Oscar Onley has enjoyed a remarkable season so far, but Scotland’s best road rider for decades admits he has allowed himself to dream of a fairytale finish to his season.
The highlight of 2025 for the Scot, so far, is his fourth place finish in the general classification standings at the Tour de France, with such an historic result - it’s the best finish for a Scot in the Tour’s GC standings for 41 years - ensuring that this season will go down as a success regardless of whatever happens today.
However, this fact has not diminished Onley’s ambitions one bit.
Today, the 22-year-old from Kelso heads into the UCI Road World Championships with his sights set on capping his season with silverware and, in the process, cementing his status as one of Scotland’s most exciting young sportsmen.
Onley, along with Englishman Tom Pidcock, will spearhead the eight-strong GB squad on the 270km-long course in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and with almost 6000m of climbing over 15 laps of the circuit, it’s been dubbed the “hardest UCI Road World Championships ever”.
Despite what lies ahead, the Scot has, unsurprisingly given his recent form, set lofty targets for himself in today’s race.
“I go into every race believing I can win, or get a really good result and today is no different,” he says.
"The overall goal of the team is to get a medal, whether that's myself, Tom (Pidcock), Joe (Blackmore) or whoever but it would be really nice to get a medal for myself and cap off a really good year.
“But as long as I do a race that I'm proud of and can say that I've given it everything, I’ll be satisfied with whatever result comes from that.”
Onley would be forgiven for feeling a tad jaded by this point in the year given the thousands upon thousand of kilometres he’s ridden, as well as the mental and emotional energy he’s been forced to expend as a result of his impressive performance at the Tour and the attention that garnered.
But some time off the bike following the conclusion of the Tour ensured the Scot is feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, with his fourth-place finish in the Tour of Britain GC earlier this month indicating he’s far from depleted from his efforts this summer. And Onley is confident that he’s rediscovered his best form just in time for this World Championships.
“During the Tour, there was a lot of attention on me, so that was a lot. Mentally, I was cooked, to be honest, and after the Tour, and I had to take some time off,” he says.
“But I had a good time away from cycling and then got back into training - the focus was on this weekend and I feel like I'm in a good space again.
“In the last week, the efforts I've done have felt quite comfortable and that's given me more confidence.”
This is the Scot’s second senior World Championships and having secured a 16th place finish in last year’s road race, he’s not unfamiliar with what to expect today.
However, the experience he’s amassed over the past twelve months ensures he’s confident he’s in a considerably stronger position compared to a year ago, when he wasn’t quite able to sustain the level required to challenge for medals come the sharp end of the race.
At the 2024 Road World Championships, Onley began strongly but didn’t have the legs to remain with the leading riders for the entirety of the race but he's hoping that this year, he’ll be the one dropping riders, rather than the other way around.
“In the big, one-day races, it's really important to just keep putting yourself in a good position because things change so fast. When it gets over 230, 240km, there's a big difference in the drop-off of riders," he says.
“Last year, I put myself in a position early in the race to get a result but I just didn't have the depth to hold onto the top guys coming into the final couple of laps.
“Now, though, with an extra year of racing and training in my legs, and with what I’ve done in the last few months, I think I can compete on these bigger days. So I'm confident I'm stronger than last year and with the team we have, we have a really good chance.”
The pre-race favourite for gold today is defending world champion, Tadej Pogačar, but with the Slovenian supported by his countrymen rather than his fellow UAE Team Emirates riders, the four-time Tour de France winner is unquestionably less protected than he is at grand tours.
Onley proved during this summer’s Tour that he is capable of living with Pogačar and while the Scot is in little doubt that the Slovenian’s pedigree will ensure he’s in contention today regardless of his supporting riders, he’s also potentially more vulnerable than is the case during the grand tours.
And that, acknowledges Onley, may leave an opening for him to become the first Scot to win World Championship silverware on the road for over two decades.
“Riding for your country means the dynamic changes a little bit - we’re not going to have the UAE team lining up on the front and smashing it lap after lap,” says the Scot.
“Pogačar obviously has a really strong team with Slovenia and he's also a class rider and can adapt to any situation he's put in.
“But at last year's Worlds, he attacked with 100km to go, which no one was expecting.
“That kind of move opens up more opportunities for us - the more chaotic the race and the harder the race, the more it suits us and so for myself, and Tom, we’ll have some really nice opportunities.”
