Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

As for domestic races, the only one held in the summer was the Tour of Qinghai Lake, which took place on the plateau in July.

Other races weren’t scheduled for the summer at all, let alone set to start during the two or three hottest hours of the day.

That was why Huang Chong had never expected his debut to be so brutal.

However, this also indirectly highlighted an issue: foreign riders had a higher overall competitive level. It wasn’t just that their professional training was more advanced; they also clearly had a stronger ability to adapt to harsh environments.

Of course, the moment Huang Chong finished the race, he didn’t hesitate. He quickly found an opportunity to take out the Anti-High Temperature Coolant from the system’s reward and chugged it down.

As the coolant took effect, a refreshing coolness spread through his entire body.

It was like a spring breeze on his skin and a mouthful of mint.

It was a coolness that rose from deep within his body.

In short, the grogginess, chest tightness, internal heat, and the nauseating discomfort from three and a half hours under the scorching sun vanished in an instant.

Chen Junyi had even specially prepared iced mung bean soup in advance to prevent him from getting heatstroke, but it was no longer necessary for its intended purpose and could only be eaten as a dessert.

Of course, neither of them was stingy, so they shared the iced mung bean soup with his teammates.

But in the scorching heat of South Australia, a little mung bean soup couldn’t do much against six days of high-intensity cycling.

Besides, ever since joining the team, Huang Chong had noticed these foreigners didn’t rely on nutritional therapy to condition their bodies at all. Instead, they took all sorts of high-tech supplements, so there was no need to worry too much.

After the first day of racing ended, Huang Chong had a session with the masseuse. With some time left before bed, he didn’t go out to have fun with his teammates. Instead, he found Chen Junyi and asked with a serious expression:

"I want to learn English."

"You’re a top student from Birmingham. You must have passed exams like the IELTS or TOEFL back in high school."

"Is there some kind of shortcut that can help me improve my foreign language skills as quickly as possible?"

Chen Junyi had just been invited by the team chef to discuss how to make more delicious and healthy cooling drinks for the riders. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes at him.

But she was very smart and immediately guessed what had happened. He must have found it incredibly difficult to communicate with the coaching staff during the race without her there to translate, which prompted this desire to learn on his own.

’This is a good thing,’ she thought. Of course she would support him.

Not only would learning a foreign language allow Huang Chong to communicate better with the team during races, but she was also leaving in the second half of the year to return to the United Kingdom for graduate school.

In fact, she was also worried. If she wasn’t by his side, even if the team found him another translator, that person could never compare to her.

So she replied seriously:

"There are no shortcuts to learning English. First, you have to memorize a lot of vocabulary."

"Once you have enough vocabulary, you can learn grammar."

"Finally, you have to be bold and take the initiative to communicate with others. Practice your speaking."

"Don’t be afraid of making grammatical mistakes."

"It’s like how we sometimes make mistakes even when speaking our native language. It’s completely normal."

Huang Chong took this in, then asked:

"So, can I start by downloading some English learning apps or a dictionary on my phone, and then once I’ve accumulated enough vocabulary, I’ll come to you for help with grammar?"

Chen Junyi replied with a smile:

"Of course. You’re not a master of grammar, but you’re not starting from zero, either."

"You graduated from a university in China, so you must have at least passed the basic national English tests. As long as you study seriously, I’m sure you’ll learn quickly!"

Huang Chong immediately felt much more at ease.

After that, he left the team chef and Chen Junyi to their business and returned to his hotel room. He downloaded a Chinese version of an English dictionary app—one with Chinese translations.

But just as he started memorizing words, a line of text appeared before his eyes:

[Host detected in a non-native language environment and actively learning a foreign language for self-improvement. To accelerate Host’s learning progress without affecting primary duties, a special reward has been issued: Language Learning Crash Course Skill Pack x1]

[Language Learning Crash Course Skill Pack: When Host activates this skill pack, upon learning any written language in the world, Host only needs to memorize a cumulative total of one hundred vocabulary words to instantly gain professional and master-level proficiency in that language.]

