The World Championships in Glasgow isn’t the only notable thing that’s been happening in Scottish cycling this week.
At the Tour de Pologne, 20-year-old Scot Oscar Onley (Team DSM-Firmenich) has continued his promising full first season as a WorldTour rider, finishing tenth overall at the Tour de Pologne, a result that bodes more than well for his Grand Tour debut later this month at the Vuelta a España.
Fourth on stage 2, the toughest of the entire race and with a brutally difficult summit finish at Karpacz, then fifth on a second hilly stage 24 hours later, Onley was fifth overall before the crunch time trial in Katowice.
Racing against the clock on a flat, power rider’s course was by no means the strongest suit for a lightly-built climber like Onley, though, and he lost nearly a minute to stage winner Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep).
His final tenth place overall was nonetheless enough to secure Onley the Bjorg Lambrecht prize, awarded annually to the winner of the Tour de Pologne Best Young Rider competition in honour of the hugely talented Belgian rider who died in a crash in the race on August 5th, 2019.
“It’s nice for the confidence to do well here, the start of the season went pretty well, but then I had a little dip during the Dauphine,” Onley told Cyclingnews during the Tour de Pologne.
“I had had a lot of races and I was getting sick between them so I struggled there. So it’s nice to be back here and fighting for the wins.”
“This is a preparation race after coming back from altitude. So it’s full focus on the Vuelta after this.”
Onley will not ride the World Championships on home roads in Scotland, but there is a reason.
“It’s not a course that suited me that well. It’s a great event for Scotland to have, though, and I’m looking forward to watching it on TV when I’m back in Girona,” he told Cyclingnews.
It’s barely a year since Onley started racing regularly at professional level, winning a stage at the prestigious Giro Ciclistico Valle D’Aosta, but also finishing third in the CRO race behind 2023 Tour de Pologne winner Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
In 2023 Onley has already won the best young rider competition at the Volta ao Algarve. Sixth in the Tour de Hongrie was another promising result, as was second overall in the 2.2-ranked stage race, the Alpes Isère, behind another young rider making a name for himself in Pologne,…
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