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  5. Episode 28: “Oscar Onley Interview”

Brother UK Cycling Podcast – Episode 28

Episode Description

Oscar Onley, a 19-year-old from Kelso, is a dazzling cycling talent and a rider supported by the Dave Rayner Foundation. 

Promoted from Team DSM's development team to its professional squad, he lit up the Brother UK-sponsored Tour of Britain, before heading to Croatia and racing wheel-to-wheel with Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.

Oscar shares insights into his blossoming career, including the importance of domestic races as a youth and junior, the valuable support he received from Scottish Cycling and Spokes, the revelation of his climbing talent in France and his goals with Team DSM. 

The Brother UK Cycling Podcast

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Episode 28: Oscar Onley Interview

Episode contents

  • 00.02 – Introduction
  • 00.38 – Hello And Welcome
  • 02.07 – Part One: On The Doorstep
  • 05.54 – Part Two: French Assignment
  • 10.15 – Part Three: Mountain High
  • 16.36 – Part Four: Living The Dream
  • 18.14 – Part Five: A Solid Foundation
  • 21.16 – Outro 

Transcript

Introduction

Timothy John

“If your passion lies in elite British road racing and you want an inside line on the teams, riders, organisers and sponsors that make this sport such a compelling spectacle, you’re in the right place.

“I’m Timothy John and joining me for every episode is my co-host, the Managing Director of Brother UK, Phil Jones.”

Phil Jones 

“Thanks, Tim. It’s great to be here. We’re going to use this platform to talk about all the key issues surrounding the sport. With special guests, deep dives into hot topics and plenty of chat, we’ll keep you informed about all things UK racing. Stay tuned!”

Hello and welcome

Timothy John

"Hello and welcome to this special edition of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, where today we're joined by a young rider whose career is on an upward trajectory - in every sense.

"Now, followers of the U23 scene, desperate to spot the new Tadej Pogacar or Wout Van Aert, will have long been familiar with the name Oscar Onley. This autumn, however, he burst into the consciousness of fans of the professional sport with superb rides at the Brother UK-sponsored Tour of Britain and the CRO Race, where only Tour de France winner Jonas Vingeergard could keep him from winning stages three and five. 

"It says much for Oscar's talent that he races both for Team DSM's development and WorldTour teams. If you look closely at his brilliant 2022 campaign, you'll find victories in the most

prestigious U23 races, as well as professional races with world-class fields.

"After his wheel-to-wheel battles in Croatia with the reigning Tour de France champion, for example, Oscar finished his season last week at Paris-Tour Espoirs. He is at once a young man in a hurry and a wise head on young shoulders. 

"A GC rider, a more than useful time-trailist and a formidable climber able to make the difference on the hardest finishes, Oscar is a hugely exciting prospect and, naturally, a rider supported by the Dave Rayner Foundation: a charitable organisation with an unerring eye for talent. 

"Oscar, thank-you very much indeed for joining us today."

Oscar Onley

"Thanks. It's good to be here. Thank-you."

Part One: On The Doorstep

Timothy John

"Well, I appreciate you making the time here. It's been an unbelievable season, and, as I say, really notable for this almost unique mix, I would suggest, of top-level professional races and the very highest quality U23 races. It's an unusual path. 

"Let's go right back to the beginning. When did you start cycling? How did the sport enter your life?"

Oscar Onley

"Yes, so I started when I was ten years old. The local club's time-trials started almost outside my house. I'd watch them going past on their TT bikes and hear the disc wheels and stuff. When I was ten and old enough to do them, then I started there, and it kind of progressed to youth races in Scotland as an under-12 and as an under-14. I then started going to the national series around Britain and then, as a junior, started going abroad with Spokes more often."

Timothy John

"And that very first glimpse of cycling: what grabbed your attention? Was it the beautiful bikes? Was it the sheer speed? What was it that made you think: 'Yeah. I want to be part of that.'"

Oscar Onley

"My mum used to always watch the Tour on TV every year, even before I started cycling. That was the one race she would watch. 

