Oscar Onley on riding the Tour de France: It's hard to appreciate this is historic

It’s perhaps just as well that Oscar Onley hasn’t thought too much about what lies ahead of him, or how few of his compatriots have gone before him.

Let’s start with what lies ahead.

Today, Onley will be on the start line of the Tour de France. Over the next three weeks, the 21-year-old from Kelso in the Scottish Borders will be a part of the world’s most-famous bike race where, across 21 stages, he will ride over 2000 miles and climb thousands of metres up some of the most challenging mountains France has to offer.

But it’s how few Scots have come before Onley that makes his appearance in this year’s Tour de France so significant. Indeed, it’s no overstatement to suggest that he’s writing himself into Scottish sporting history books.

Onley will become the first Scottish-bred rider to race the Tour de France since Robert Millar (who’s now known as Philippa York), who raced the Tour 11 times in the 1980s and early 1990s.

David Millar – no relation to Robert – also rode the Tour in the early 2000s and represented Scotland but having been born in Malta and spent much of his life in Hong Kong, his Scottish connection is looser.

So, today is not only a monumental moment for Onley himself, it’s a truly monumental moment for Scottish sport.

However, says the Kelso man, it’s hard for him to take-in quite how sizeable a moment this is for Scottish sport.

“I don’t think I do appreciate how big this is. I’ve just been at altitude for ten days so we’ve been stuck up a mountain and you don’t see anyone up there so I’ve been a bit detached,” he says.

“The thing with the Tour is there’ll be a lot of people watching who don’t normally watch cycling.

“So although this is obviously bigger than any other race I’ve done, it just feels like the next progression for me so it’s hard to see the bigger picture.

“I don’t know cycling history from the 1980s and 90s really well because obviously it was quite a long time ago but I do know about the incredible achievements of Robert Millar so it’s pretty surreal to be mentioned alongside a rider like that.”

Onley began cycling as a child in the Borders and it was as a 7-year-old watching the 2010 Tour de France, in which Alberto Contador of Spain and Andy Schleck from Luxembourg battled for the title, that first introduced him to the event.

And while that year’s event was when Onley began devising his own cycling goals, there wasn’t a soul who believed this Scottish kid’s dream of riding the Tour himself would ever come true.

As a junior rider, Onley began to establish himself although even he admits he wasn’t even the best rider in Scotland, never mind the world.

It was when the Dutch UCI World Team, DSM–firmenich PostNL, signed Onley in 2021 as development rider on a five year contract that making it as professional bike racer became more tangible.

Still, though, not everyone was convinced of his life plan, particularly as his opening few months on the team went far from to script.

“Even after signing for DSM, my mum was concerned that I didn’t have a back-up plan because I wasn’t applying for university or anything like that. So it probably was a risk going all-in on cycling," he says.

“I was confident I could make it in the sport but having said that, I’ve absolutely had doubts at points. When I joined the team in 2021, I really struggled for the first half of the year. I didn’t finish a race until the July and I definitely wondered if pro cycling was a step too far from me. But the team really supported me and helped me settle into life in Europe and the racing scene.”

Settle in, he certainly did.

Oscar Onley will become the first Scottish-born rider for over three decades to ride the Tour de France (Image: Getty)

Despite his shaky start as a professional bike racer, when Onley began to find his feet, his progress was rapid.

Strong performances throughout 2022 and into 2023 led to a significant milestone in his career; selection for his first-ever grand tour, the 2023 Vuelta a España.

He made a dream start to the race, with DSM winning the opening team time trial stage.

But the following day typified perfectly quite how fine the knife-edge professional cyclists tread, with Onley’s wheels slipping from underneath him resulting in a broken collar bone and an unceremonious end to what, at the time, was the biggest moment in his career.

It was, admits the Scot, a bitter pill to swallow.

“It was pretty disappointing to crash out the Vuelta so early.

“As a team, we’d spent a lot of time preparing and we’d done all the hard work and then to win the first stage was incredible,” he says.

“So to end up in hospital the next day with a broken collar bone was really tough.

“When I was in the ambulance, it was hard not to think about all the hours I’d put in and how it was all over so quickly.

“Coming into this season, that injury did make me feel like I wanted to prove a point and show that I do have the legs to compete.”

Onley was right to be brimming with optimism coming into 2024. Fourth place in the general classification, as well as a stage win, at the Tour Down Under was further evidence of Onley’s talent but as he’s becoming too accustomed to, another setback was to befall him.

A week after the Tour Down Under, Onley suffered his second broken collar bone in under six months, swiftly halting his impressive start to the season in its tracks.

His recovery was encouragingly smooth, however, and Onley has rediscovered his best form just when he’ll need it most.

Team DSM’s line-up at this summer’s Tour de France boasts former King of the Mountains winner, Frenchman Romain Bardet, but Onley, whose forte is climbing, is optimistic he can make a mark on his Tour debut, potentially battling for stage wins in the mountains.

However, he admits that despite being just hours away from becoming a Tour rider, he remains somewhat unsure as to what exactly to expect from the world’s greatest bike race.

“Everyone has told me that this race is nothing like anything else but it’s hard to know just what it’ll be like. Yes, I’ve been racing at the top level all year but from what I’ve heard, the Tour is another step up again,” he says.

“It’s about staying out of trouble, getting through those tough stages in one piece and if the opportunity comes up, I’ll take it.

“I’ll be looking to pick out a few days in the mountains that suit me and hopefully go for a result.

“The thing with a three-week race is there’ll be days when I don’t feel good.

"It can be hard mentally feeling like there’s a stage that suits me but I just might not have the legs to follow the top guys that day. In those situations, I need to stay calm and hope the following day, I feel good again.

“And I’m so excited for the crowds - they’re going to be big so that’ll be amazing.”

Onley’s presence in this year’s Tour will give every budding cyclist in Scotland something he never had himself; a role model.

Such a status is, admits Onley, somewhat surreal given how much of a rookie he still feels at times but it is, he says, a thrilling prospect that he could have a significant impact on the sport in Scotland.

“When you’re a kid and you see someone who’s come from your country and who’s not too much older than you do well then it really does resonate,” he says.

“In a lot of ways, I still feel like a kid myself so it’s funny to think there’ll be kids in Scotland watching me over the next few weeks. It’ll hopefully encourage them to get on a bike that then has a knock-on effect on the numbers who make it to the pros.”

For Onley himself, though, thoughts of the significance of him racing the Tour will be entirely banished for the next three weeks.

Instead, his mind will be entirely focused on the business of bike racing as he shares the peloton with race favourites Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Onley may not have the pedigree of these more established members of pro cycling but, he continually tells himself, he’s just as worthy of racing the Tour as these greats of the sport.

“I still feel a little intimidated by the big names sometimes so I have to remind myself that we’re all in the same race,” he says.

“Obviously you need to have respect for these guys but you also have to stand your ground and not be pushed around by them. So I do have to remember that I deserve to be in these major races and there’s no reason why I should let anyone through or give up my position.”

It remains to be seen what Onley can achieve over the next three weeks and 2000 miles.

But regardless of his successes, or lack thereof, his presence in the race alone will forever remain etched in Scottish sporting record books.