Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) may have been the best of the rest behind world champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG) on stage 3 of the UAE Tour, however, the young Scotsman revealed he actually "had more" to give in the sprint finish atop Jebel Jais.
Pogačar hit the front once the sprint between the GC men started in the final 500 metres, launching out of teammate Jay Vine's wheel with Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto) close behind him. Onley was positioned next best in fourth wheel but had to go around the Belgian before he could reach the line in second.
While the Brit slightly rued his positioning heading into the unique finale up the highway road to the UAE's highest point, he didn't think he would have beaten Pogačar but was nonetheless left wondering what could have been.
"I had more, to be honest, I should have just gone on Pog's wheel," Onley told Cyclingnews after the finish. "I'm not saying I would have beat him but yeah, it's a bit frustrating."
The Dutch team were, however, delighted with Onley's second place either way, with defeat only at the hands of the world champion being a more than impressive performance.
"Oscar did a really nice effort and was able to grab second place, which is a nice reward," said Picnic-PostNL coach Roy Curvers.
"Of course, you always want to win but when it needs the best rider in the world to keep you from winning, then you have to be satisfied with second place as well."
With second place, Onley also netted six bonus seconds, which he desperately needed after losing 37 seconds to Pogačar during the stage 2 time trial. He's got Jebel Hafeet on stage 7 as the final chance to move up on GC from his current position of 12th.
"That's a different climb but it probably suits me better. It's a bit steeper and a bit shorter, we'll have to just see how it goes over the next couple of days," said Onley, before also importantly noting that the 10.8km climb also suits the race leader Pogačar.
"I think that climb suits him a lot better than this one but I just need to try and make up some time on GC."
Onley had joked that being at the UAE Tour is a "nice holiday" on the morning of stage 3, speaking to Cyclingnews and Alvento Magazine, but also that he was searching for results like today's after some dissatisfaction at his early season goal of the Tour Down Under, where he ended fourth.
"I was a little bit disappointed [after Australia], I don't really feel like the result reflected how I felt," said Onley.
"In the end, I was just down on bonus seconds and I can't really compete with someone like Jhonatan Narváez or Finn Fisher-Black in those sorts of situations, but physically I felt good and I think I did everything I could really.
Either way, after moving apartment in Andorra and spending a lot of time working on his time trial bike, Oscar Onley is clearly in fine form and looks to be finding the consistency which he requires to become one of the better GC riders in the world while his career is still in its infancy.