"My first memories are of Contador and Andy Schleck going against each other in the mountains. I think that's where it first started, thinking, 'Yeah, that would be quite a cool thing to do.'

"I just remember Contador in the yellow jersey and Schleck in the white jersey, just attacking each other constantly."

Timothy John

"Wow, yeah, 2010, I think. What an amazing Tour that was, and what an incredible coincidence that you're watching the Tour on telly, and, my goodness, there's a time-trial starting outside your house. That's unreal.

"Very interesting to hear you talk about all the different influences on your career to date, with Scottish Cycling, with Spokes, with racing national events in the UK, and then, as we'll discuss later, going abroad.

"We're in the domestic scene. That's Brother's place in the jigsaw of cycling, and I just wondered what role that had played. It's a baffling scene in a way, isn't it? Absolutely brilliant at its best, with events like the Lincoln Grand Prix and the CiCLE Classic, but, equally, it's very unstable. 

"What role had it played in your development?"

Oscar Onley

"The races in Britain are a huge part of my development. I can only really comment from the youth side and junior side because I haven't done so many races since then, but if you look

at the level in the youth and junior races, probably harder than most UCI races, I think.

"If you look at the UCI races, the top 10 was alas full of Brits, and I think that shows how high the level was in Britain at the time. 

"Spokes and Scottish Cycling helped me take the first steps to going abroad and doing these UCI race and making that next step."

Timothy John

"And tell us specifically about the involvement of Scottish Cycling. That first wave of British talent that made it all the way - Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas - famously came through the British Cycling Academy. 

"A lot of the riders I've spoken to recently took different routes and are enjoying really successful careers. A guy like Jake Stewart, for example: began on the Academy, then moved to FDJ and has achieved his dream that way. 

"Tell me about the role that your national federation played in getting you, ultimately, to where you need to be."

Oscar Onley

"I think the Scottish Cycling programme is kind of modelled around the British Cycling programme. Obviously, we stay at home. We don't stay in Glasgow or anything, but it's the same

idea: mixing track and road. 

"I was quite clear from the beginning that I wanted to focus on the road. I enjoyed the track - the training and a bit of racing - but I always knew that I had a lot more potential on the road. That was the pathway that we both went down, I think. That was the aim from the beginning."

Part Two: French Assignment

Timothy John 

"And they took you to France, I think. There was a healthy overseas programme with Scottish Cycling."

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, we went over to France for two weeks. I could say that was where it first opened my eyes to what I could do in Europe; where I got my first kind of 'bigger' results in races. I got in touch with a few teams after that. It was a key trip in my development, I think."

Timothy John

"Was the federation supportive on the administrative side, if that makes any sense: reaching out to professional teams with development squads, that kind of thing, or was that done very much on your own initiative?" 

Oscar Onley

"Well, to begin with, it was really easy. I got in contact with Ag2r's under-19 team. That came from a race I was doing in France. It was between me and one of their riders for the white jersey. We just started talking naturally after the race, and they said they had a free spot in a race in a couple of weeks time and invited me along if I wanted to join. 

"I went to that race, and from there, it just progressed, and I went from there and joined the Ag2r team for the year after."

Timothy John 

"Were you based in Chamberey? Were you part of that scene?"

Oscar Onley

"The plan was to just stay at home because I was still at school at the time and just travel out for the races, and I was still on Spokes for the races in Britain."

Timothy John

"It's amazing how easy it is to overlook the fact that you've been at school while this incredible career has unfolded. How tricky was that to manage: study and sport?"

Oscar Onley

"In the end, it didn't really go to plan because of Covid and stuff. I was a second-year junior when Covid started. I actually didn't get to race, and I didn't get to finish school properly, so it was kind of a weird ending to it all, and maybe I could have focussed a bit more on school, but I got through."

Timothy John

"I was going to ask, actually, about this maturity that you have: that you're not in any great hurry to get onto the WorldTour team exclusively. You're happy to continue with a mix of under-23 and professional races, and that is really striking. Naturally, a young rider wants to get to the summit as quickly as they possibly can. 

