Kelso-born Oscar Onley says his top four finish in the Tour De France has 'sparked a dream'
The 22-year-old finished fourth in the 22-day event, equalling the tournament's highest finish by a Scottish rider in only his second attempt for his team Picnic PostNL.
After finishing the last circuit on the Mantes-la-Ville in Paris, Oscar said: "This is a really big moment in my career. I don't really realise it yet, but I think just by talking to riders - going forward now - we have something to build on and an exciting project for the future.
"It's definitely sparked a dream, to be honest, I've never even thought about a top five in a tour before, so to get it on my first try in GC [general is quite something.
"It's been a really special three weeks with the whole team - it's been nice," he added.
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Daily Record
an hour ago
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I'll drive Tony Bloom's Hearts title train but let's be realistic about the two big engines in the way
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Brighton has been immense, but they aren't overtaking Manchester City and Liverpool. I don't mean this bad on Bloom's part, but I'm not sure he'll yet fully grasp the bulk of Rangers and Celtic. Or maybe he does, but sometimes thinking can be clouded until you live something. Hearts are themselves an situation, but on a different scale. As I said, Rangers and Celtic are global and they'll take some shifting. I've also been interested to note the chatter around how Derek McInnes will feel about Bloom's statements. Whether he'll feel added pressure. I'll be honest, I don't think Del's at a stage in his life or his career where he'll be working under pressure. For a start, he'll want to do well for himself. Also, and not in a big-headed way, I think he would have enough balls to sit in front of Bloom and say: I love everything you're saying because it's amazing and I hope I'm on this train when we do go and win the title. But he'll be as realistic as he is ambitious and he'll be keeping the focus short and sweet right at this moment in time. Like me, he'll 100 per cent be looking at the next game. Del will be driving that point home because, again, everything's heightened after Monday events on and off the park. Hearts played well. The start was outstanding. I have said defenders need to chip with goals and Stuart Findlay got that ball rolling. Lawrence Shankland's finish was outrageous and, even though it got chopped off, it's like: He is back. Everything is doubly hyped. I loved the fact that Del came out after the game and made it clear he wanted much more from the second-half performance. He's driving standards and keeping folk grounded. You can see it in the players. They know they don't perform and they'll be watching from the stands. It's next game, next game. Findlay came out after the match and said just that. He's an experienced operator who knows the manager's ways and thoughts. I'll bet that, even if he didn't score, Del would still have nominated him to do the post-match media because there's method in that. Let's be honest, if I'm being brutally honest about this, plenty of footballers are dumb at times and I include myself in that. Sometimes you can sit in that changing room and go: Bloody hell, I think we could beat Celtic and Rangers this year. Then you go out there and blurt it out. Exactly 12 months ago after an opening-day draw with Rangers, Yan Dhanda came out and said Hearts could challenge the Old Firm. A few weeks later they were bottom of the league. I did the column afterwards and said: Aye, maybe he just needs to calm down a bit! If you're the manager, you want the boys to believe it, but you don't want them to say it. And Del's too smart to have someone go out on Monday night and mouth off. So listen, I think everything's bang on the money, but it's just about concentrating on the next game. 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Daily Record
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