'That's exactly why I wanted to join this team' - Onley pleased as Ineos race aggressively in Algarve finale

The British rider took an aggressive approach in the finish, launching his sprint from a distance, and came up just short against stage and race winner, Ayuso.

“I knew that the finish straight was quite narrow and that it could be quite hard to pass,” explained Onley to reporters, including Domestique. “I just tried to open it up early, and I could feel Ayuso on my shoulder, on my hip, and yeah, he was just stronger.”

Although he didn’t get the stage win, Onley was certainly content with both his own performance as well as the team’s. Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers), who started the day ahead of Onley in the GC in 4th, surged clear over the first ascent of the Alto do Malhão alongside Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), leaving Lidl-Trek with their work cut out to defend Ayuso’s yellow jersey.

Onley previously highlighted to Domestique the fact that Ineos’s strength in depth was a key factor behind his move to the team, and the final stage was a prime example of what they can do.

“Overall, I’m really happy about the day and the team. We were really active with Kévin [Vauquelin], it was a really good move,” said Onley. “That’s exactly why I wanted to join this team, to play like this in these kinds of races. Maybe we don’t have the strongest guy outright but together with our strengths, we can make things happen.”

In the end, Onley finished just off the final podium, in 4th place overall, with his French teammate Vauquelin in 5th, and Dutch teammate Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) in 9th. The 23-year-old is also confident that there’s plenty of room for improvement, and his next goal, Paris-Nice, is set to see him race once more against Ayuso.

“There’s definitely some room for improvement. I know that I normally improve by doing a few races, and hopefully I can improve for Paris-Nice in a couple of weeks. It’s going well.”

It’s set to be an action-packed spring as usual, and Onley admitted that he is looking forward to what’s ahead.

"It should be Catalunya after that, but obviously during March there’s always…it’s quite a difficult part of the year,” said Onley.

“If you look at the team we have, we should be going into all these races with high expectations, and okay, maybe the final GC doesn’t show what we did this week, but overall with Thymen and Kevin, in the TT, and myself today, we can be happy.”