"You've brought a lot of focus to your career. Is that a trait that we would find in other areas of your life? Were you a particularly focussed student, or is it cycling that provides that

drive?"

Oscar Onley

"It's more cycling, I would say. If there's something that I'm really focussed on, and I want to do well, then I am really driven and dedicated, but I wouldn't say I'm so dedicated at everything I do. I have to have a passion for it."

Timothy John

"I'm relieved to hear that, in a sense. Drilling down into the root of that passion for cycling, where does that come from? Is it the competitive aspect? Do you want to prove yourself? Is it the freedom aspect: the joy of being on the bike? Where does that come from? 

Oscar Onley

"I would say it's more to do with just being on the bike. In some ways, I prefer the training to the racing. When I was a bit younger, I did a lot of running, cross-country running. At the time, results-wise, I was a lot better at running, but I chose cycling just because I enjoyed going out on the bike. Whenever I had train running, I preferred to do it on the bike. That kind of decided it: cycling was the sport to go with."

Timothy John

"And what are the roads like in your part of the world? You're in the Borders, I think."

Oscar Onley

"Yeah. They're really nice. We don't have any really big climbs. They're five to 10 minutes, and I think the most important factor is that the roads are really quiet. On a Sunday morning, I could do four hours without seeing more than ten cars, I think, if I really tried."

Timothy John

"That's amazing. And, of course, the Tour of Britain was in your neck of the woods this year. How did that feel?"

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, that was a really special day, and for my family to watch it as well because they don't really get to see me race anymore; for it to go past my house. They all saw it there. 

"And going through Kelso, my home town, there were so many people out. I wasn't expecting it to be like that. It was a really special day.."

Timothy John

"That's unbelievable. I think any cycling fan would probably be looking to buy a property on the road that you live in, here. We've got time-trials, we've got the Tour of Britain. It seems to be a bit of a cycling hotspot." 

 

Part Three: Mountain High

Timothy John

"You mentioned those five to 10-minute climbs in your part of the world. Was it on foreign roads that you really understood that for the first time, on these bigger climbs, those harder climbs, where you thought, 'Yep, this is where I can make a difference.'"

Oscar Onley

"In my head, I always thought I'd be a climber just because I was quite small. I never really had any big climbs to prove myself on in Britain. On that first trip I took with Scottish Cycling out to France, we did the Valromey Tour, near Chambery, and there were some big climbs there. That was the first sign, where I proved to myself that I could keep up with the top guys on the climb there."

Timothy John

"Ag2r have had a lot of success in bringing through young riders from its programme. You're with DSM, of course, who've been similarly successful when you think of the quality of riders who've been through their programme. How did you make that shift? Why did DSM seem the better opportunity?"

Oscar Onley

"It wasn't an easy choice because I had a really good relationship with everyone in Ag2r, and I met the U23 team, as well, But I think, in the end, it came down to [the fact that] DSM are a UCI Continental team, the development team, and in that sense I was getting to do all UCI races and probably at a higher level. 

"If you also look at the history of DSM, or Sunweb at the time, the amount of riders who have come through the development team to the WorldTour team, they have a really good track

record. I had a lot of confidence in the team that they could also do that for me."

Timothy John

"Are you based out at their training centre in The Netherlands? How does that setup work?"

Oscar Onley

"I live in Sittard, in Limburg, in The Netherlands, most of the year. The team have, maybe, eight or ten houses, and each house is split into two apartments, so I have my own apartment. There are about five or six development riders who stay there most of the year. There's a few from the women's team as well, and there are always people to train with or go out with and do things."

Timothy John

"Ten years ago, a young British rider, particularly a Rayner-funded rider, that's where they stepped in, would pretty much be forging their own path overseas, overcoming what would seem to be insurmountable odds. Hard enough being a professional cyclist, never mind having to find a house, source the local supermarket, all that kind of stuff. 

"Given the investment that professional teams make in athletes, this setup that DSM seems an absolute no-brainer: that's the level of support that a young athlete would need if they're

to succeed. 

