The unassuming king of Scotland: the year Oscar Onley announced himself to the world as Britain's next GC star

Oscar Onley, Britain’s new GC darling, recently revealed that he no longer has a bike at his family home in Scotland. Whenever he’s back in Kelso, the town where the 23-year-old grew up, he’s there to “really, really relax” and to take a break from cycling. But that doesn’t mean he can get away with not paying subs at his local club. If he bumps into anyone from Kelso Wheelers, he’d better make sure he’s got his excuses ready – or a few bank notes in his wallet.

“Oscar’s mum Sharon is our club secretary, and she usually pays his club membership," Kelso Wheelers chairman Robert Ure tells CW. “I’d need to have a look, but I don’t think he’s paid his membership for this year. I’m going to have to send him an arrears letter unless he pays his 20 quid,” Ure laughs, joking that the outstanding debt could follow Onley around long after he’s hung up his professional racing wheels.

“If he comes down once he’s finished and retired and still hasn’t paid his membership, there’ll be serious words with him! We will have to backdate the payments.”

All of which is said in the best possible spirit, of course. Regardless of Onley’s technical membership status, his childhood cycling club – and the whole of the Scottish Borders – are immensely proud of him. This year, in just his second appearance at the Tour de France, he finished fourth, 72 seconds shy of a spot on the podium.

As a result, Onley was one of the most in-demand riders in July, winning a legion of new supporters after keeping pace for long stretches with runaway leader Tadej Pogačar and his arch rival Jonas Vingegaard. ‘Onley Fans’ – a brilliant pun on the adults-only website OnlyFans – became a favoured placard slogan during the Tour, while as a hashtag #OnleyFans it went viral on Instagram, TikTok and X.

But attention and the spotlight don’t come naturally to Onley – though affable and polite, he is reserved and softly spoken. A bit like Vingegaard, he appears to be something of a reluctant superstar.

Adjusting to stardom

Onley’s finishing only a minute off the podium of the biggest race of all might not have been predicted, but it wasn’t entirely surprising. Ever since he turned pro with what was then Team DSM, the Scot has promised big things. In fact, he first signposted his enormous talent when he was still technically riding for DSM’s development team, finishing just behind reigning Tour de France winner Vingegaard at the 2022 CRO Race.

Over the following two years, he took his first WorldTour victory, a stage at the 2024 Tour Down Under, was an active presence in breakaways during his maiden Tour, and finished second at both the Tours of Britain and Guangxi.

2025 saw an even steeper progression. Second on the queen stages of both the Tour Down Under and UAE Tour in the early part of the year, and in June he won a stage of the Tour de Suisse, finishing third on GC. Come the Tour de France, publicly Onley and his team said he was targeting stages, but consistently high placings during the first week’s Classic-like stages were followed up by impressive performances in the Pyrenees and Alps. He was a very deserving fourth-placed finisher.

Only last winter, Onley told CW that Picnic-PostNL were working on the assumption that their leading GC prospect, at least in Grand Tours, was Max Poole. “He’s got the one up on me on the longer climbs and in time trialling,” said Onley, “[which] means Grand Tours suit Max better, and that’s how the team have been seeing it as well.”

Poole might still prove that assertion correct, given time, but Onley’s performance in July disproved any doubts about his own capabilities. Back then, he had seemed unsure about converting his improving results into Grand Tour success. “That’s another step, and to be honest I don’t know if I am capable of it yet.” His legs soon replied: yes, he was, and is.

Onley acknowledges that he is naturally self-deprecating – unlike the sport’s extroverts such as, say, Pogačar. Could it be a particularly Scottish trait, this keeping his head down and quietly working hard?

“I would say the main characteristics of people from where I’m from are that we’re willing to work hard,” he told Rouleur post-Tour. “Some people want things, they’re demanding, [but] I’m happy to go with whatever is happening. I think that’s natural coming from where I come from, we’re not big show people or anything. We’re down-to-earth people.”

Emily Brammeier, the head of communications at Picnic-PostNL, confirms that the team saw a leap in media requests for Onley post-Tour. He hasn’t minded the attention – it would be wrong to depict him as media-averse or painfully shy; he is not. The team has been careful to limit his media obligations to a comfortable level.

Everyone who knows Onley seems to repeat similar sentiments: he is simply a young, decent, hard-working lad from the Borders – certainly not someone who craves the limelight.

“We tried to manage the story before and during the Tour so as not to put him on too much of a pedestal,” Brammeier says. “Since the Tour it’s also been important to give him a break and to wind down from it all. It’s always a balance: a rider only has so much energy per day, and the priority is riding a bike.

“They also need to find time for tactical discussions, time to call home and to be themselves, and time for the media and commercial activities. A lot of what we do is based on feeling, and working with riders to make sure they get the best out of themselves.”

Local hero

Ever-present at the roadside during the Tour were Onley’s mum and dad, Sharon and Steve. Back home in the Borders, the entire region was claiming him – the quiet young cycling lad was front and centre of many people’s minds.

“The whole town and Borders were rooting for him,” Ure confirms. “He rode in the Border Trophy for Kelso, so everyone knows Oscar, and everyone feels proud of him, because we’ve all ridden with him.” His stepping away to the big league matters not.

“Alright, he probably wouldn’t ride with us on a Sunday right now, for his own sanity, but we all feel a connection with him,” Ure continues. “One club member is forever updating our Facebook page with what Oscar’s doing – and seems to know what he’s up to before his parents!”

The unpaid subs are more than compensated for by the avalanche of positive publicity. “It’s just fantastic what he’s doing, and fantastic publicity for the club,” Ure says. “Let’s be honest, no one had a clue who the Kelso Wheelers were until Oscar came along. The club will dine out on the fact that we had a Tour contender for the next 50 years – a top-five finisher, too. And it was this same young lad who used to sit on my wheel for 100 miles and then jump me in a sprint!”

As Onley adapts to his newfound fame as one of the sport’s leading GC lights, it’s Ure who is absorbing some of the media attention. “I never thought I’d see the day when I’d get journalist fatigue,” he laughs. “I”ve been on the radio, in the papers. Everyone goes on about having 15 minutes of fame, but it’s not my fame – it’s someone else’s!”

When Onley eventually returns to Kelso and meets his clubmates, they’ll have a celebration for him – whether he likes it or not.

“What we will do as a club, without a doubt, is honour and commemorate him for being a member and going on to great things,” Ure pledges. “We will have a sportive in his name. A few members were on about it before the Tour, and I always said he has to do something first. His mother agreed, saying, ‘Oh God, don’t do anything like that, as he’s not done anything yet.’ But then he finished fourth in the Tour.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.