Fifteen days left and then the new year begins. Yet it remains uncertain which team will give Oscar Onley a Christmas package this year: will he stay with Picnic PostNL after all, or will his current employer come to a financial agreement with the highly interested INEOS Grenadiers? Nevertheless, his own plan is clear, as the 23-year-old Scot wants to return to the Tour de France.
The British top team has been courting the Picnic PostNL leader for about a month and a half. In the WielerFlits Podcast episode of November 7, it already became clear that INEOS Grenadiers were working on a move for the Scottish climber. In that episode, we covered the five biggest transfers of this window, leaving the fifth slot open. Onley’s name was mentioned then for the first time in connection with INEOS Grenadiers.
Last week, the Dutch WorldTeam started their first training camp in Calpe. Not showing up: Onley. The young Brit was given two days' grace by the team. Behind the scenes, those 48 hours were supposed to bring clarity about whether the transfer to INEOS Grenadiers would go ahead. Sources told WielerFlits that a transfer fee of seven million euros was being demanded by the Dutch team. Onley is still under contract until the end of 2027.
photo: fotopersburo Cor Vos
In early December, the Scot took part in the Tour of Bright, a national race in Australia. This was just before it became public that Onley’s transfer to INEOS Grenadiers was in an advanced stage. Cyclingnews spoke to him there about his ambitions for 2026, wherever his future might lie. Onley said that the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège should suit him on paper, and that he aims for the podium in a Grand Tour.
"If you did so well in the Tour, it’s very difficult to aim for another Grand Tour right away the following year," says the Brit. "In the future, it will definitely be more sensible to secure a first podium in a Grand Tour such as the Giro d’Italia or the Vuelta a España before targeting that in the Tour. But you also have to look at the route. On paper, I think the 2026 Tour suits me quite well, with not too many time trial kilometers and climbs I already know."
It seems the fourth-place finisher from the recent Tour intends to return to the French Grand Tour. However, he has another clear objective. "If you look at my results from last season, I was always close. But I rarely felt I could truly win. That’s something I’d really like to do more often—put my hands in the air. As a climber, that’s difficult because there’s often a top GC contender at the start. But I want to give it a try."
