Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

After the race began, it was the breakaway riders, as usual, who launched the first attack.

But today’s breakaway lineup was vastly different from the previous three days.

First, the Alpecin cyclist De Bondt, who had been in the breakaway for three consecutive days, was no longer participating. He had accumulated so many intermediate sprint points and time bonuses in the first three stages that he was now first in the general classification and wearing the Red Jersey.

Second, Chinese cyclist Su Haoyu had joined the breakaway group.

This came as a bit of a surprise to the other four riders in the breakaway, who all wondered:

’Why are the Chinese cyclists so active and tactically bold in this year’s Tour of Guangxi?’

However, the four riders—from the Alpecin Team, the Jieke Team, the Israel-Premier Tech Team, and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux—all doubted whether Su Haoyu could stay in the breakaway until the end.

Soon, as the breakaway group opened up a minute-and-a-half gap, riders in the peloton began to control the time difference.

It was as if this time gap was a strict checkpoint for this year’s Tour of Guangxi.

Once the breakaway riders exceeded this gap, the peloton would accelerate to close in.

This was unlike the World Tour races held in Europe, where the peloton would often let the breakaway get four or five minutes ahead.

The race progressed quickly. Huang Chong, following Coach Han’s strategy, stayed amongst his teammates, forming a long, single-file line with the World Tour Teams as they headed toward Nongla.

For the first 110 km, the pace was consistently maintained at around 41 km/h.

There were some minor climbs, but it was clear that after several consecutive high-intensity races, the World Tour Cyclists’ overall pace had slowed. It was a noticeable drop from the average finishing speeds of around 45 km/h that had been common in the earlier stages.

Now, with 50 km left to the finish, the scenery on both sides of the road had become breathtakingly beautiful.

There were not only the neat and uniform plots of farmland diligently cultivated by the people of Guangxi, but also one of Guangxi’s major geographical features: the green peaks formed by the karst landscape.

Huang Chong had previously seen the wonder of a karst landscape during the Tour of Qinghai Lake, when he had crested the Laji Mountain Pass and descended to the Guide National Geopark during the second stage.

But even though it was the same type of landform, it had a completely different kind of beauty.

The mountains of Guiding County were desolate and imposing, like a majestic city wall standing on the plateau.

It was the color of the earth, the rugged splendor of the west.

The peaks of Guangxi, on the other hand, were more like what the poet Xin Qiji described: jade hairpins and seashell coils.

They were emerald green, rounded, delicate, and graceful.

In short, due to differences in altitude and climate, the karst landscapes of the two provinces had formed their own unique and equally breathtaking mountain beauty.

For the cyclists, riding through such an elegant landscape was undoubtedly a blissful and pleasant sensory experience.

And when the peloton reached the 33 km mark, Huang Chong saw with his own eyes a famous scene from a video highlight reel of the Tour of Guangxi he had seen in his previous life:

The Summit F4.

Because the officials were extremely strict about the viewing distance on both sides of the road, with security guards more numerous than the utility poles, these four local residents had climbed directly onto a mountain peak by the roadside in order to watch the race.

Their antics were, of course, captured by the broadcast director’s aerial cameras and made it into the race footage, becoming a legendary, lighthearted moment in the road cycling community.

One had to admit, the people of Guangxi were exceptionally fun-loving.

After passing this spot and riding until only 21.2 km remained, Huang Chong’s peloton officially entered the tunnel of the Nongla Ecological Tourism Demonstration Zone.

At this point, they were still about one minute behind Su Haoyu’s breakaway group.

But over the next few kilometers, as the road rose in a series of short climbs, Su Haoyu, who had already been in the breakaway for nearly 150 km, began to run out of steam.

Finally, with 14.4 km to the finish, he ultimately failed to hold on for the final 3.3 km climb up Nongla Mountain and was caught by Huang Chong’s peloton.

Facing this situation, Coach Han, who had been following Su Haoyu’s progress all day, could only shake his head helplessly.

The plan itself was sound, of course: have Su Haoyu break away first, and when Huang Chong launched his attack in the final stage, Su Haoyu would be there to give him a lead-out.

It was a very common tactic, essentially a form of "aerial refueling."

Unfortunately, the rider’s raw strength wasn’t quite enough, and ultimately, he couldn’t live up to the coach’s pre-race vision.

As Su Haoyu was absorbed back into Huang Chong’s group, he deliberately pulled up alongside Huang Chong and apologized.

But Huang Chong had expected this outcome, so he neither blamed Su Haoyu nor felt any disappointment.

Instead, he encouraged Su Haoyu, giving him a thumbs-up.

Just daring to join the breakaway on the toughest Queen Stage and sticking with it for so long required immense courage and strength.

"It’s fine. You’re already a total badass for making it this far in the breakaway. Just get in our draft and rest up. Focus on finishing the race; that’s all that matters."

Huang Chong replied with a smile, then stuck with the peloton. With just 11.5 km to go, they caught all the breakaway riders on a gentle climb.

In hindsight, even if Su Haoyu hadn’t been dropped 3 km before that, he wouldn’t have had the chance to go solo all the way to the final 3.3 km Nongla Mountain climb.

So, from the very start, Coach Han’s strategy had just been an idealistic fantasy.

As the race entered the final 10 km, the teams resorted to their usual tactics. They all formed into their trains and started to ramp up the pace, stretching out the field.

At this stage of the race, Huang Chong could no longer count on his teammates to form a train and bring him to the front of the pack.