Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

They were clearly aiming for the overall championship!

But after six grueling days of competition, even though the team had put up a very strong performance in the general classification—with Vlasov and Lipowitz securing second and third place, respectively, even besting Ayuso, the lead rider for UAE Team—it wasn’t enough.

The victory was snatched away by a young up-and-comer from the Ineos Grenadiers Team: Carlos Rodríguez!

This left Aldag and Denke fuming, unable to even put their frustration into words.

Especially considering Vlasov and Lipowitz had lost to Rodríguez in the general classification by a mere seven and nine seconds, respectively—

The bitter taste of deploying all the team’s top riders, only to still fall short of victory, was a tough pill for them to swallow.

"Damn it! Rolf, why is our team always falling just a little short in the general classification this year?!!"

As Ralph Denke watched his two riders mount the second and third-place podiums after the race, he couldn’t feel a shred of happiness.

The season was already more than halfway over, at least in terms of the number of World Tour events.

Yet aside from Huang Chong winning one stage race at the UAE Tour, they hadn’t won any others.

What was worse, not only were their stage race results a disaster, but in the one-day races, they had also come up empty-handed—if you didn’t count the three victories secured by Huang Chong.

The only results they could even point to were a few individual stage wins in multi-day races by riders like Vlasov and Welsford—

For the ambitious Bora Team, such a report card was, of course, nowhere near good enough.

Aldag heard this and knew his boss was just venting his dissatisfaction.

But he was miserable inside.

It was true that he had championed the decision to buy the team’s number one Core Commander, Roglič, from Vismar. But in the two stage races Roglič had entered this season, he’d failed to find his form at his Paris-Nice debut, and then he’d been caught in a mass crash at the Tour of the Basque Country. He was still recovering—

Without a top GC contender, it was naturally difficult to win a stage race.

Come to think of it, if Huang Chong hadn’t burst onto the scene to act as his last saving grace, the pressure on him would have been unbearable.

But he had no good answer for Denke. Until Roglič returned, there was nothing he could guarantee.

Because the next multi-day race was the Giro d’Italia, which would run throughout the month of May.

With Pogačar having announced his participation in this year’s Giro d’Italia well in advance, who would dare claim their rider could win the overall championship?

However, before the Giro started, there was one more one-day race: Eschborn-Frankfurt. Plus, the race was in Germany, which basically made it home turf for the Bora Team.

Furthermore, this was a hilly classic with a lot of climbs, making it perfect for Huang Chong. So, Aldag could only reply:

"Ralph, I share your feelings.

It’s true, the team has always been falling just short in the stage races this season—

But we have a real shot at victory at Eschborn-Frankfurt on May 1st."

Denke heard his sports director sidestep the question. He didn’t press the issue, but his tone was low and grave as he said:

"It had better be, Rolf!

This is our home race. All of Germany will be watching our performance, you understand?

We must take this victory!"

Aldag nodded. He had absolute confidence in Huang Chong’s ability and said:

"Don’t worry. For this race, I will assign the rider best suited to win."

...

Huang Chong had returned to the team for training after the race in Liège. At the end of one such day, he was at home having dinner with Chen Junyi.

Then he suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason.

Chen Junyi saw this and immediately asked with concern:

"What’s wrong? Are you catching a cold?"

Huang Chong was sure he wasn’t catching a cold.

After his constitution was optimized by the System, he was immune to both heat and cold, and also immune to viral infections. How could he possibly catch a cold?

He replied with great certainty:

"No, someone must be talking about me behind my back!"

Hearing this, Chen Junyi immediately furrowed her brow.

’What kind of nonsense is that?’

’How can he believe in folk superstitions?’

She reached out to touch Huang Chong’s forehead, then compared it with her own and found that there was indeed no difference.

Besides, May was approaching and the weather was warming up. Huang Chong was an athlete who trained every day. She personally made sure he was always dressed warmly, and his diet was nutritious and well-regulated. It really shouldn’t have been possible for him to get sick.

Seeing her looking so serious, a warm feeling spread through Huang Chong’s chest. He smiled and continued:

"I really don’t have a cold. It was just a sneeze.

I probably just inhaled some dust or something by accident. No need to be so tense!

But I really do have a feeling that someone is talking about me right now—"

Chen Junyi didn’t know what to do with him. But after a moment’s thought, she grasped the implication behind his words and replied:

"Are you talking about the team’s upper management?"

Huang Chong chuckled and said:

"Bingo!

You saw the Tour de Romandie. The team probably isn’t too happy with the result.

And you know Denke’s personality. That old guy is obsessed with winning right now. He’s definitely chewing out Aldag!"

"So you think they’ll keep putting you in the upcoming World Tour races?"

Chen Junyi understood perfectly, now completely on the same wavelength as Huang Chong. After a moment of thought, she added:

"Do you think it’ll be Eschborn-Frankfurt, or the Giro d’Italia?"