...

Huang Chong’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch when he saw this system notification.

’This Cycling Optimization System really does have a function for everything!’

And yet, the purpose of all its optimization functions was to allow him to focus more of his time on his cycling career.

For example, in the beginning, the system was worried he would waste too much time on mechanical failures during training, so it directly rewarded him with a bike repair skill pack.

And now, afraid he would spend too much time learning a language, it had rewarded him with a language learning skill pack.

’Come to think of it, with this language skill pack, when I retire from cycling, I could switch careers to be a translator or something and definitely become a top talent.’

Of course, that was in the distant future, so there was no need to think about it for now.

Huang Chong decisively accepted the Language Learning Skill Pack. He then opened the English dictionary, found a pen and notebook, and started memorizing words, writing them down in the blank notebook as he went.

Just as Chen Junyi had said, his English proficiency was unsystematic. He was clueless about grammar and completely unable to form relatively complex sentences.

But with the vocabulary he had picked up intermittently from kindergarten all the way through his undergraduate studies, mustering a hundred words wasn’t difficult.

So, after just over an hour of review, he had basically written out one hundred English words from memory.

The instant he finished, a flood of English knowledge, including grammar, poured into his mind.

After the slight stinging in his head subsided, he discovered he had undergone an earth-shattering change.

Now, he could mentally formulate whatever he wanted to say in English, as if he had been born knowing the language.

He couldn’t help but feel a surge of ecstasy.

’Damn,’ he thought, ’with this skill pack, forget just English! In the future, I can learn German, French, Spanish, Belgian, Slovenian—’

As long as he could spend a little time each day memorizing the vocabulary of each language, he could learn them all sooner or later.

...

The next day, Stage 2 of the Tour of South Australia began: Norwood—Robesole.

Norwood and Robesole are both suburbs of Adelaide City in South Australia.

The former is closer to the city center.

The latter is located in the mountains and is also a grape-growing region.

The famous Fox Creek Wines is located here.

This stage started with a climb into the mountains from Norwood, covering 36.5 km to reach Robesole. After that, the riders would complete three laps around the Robesole area, with each lap being 35 km long, making the total stage distance 141.5 km.

There were two intermediate sprint points set up, one at the 30.5 km mark, and the other at the 71.5 km mark, which was when the riders passed the finish line arch after completing the first lap around Robesole.

Besides these, there were also three Category 2 climbs.

The first Category 2 climb started right from the race’s beginning, continuing to the summit of Mount Ashton at the 10 km mark, with an average gradient of 4.3%.

The second and third Category 2 climbs were both located at the same spot: the Fox Creek climb during the first and second laps around Robesole.

This climb was 1.6 km long with an average gradient of 7.5%.

They were located at the 63.5 km and 98.5 km marks of the total race distance, respectively.

Of course, this stage was set in mountainous, hilly terrain. In addition to the climbs officially designated as Category 2 by the organizers, there were actually two difficult, uncategorized climbs on each lap.

One was before the Fox Creek climb, 1 km long with an average gradient of 5.7%.

The other was after the Fox Creek climb, only about 5 km from the finish line, and was 0.6 km long with an average gradient of 5.6%.

All in all, the overall climbing difficulty of Stage 2 was quite significant.

While not a high-mountain stage, it would definitely be difficult for pure flat-road sprinters to hang on until the final sprint.

’If the team made me the lead rider,’ Huang Chong thought, ’this stage would be quite suitable for me.’

Because he was no longer afraid of the high temperature, he was fully capable of joining a breakaway and seeing it through to the end.

However, the rider lineup Aldag had sent was aimed at securing the sprinter’s jersey; he was just a supporting character.

Even if he performed exceptionally well and got a chance to shine, it would have to wait until after the first four stages. First, he had to ensure the team’s lead sprinter, Sam Welsford, secured the sprinter’s jersey.

Only then might it be possible for him to compete for a stage win or something similar on the fifth and sixth high-mountain stages, which were better suited for him.