"Just how valuable is it that you didn't have to get onto the Dutch equivalent or RightMove and find an apartment and all that kind of stuff. How much has it helped you just to focus on being an athlete?"

Oscar Onley

"I think I'm incredibly fortunate to have this situation. It's made everything so much easier. As you said, I don't have to think about where I'm going to stay or anything like that. 

"The only thing I have to think about is training. It's the easiest possible way I could move abroad, I think."

Timothy John

"Would you have experienced similar support with other teams, with Ag2r, for example, or is this unique to DSM?"

Oscar Onley

"No, I think most of the WorldTour teams that have development teams have a similar setup. I also saw the set-u with Ag2r, and it was very similar. Most WorldTour teams are making a big investment in development teams and young riders now."  

Timothy John

"And how does that affect you, Oscar? Is that increased pressure: 'There's a lot of money being invested here in helping me to succeed.' Or is ti the opposite? Does it take away all the pressure from day-to-day logistics and just leave you free to focus on what they need you to do?"

Oscar Onley

"I've felt no pressure from the team, and I think that's the thing they're trying to push forwards: in the development team, there's no pressure. We go to races to learn. Obviously, we want to win, but the most important thing is our development. If they see that we're improving in a race, whether that's getting a top result or just, I don't know, positing in the bunch of something, that's the most important thing for that team."

Timothy John

"We talked earlier about the fluency with which you can move between the WorldTour team and the development team. What are the logistics of that? Do you identify professional races where you think you can make a difference? Does the team do that for you? How does that work?"

Oscar Onley

"We don't get much of a say in it. We get given a calendar at the beginning of the year that has most of our races on for the year. I think the team chooses which races suit us, both with the WorldTour team and the development team, and we go from there. 

"I think being able to go up to the WorldTour team is a really good thing. It narrows that gap to the WorldTour, so that, when you do make the step up, if you stay in the same team

nothing changes, really. It's just the same." 

Timothy John

"I mean, this is a big question, but what is the difference between top-level U23 racing and professional racing? I guess it's narrower than ever. If you look at the field at a race like the Valle d'Aosta, pretty much all of the top 10 are going to enjoy pro carers. But is it still very, very different?"

Oscar Onley

"In some ways, I would say U23 racing is harder. There's not so much control. You can get some days where it's just full gas racing from the beginning to the end, whereas pro races always follow a similar pattern: the break grows, and you just ride in one long line for three or four hours and probably the end is harder; more intense. Overall, there's not so much difference between the two."

Timothy John

"And is it hard to manage that transition? We mentioned your last two races of the season: the CRO race and then Paris-Tour Espoir. Is that a bit of a culture shock to find yourself back in that uncontrolled, U23 style of racing?"

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, it was a little bit, and I think with Paris-Tours, as well, with the gravel, but was quite a hectic race, and going from Croatia as well where we had 230km days, where you have so much time to do untying really, and then going back to U23 races was a bit of a shock in the beginning. But then at the final: both finals of races are the same: hectic and full-gas."

Timothy John

"And in terms of the team, you know, choosing the races: how did it feel when the Tour of Britain came up on your 'to do' list? You must have been delight3ed."

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, I was really excited for that: getting the chance to race on home roads in front of a lot of people I knew. I heard in January that I was doing that. It was something to look forward to for the whole year."

Timothy John

"And did you get in any secret training on your local roads for that? I think it was stage two, wasn't it?"

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, I was home for one week in June, so I managed to ride a bit of the course, but I knew all the roads anyway. The last five years, I've been on those roads most days, so I knew them well."

Part Four: Living The Dream

Timothy John

"Tell us about the social side. Any young guy of 19-years-old would expect to be out with his friends at the weekend and maybe a couple of nights in the week as well. You've got to have a pretty focussed lifestyle, pretty disciplined. How does that feel? Do you ever feel like you're missing out, or are you living the dream?"

Oscar Onley

"I think, for me, it's never been something I'm interested in, so I find it quite easy. The equivalents of our nights out are going to cafés, so it's a little bit different, but it's also nice. When there's a good group of us in Sittard, we can train and do things together, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything."

