“I was up all night on the toilet”: “Relieved” Oscar Onley overcomes stomach trouble (and those Netcompany Ineos shorts) to take Vuelta white jersey in “surprising” ride + more on the live blog
“I was up all night on the toilet”: “Relieved” Oscar Onley overcomes stomach trouble (and those Netcompany Ineos shorts) to take Vuelta white jersey in “surprising” ride
Oscar Onley hasn’t been blessed with much luck this season, has he?
Since making the jump from Picnic PostNL to Netcompany Ineos over the winter, the 23-year-old Scot has been beset by injury and illness, and was forced to miss the Tour de France (where he finished fourth in 2025) with a shoulder problem.
So, imagine how Oscar felt when – three days into the Vuelta, his grand tour at his new team, and the night before the race’s first big mountain test in Andorra – he was hit with, ahem, stomach issues. Or, to quote the man himself, he was forced to spend “all night on the toilet”.
Lovely.
Fortunately, Onley managed to winch himself off his hotel toilet and recover in time to put in a very impressive performance in the Pyrenees, finishing fourth on the day after forming part of the elite group of podium contenders which coalesced in the wake of runaway red jersey Tadej Pogačar’s race-destroying 50km solo attack.
A spirited sprint for the bonus seconds on the final climb means Onley now sits fifth overall, 3.45 down on the five-time Tour de France winner, propelling him into the white best young rider’s jersey. And best of all (probably), he survived what could have been a very dangerous day wearing Netcompany Ineos’ questionable white shorts.
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“Considering I was up all night on the toilet, I’m actually pretty happy,” the 23-year-old told the Vuelta’s media team after the race.
When asked to clarify that he was suffering from stomach problems, Onley simply said: “Yeah.”
He was then asked whether he could have done anything to stop Pogačar. “No, not really,” came the response. “We just let him do his thing, then we raced between ourselves. I knew I couldn’t go with that attack, so yeah, I just did what I could on that climb.”
In a longer interview with organisers Unipublic, Onley revealed that his lengthy stint on the loo the previous night had left him convinced that his podium bid was set to go up in smoke in Andorra.
“Going into the stage, I was half expecting to completely lose GC, so it was nice to be in the fight in the group behind Tadej. I’m relieved,” he said, stumbling into an excellent double entendre.
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“I felt okay actually. I kind of surprised myself. Luckily, I could eat this morning, and I ate normal last night, so I don’t think it’s such a big thing.
“Obviously I was a bit behind after the TT. When I looked at the stages, I circled this one as a big day for the GC riders at a similar level. With the downhill finish and the short climbs, I was basically expecting how it played out with a small group coming to the line. So far, so good.
“The white jersey matches the shorts, it’s always good!” he continued, rather ominously considering the circumstances, when asked about his new hold on the young rider’s classification.
“It’s a nice goal. With the ambitions that I have, hopefully the white jersey comes as a nice bonus. [Jarno Widar] is obviously really strong. That kick he had in the end… The upcoming stages are gonna be quite tricky so for sure it’s not over.”
I’ve got some even better news than the white jersey for you Oscar – you’ve managed, somehow, to avoid featuring in an updated version of this Pulitzer-worthy feature:
> From Deux Moulins to Dumoulin: Pro cycling’s most iconic toilet stops
I reckon his luck is finally turning…
Podcast Klaxon!
We’ve got a women’s racing special on the pod this week, and I spend quite a bit of time moaning about a surly French photographer…
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Seems an odd choice of MTB to pit against the gravel bike. An aggressively slack hardcore hardtail with 140mm forks rolling on 29 x 2.4 tyres is not built for anything resembling the use-case of a gravel bike. Reminds me of a buddy who picked up a second hand On-One S36 for cheap because the original owner couldn't fit rear panniers onto a full suspension DH bike for commuting. Surely a fairer comparison would be an XC frame with no more than 120mm of travel on the front wheel, but is that too much of an issue to fit drop bars and still have a ridable geometry?
Safety fears. The figleaf of respectability for the habitually lazy.
How about a Giant Defy? A Shand Bahookie? Or a Specialised S-nark? Hmm... you could be right...
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Specially for HarrogateSpa, your daily dose of bile from the Telegraph: "The e-bike is the most complete expression of the bullying arrogance of cyclists" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/25/e-bike-is-the-most-complete-expression-of-cyclist-bully/ Mainly conflating ebikes with Lime bikes, and complaining that "there is a general problem with bicycles of all kinds ... bicycles take up An Awful Lot of Space." Unlike, say, the big metal boxes that we happily decorate our streets with. "In one generation, bicyclists have declined from being put-upon herbivores to becoming recklessly entitled, righteous, selfish bullies." - think they may have confused cyclists with Telegraph writers there.
I suppose suspicious would be preferable to surly, but I'd rather a bike with a more positive personality myself.
Or forget about it completely.
Across the Irish Sea in England, Labour has announced a plan to get at least 60 per cent of school-age children cycling, walking, or wheeling to class by 2035 as part of a £4.5bn active travel strategy As a, now lukewarm and disillusioned, Labour supporter I would be laughing at this laughable doomed-at-the outset 'plan' just like the people supposedly responsible for its implementation must be sniggering: there is a 0% probability that the 60% stated target will be achieved and the true percentage will be a fraction of the target and may even be less than it is now (just like the Climate Change mitigation targets, then!) The January 2026 DfT Road Safety Strategy implementation was declared in Parliament to be in the hands of Lilian Greenwood MP: Since 2010, the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the roads has plateaued, despite advances in vehicle technology. The current approach is no longer delivering the required road safety improvements. Vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and children, remain disproportionately at risk of serious injuries and fatalities We all know that the police will not lift a finger to prevent or even discourage close-passing attacks on cyclists, and I have no doubt that the Road Safety Strategy has already been forgotten. Lilian Greenwood is the minister who responded a year ago to my MP's letter about long term VED evasion around Garstang (such as BF64 TGE, HY66 ZZB, MM10 EOG, HN21 VXB, WU67 BLF etc. etc) with 'at DVLA we make VED easy to pay and difficult to avoid'! Greenwood has now been shunted off to some other ministerial home for the Incurably Idle, Inept and Forgetful, and the minister now responsible for the Road Safety Strategy is Justin Madders, presumably someone else suitably experienced in Doing Nothing.
I've always wanted a suspicious bike but I bet it'll all go wrong if I buy one.
£6k and you don't even get carbon bars?