Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

After Huang Chong crossed the finish line first, Vader Milan finished in second place, a full seven seconds behind.

The moment he crossed the line, the guy practically fell off his road bike, immediately lying down on the pavement to catch his breath.

It was a testament to the difficulty of tackling the final 500-meter steep climb, with its 8.7% average gradient, in a full anaerobic sprint.

In his previous life, Vader Milan had used this very kind of sudden, out-of-the-saddle anaerobic attack to clinch both the stage victory and the overall championship at the Tour of Guangxi.

This time, however, Huang Chong—who knew the Jumbo Team’s strategy in advance—stuck to the guy trying to steal the win and, with his superior anaerobic sprinting power, ruthlessly snatched the Red Jersey away.

Following him, Rochas Rémy of the Cofidis Team crossed the line in third, nine seconds behind Huang Chong.

As for the riders from fourth place, starting with EF Education cyclist Carthy Hugh, all the way to tenth, they were considered to have finished together in the main group with no time gap.

But without exception, Huang Chong had used his superior explosive power on the final 500-meter climb to open up a full 15-second gap on them.

Factoring in the time bonuses—10 seconds for first place, 6 for second, 4 for third, and 1 for fourth—the top five in the general classification standings after the Nongla Stage were completely different from the first three days.

The new standings, arranged by [Rank, Name, Team/Country, and Total Time], were as follows:

1. Huang Chong, CHINA, 13:05:22

2. Vader Milan, Jumbo-Visma, +0:11

3. Rochas Rémy, Cofidis, +0:15

4. Carthy Hugh, EF Education, +0:24

5. Barré Louis, Team Arkéa Samsic, +0:25

...

This result stunned everyone—from the 14 World Tour Teams and 3 Professional Teams to Coach Han and cycling fans all across the country.

After all, who could have imagined that Huang Chong could actually defeat so many world-class cyclists in a World Tour summit finish stage?

Only he himself, after finishing the Nongla Stage, felt that winning this stage was a matter of course.

For though he was Chinese, an Asian, his body had been thoroughly transformed by the system’s continuous optimizations, from his natural physique to his cardiopulmonary capabilities.

In these two respects, he was actually no weaker than the Jumbo Team’s Core Commander, Vingegaard, or the UAE Team’s Core Commander, Pogačar.

The only difference was that his FTP Power still lagged far behind that of these two stars, who stood at the very pinnacle of professional road cycling.

But when it came to recovering from an extreme anaerobic sprint, what did Vader Milan’s talent even matter in the face of Huang Chong?

It would be a fairer comparison to have him compete against his team’s leader.

In fact, with Huang Chong’s current explosive power, it was no guarantee that even Vingegaard could beat him if they were only competing in the final 500-meter climbing sprint.

Vingegaard’s true strength lay in sustained, high-difficulty, long anaerobic climbs—an area where Huang Chong was, for now, completely out of his league.

"Hey, bro, congrats on the stage win! That anaerobic sprint of yours was a real eye-opener!"

Rochas Rémy, the Cofidis rider who finished third, didn’t collapse on the ground, unable to get up, like Vader Milan had.

He approached Huang Chong with a friendly smile, shook his hand, gave him a hug, and offered his congratulations.

Huang Chong’s own English was terrible; he could only make out the gist of it.

Fortunately, Chen Junyi had just gotten out of the team car and rushed to his side to translate.

Huang Chong was quite pleased to hear the congratulations.

Regardless, receiving direct recognition for his strength—especially from a real World Tour Cyclist—made him feel that his arduous, day-to-day training had truly been worthwhile.

He quickly replied with a smile:

"Thanks, Rochas. I was giving it everything I had. If that climb had been any longer, you definitely would have caught me!"

...

After taking the stage win on Nongla Mountain Peak and establishing a solid lead in the general classification, Huang Chong couldn’t guarantee he would maintain his time advantage until the end of the Tour of Guangxi. After all, these World Tour Teams would certainly try to claw it back over the next two days. However, he knew that a performance like this would most likely earn him an offer from a World Tour Team.

He had won a stage, after all. The coaching staffs of these top-tier teams were bound to look into his race history.

And just as he predicted, the stage’s award ceremony hadn’t even started before the coaching staffs of the Jumbo Team and other World Tour Teams had already pulled up his personal file.

Things like his date of birth, race history, and so on.

"Jesus! Look at the race history of this Chinese rider, Huang Chong. Other than a silver medal at the Asian Championships, he’s won nearly every single race he has entered this entire year."

"And just a week ago at the Asian Games, he even beat Astana Team’s Core Commander, Alexey Lutsenko, twice."

"No wonder he had the power to beat Vader Milan in the final sprint—"

"It looks like his mediocre performance in the first three stages was just him getting used to the pace of the World Tour Teams, all while hiding his true abilities."

"Damn it! The moment a stage suited him came along, he dealt us a crushing blow on Nongla Mountain Peak and snatched away the victory we had planned!"

The Jumbo Team’s leader stared at the long list of victories on Huang Chong’s profile, his expression grim.

True, they were all races in Asia, so the level of competition wasn’t the highest, but to maintain such consistent dominance for an entire season was still terrifying.