Timothy John

"I was going to ask, what is life like in The Netherlands? Is it something that you've been able to adapt to quite easily?"

Oscar Onley

"In a way, it's good and bad that everyone speaks English there. That makes things easier, but it also means that I'm not learning the language. It's quite simple; simple days. There's a lot of training; cafés. Sometimes, we'll find things to do in the afternoon, but it just depends on whose there and what training we all have." 

Timothy John

"You're at home at the moment. Is that an infrequent occurrence? Do you manage to get him whenever you like, or do you have to plan your visits back quite carefully?"

Oscar Onley

"If I wanted to, I could go home after most races, but, for me, it was quite an important step to learn how to live by myself. I also just found it easier going back to Sittard after races. 

"I haven't spent so much time here this year. I think, in total, it's been about four weeks so far. I have a bit more time now over the winter, some time off the bike, and for those first few weeks of training, I'll just stay at home."

Part Five: A Solid Foundation

Timothy John 

"It's funny, isn't it? October and November are the pro cyclist's holiday, and one of the things on your 'to do' list will be the Dave Rayner Foundation dinner. Tell us about the Rayner Foundation and the role it's played in your career."

Oscar Onley

"They're a really important factor, not only financially, but the profile that they give young riders. If you look on any social media, they're always posting about these riders. Your name gets out there. I've had a lot of teammates from other countries asking me about the foundation, but they see it on Twitter or Instagram and ask me about it. I think it's a really good foundation that they have for young riders."

Timothy John

"Is there a bond between Rayner Foundation riders in the U23 peloton? Do you guys bump into each other at races?"

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, I see a lot of them at races and, yeah, just British riders in general. I sort of know most of them. We're always talking at races whenever we're together."

Timothy John

"I'm going to show my age here, but it's amazing how quickly British riders have become the norm in the WorldTour peloton in a way that they just simply weren't 15 or 20 years ago. 

"Does that come now with a certain caché, given the success of recent germinations of British riders, or are you feeling, 'I've got to prove myself here. I've got a reputation to live up to."

Oscar Onley

"I don't feel any pressure from it. I feel that it's something that's just happened naturally. Riders before me have looked at riders before them. You look up to the riders who have just turned WorldTour or who are getting good results. Success breeds success, in a way, and that's kind of what's happened with British cyclists."

Timothy John

"You might be the most GC-focussed of the new generation, I would suggest. Would that be fair?"

Oscar Onley

"Yeah, I think there's quite a few GC riders coming up. Leo Hayter, who won the Baby Giro, and Tom Gloag. There's a few others as well. For me, that's something that I want to focus on in the future."

Timothy John

"And what's your secret weapon? We've already talked about climbing, but you're a useful time-trialist."

Oscar Onley

"If the time-trial suits me well, the course, then I can do a good time-trial, and it's something that I want to focus on more in the future. I think, starting from time-trials, I know how to pace myself quite well. Also, running. I think the races I did were a similar length: 20 to 30 minutes. Obviously, you're not using the same muscles, but heart rate and the physical effort is quite similar, and I think that's kind of where that comes from."

Timothy John

"Absolutely. What would be your long-term goal? Do you think that far ahead, or are you a guy who prefers to set yourself intermediate steps along the road?"

Oscar Onley

"I think up until very recently, I hadn't really thought of any long-term goals, but now I've had some meetings with the team, and we're starting to talk a lot more long-term and focusing on GC races, and, maybe in the future, focussing on Grand Tours. 

"But I'm also still young and still developing, so I don't know where I'm going to go in the future. Maybe I'll be more suited to the shorter climbs or something different. I don't know yet."

Timothy John

"Plenty still to discover."

Oscar Onley

"Yeah."

 

OUTRO

Timothy John

"Well, look, Oscar, thank you very much indeed for joining us today. I hope you have a wonderful Dave Rayner Foundation Dinner, and I hope you have a wonderful 2023. Many thanks again."

Oscar Onley

"Thank you."

Phil Jones

"If you've enjoyed today's episode, please hit subscribe." 

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