mentally in peak shape but given this race is one of the hardest physical tests on the planet, he's under no illusions as to how close to his limit he'll be pushed.
The lessons learnt from last year's race, though, will be invaluable as he navigates the ups-and-downs that inevitably come with a race of this length.
'The biggest thing I took from last year is remembering that everyone's tired. Everyone, when they wake up each day, is hurting,' he says.
'Last year, there were times I'd wake up and be on my hands and knees just praying to get through the day. But actually, even in the last week, I was quite competitive which is a reminder that everyone's feeling so tired - you can quickly forget that and start to believe that you're the only one who's feeling bad, but that's really not the case.
'You just have to not get too worried about the harder moments and know there's better days coming.'
Onley's highlight of the 2024 Tour was his fifth-place finish on Stage 17 and while observers on these shores lauded the fact that a Scottish rider was competing with the world's best for a stage win, Onley plays down the achievement and insists it merely served to increase his appetite for greater success this time around.
With Robert Millar and David Millar the only Scottish riders ever to have won stages in the Tour, it would be no mean feat for Onley to add his name to this list but he goes into this year's Tour with the belief that he cannot just compete but, on his day, beat the very best on the planet. And his current form - in the recent Tour de Suisse, Onley won stage five on his way to finishing third in the general classification - suggests a Tour stage win is an entirely realistic goal.
'There's a huge difference between being top five in a stage and winning a stage. Nobody remembers who's fifth on stage 17 of the 2024 Tour but people do remember when you win a stage,' he says.
'Of course it'll be tough, but I definitely believe I can get some stage wins. I'm not sure I would turn up if I didn't believe I could do well. I don't want to slog away for three weeks and just end up with a mediocre GC placing - I would rather pick my days and go hard for stage wins.
'When you do these big races, you have to believe in yourself and believe in the work you've done and I do believe that I can get good results over the next three weeks.'