Picnic PostNL after yet another great performance by Onley: "Riders who lost time will bounce back"

“I feel pretty tired. It was hard all day,” said the Scot at the top of Hautacam. "But the guys looked after me as best they could. I felt good but maybe I just went a bit over my limit about halfway up, but it was still a pretty good day. It’s difficult when there are two guys there from the same team, so I had to try and get away from at least one of them if I could. I was quite surprised on the first climb when I saw a few others dropping, but I guess they probably suffered in the heat. I think the team managed that part pretty well for us today. If I can recover well then I’ll give it a good shot tomorrow in the TT."

“I felt good, although I may have gone just over my limit halfway up the climb. It was difficult with two riders from the same team in my group, so I tried to drop at least one of them,” he said, referring to Florian Lipowitz and Primoz Roglic. In the end, he did manage to drop Roglic, but Lipowitz countered him.

Coach Matt Winston also spoke in the team's press release. “The task for today was clear: help Oscar as much as possible and get him to the final climb, and the guys did a fantastic job. We were in a good position at the foot of the Hautacam, and Oscar really gave it his all.”

“It became quite tactical and cagey at a point. Oscar followed Lipowitz and maybe went a bit into the red a bit there,” said the Aussie. “When you’re 22-years-old doing your first Tour de France where you’re going as hard as you can every stage so far, then it was a really respectable performance. I think we can be really happy with the fifth place.”

What's next, knowing that Onley is sixth in the GC? “We’re still in a good position on the GC which is nice at this stage of the race so we will see how tomorrow’s time trial goes. It was really warm again today so I think we maybe saw that have a bit of an effect today, and I’m sure a few of those guys who lost a bit of time today will bounce back in the coming stages.”