'I've shown that I can compete on these bigger days' – Oscar Onley rides expectation and pressure at Road World Championships

Oscar Onley has had to deal with a lot more attention than usual this summer. After finishing fourth at the Tour de France, the Scot has had a lot to deal with.

The 22-year-old from Kelso featured daily on ITV’s coverage of the Tour, was the subject of features in the national news, and even gained his own slogan for cardboard signs – Onley Fans.

It was life-changing for Onley, and brought about new confidence, confidence that could be key going into the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday.

"I feel like I'm in a good space again after the Tour," he explained on Friday. "Mentally, after the Tour, I was quite cooked to be honest, and I had to take some time off and have some time to myself.

"There was a lot of attention around everything I was doing for three or four weeks. That was quite a lot, but I had a good time away, got back into training, back into normal routine, and the focus was on this weekend the whole time. I'm really looking forward to it.

"The riders in the bunch look at me a bit differently now, maybe there's a bit more expectation and pressure from the outside, but I wouldn't say I feel any different. I always put pressure on myself and I always want to perform, so, I don't feel like anything has changed in that sense. Maybe I've gained a little bit more confidence after the Tour, and I know my place now. It gives me more motivation, I think."

This is Onley's second World Championships, after Zürich last year, where he finished 16th after impressing on a tough course. This course is even tougher, and at altitude too. The Picnic PostNL rider is ready to keep fighting throughout, knowing how important this is in such a huge one-day race.

"It's not specific to this race, but big one-day races in general, it's really important to keep riding, and to keep putting yourself in the position to be in the race," Onley said.

"Things change so fast when it's over 230 or 240km. There's a big difference in the drop-off of riders. Last year I was probably on the wrong side of that, I put myself in the position to get a result quite early in the race – that was the way I had to do it – but I didn't have the legs to hold on in the final couple of laps.

"An extra year of racing and training in the legs, I've shown that I can compete on these bigger days. I'm confident I'm stronger than last year, and I think with the team we have we can be in contention all day."

"It's a really hard route, we rode it a few days ago. It's a tricky one, because the climbs are really hard but the rest of the circuit is quite wide roads, nothing too technical," he added. "You can really recover there, but it's more the conditions that will affect the race more. With the altitude and the heat, it's really important not to go over your limit too early, especially in a 270km race."

Onley will be watched, but that suits him just fine – along with Tom Pidcock, GB have two good cards to play, something he thinks will be key on Sunday.

"It's quite exciting with both of us being in contention on Sunday, because it's really important when you can play off different teammates, it makes a big difference," he said. "It's not something I get to experience much across the year, and I'm really excited for it. The stronger your team is, even if you have four or five leaders, the chances of you winning or getting a better result is better than if you're the sole leader."

Confidence is key, key to believing he should be up there with Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, and the rest; this was something he showed at the Tour, often hanging onto Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard in the high mountains.

"I go to every race believing I can win or do a really good result, and Sunday is no different," Onley explained. "The overall goal of the team is to get a medal, whether that's myself, Tom, Joe [Blackmore] or anyone. It would be really nice to get a medal for myself and it would cap off a really good year. I think as long as I do a race I'm proud of, then I'll be satisfied."

GB haven't had a medallist in the men's road race since Mark Cavendish won in 2016, something Pidcock and Onley hope to change on Sunday in Kigali. "The more chaotic the race, it suits us better," Onley concluded. Expect chaos.