Oscar Onley's dream Tour de France continues as Scots cycling sensation closes to within SECONDS of historic podium spot
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SCOTLAND could have its first EVER Tour de France GC podium finisher by the end of the week after Oscar Onley continued his dream ride in the toughest bike race in the world.
The 22-year-old Borderer, brought up in Kelso from a young age and developed via the Scottish system, finished a creditable 39th in the toughest bike race in the world last year.
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Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, and Scotland's Oscar Onley
Credit: AP
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Onley finishes in fourth
Credit: EPA
But starting in fourth after a gruelling 17 stages, he showed glimpses of becoming truly world class as he matched yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar and closest challenger Jonas Vingegaard on the closing stages of today's stage 18 into Courchevel in the Alps.
In the end, he finished 1min58secs back on stage winner Ben O'Connor.
More importantly, he managed to lose Florian Lipowitz, cutting his arrears on the German in third to just 22 seconds with one major mountain stage still to come in the battle for Scotland's first EVER podium spot.
He also gave himself breathing space at the other side, stretching his advantage on fifth place Primoz Roglic to 1min 26 secs.
Scotland's best ever finisher in the GC in this race was Robert Millar - now known as Philippa York - who finished fourth back in 1984, as well as wining the King of the Mountains jersey.
Afterwards, Onley - who had to get back on with the top racers after struggling on the Col de la Madelaine, the steepest climb of the race - admitted that the lead "isn't much".
He told ITV4: "It was hard, There was , they set a high pace
"I wouldn't say I kept my cool. I still felt good.
"I know the level of those guys in the attack. It showed in the end, it went pretty hard up there. The team are really good.
"Yeah, I'm excited. I don't know, it's not much so we'll give it everything tomorrow."
Tour de France prankster who invaded track LAID OUT in enormous crash after being tackled by police
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