Onley dislocated his shoulder at Tour de Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026 in June — only tree branches stopped him from falling into a ravine — underwent surgery, and missed the Tour de France 2026 entirely. He returned at Vuelta a Burgos 2026 in August, won stage 2, and arrived at the Vuelta a España 2026 as team leader with almost no race days in his legs. Stage 4 was the first genuine mountain test of this Vuelta after stage 3 was cancelled by a hailstorm: Onley finished fourth on the stage, picked up four bonus seconds on the Alto de la Comella, and is now fifth GC and wearing the white jersey — the most compressed possible proof-of-concept for a rider whose 2026 had looked irreparably broken.