Oscar Onley brilliant 5th after epic day of breakaway action at Tour de France

An epic day of racing where it took over 120 kilometres of action for the main breakaway of the day to form out front, some strong Team dsm-firmenich PostNL riding and support saw Oscar Onley take a brilliant fifth place on the stage after the challenging climbs in the finale.

A stage where everyone in the peloton wanted to be in the breakaway, the attacks had to be paused from the flag drop because an area of crosswinds caused some early echelons before things regrouped. Once the crosswind nervousness had calmed down, the jumping started with everyone in Team dsm-firmenich PostNL present in some form of group that had a few metres lead at some point. A four-man group went clear but as expected there weren’t enough teams represented and the jumping and attacking continued behind in the peloton. Eventually the elastic snapped and a large group of around 40 riders went clear which included Onley, Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.

Trailing the leaders by one minute, Barguil helped to set the pace in the group while Bardet shepherded Onley. Bringing the time gap down and reducing the group as they made their way onto the steep Col du Noyer with around 20 kilometres to go, strong counter-attacks were launched from the chasers with Onley riding expertly to follow and bridge to the leaders. There was no time to rest because as soon as contact was made at the front Carapaz and Yates attacked once more. Forming part of the new chasing group, things split up in the final two kilometres of the climb with Onley riding with De Plus, as the duo found themselves fourth and fifth riders on the road. Cresting the climb and making their way down the descent towards the final three kilometre climb to the finish, Onley and De Plus trailed third-placed Mas by around 40 seconds but equally held a similar advantage over the chasers behind them. Knowing he would be sprinting for a top five finish on his debut Tour, Onley gave everything he had but De Plus just pipped him at the line, meaning Onley had to settle for what was still a great fifth place on the stage.

Speaking after the stage a tired Onley expressed: “It was a hard day, I’m pretty empty right now. It’s been a hard Tour overall, it’s the top of the sport and everyone here is good. To just get in the race is really hard, and to be up in the front of the race in the breaks takes so much. We knew today was going to be a good chance for the break so we really wanted to go all-in for it. The attacks went for so long that everyone was pretty empty by the time we got in the break. From there, no one was really working well together as everyone knew how hard that climb was so we were all just saving ourselves for then. It was really special to have Romain and Warren there with me, they are big champions of the sport. The guys and the team fully trusted in me for today, more than myself, so I have to thank them for how they rode today. I think we can be happy with the fifth place, the guys who were ahead of me were just stronger today.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I think the guys did a really good job today. It was a big, big fight for the break and it took a long time for it to go. In the end a big group went and we had the three guys we wanted in there for a climbing stage, so we were really happy with that composition. After such a hard fight then you never know how the legs are going to be. Warren and Romain supported Oscar as best as possible and set him up for the final main climb. He did a super job on it and got fifth on the stage. It’s a nice step in his development to be up there in the front of a stage in the Tour de France, so overall it is a really good day.”