Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Although every stage of this race in South Australia had a fair amount of climbing, the first four stages all had flat-road finishes.

This was clearly a race that favored the sprinters.

And in their lineup, the lead sprinters were the local Australian rider, Sam Welsford, and the Dutch rider, Danny van Boppel.

So, Huang Chong’s role in this race was self-evident.

Three days before the start of the race, after giving a passionate speech to the seven riders about to depart for Australia to begin the new season, Rolf Aldag made a point to speak privately with the youngest of them, Huang Chong:

"Huang, the World Tour is very difficult.

You were the champion of the Tour of Guangxi last year, and you never once fell behind during two and a half months of winter training. I’m sure you’re well-prepared, but the season is long.

At the start of the season, I hope you won’t get too excited. Instead, you need to learn how to conserve your energy to make sure you can last the entire season.

To be honest, your job this time isn’t to fight for the overall championship. It’s to continuously help your teammates during the race and aim for a smooth finish."

Aldag’s words were diplomatic, but Huang Chong understood his meaning.

They were clearly asking him to be the team’s water carrier, not even a lieutenant.

The team was also telling him not to compete for the general classification.

’Honestly, even though I had anticipated this, now that it was time to execute the plan, I’m still pretty unhappy about it.’ Huang Chong thought.

’I am the Tour of Guangxi champion, after all. And while the field of top riders at the Tour of Australia is clearly stronger than at the Tour of Guangxi, the difficulty of the race itself is comparable.

If the team’s strategy was built around me, and if I could win the final two climbing stages, I wouldn’t be without a shot at the overall championship.’

But a rookie needed to know his place. World Tour teams, in particular, disliked troublemakers who didn’t follow the plan.

They only liked riders who followed tactics to the letter.

As long as you could complete the tasks assigned by the team, everyone would respect you.

Whether you won the championship or not was irrelevant if the team hadn’t asked you to.

Therefore, if he joined Bora and immediately started thinking about winning for himself, thus disobeying the team’s orders, it would be an extremely serious matter.

If he were to switch teams later, other teams would most likely not give him an offer.

So he had no power to refuse the arrangement. He could only dutifully follow their instructions for his debut and strive to deliver an exceptionally brilliant performance during the race.

That way, by the time the second race started, he might become a lieutenant.

And going from water carrier to lieutenant was a huge step forward.

After all, if the team leader underperformed, it was perfectly justifiable for a lieutenant to carry the team on his own, withstand the pressure, and turn the tables to win the general classification.

"I know, Coach. I’ll do my job. I won’t get arrogant just because it’s my first World Tour race and think I have to fight for the championship myself to be considered a proper Professional Cyclist."

Aldag, who was not accompanying the team to the Tour of Australia, heard this reply and looked at him with appreciation, nodding with a smile.

"Excellent. In that case, I wish you a successful career debut with the World Tour Team. Return in triumph!"

...

「January 13, 2024.」

Huang Chong, six teammates, the secondary coaching staff, and the translator, Chen Junyi, boarded a plane together, flying from Germany to Australia in Oceania.

On the day of his departure, the Bora Team also made a timely announcement. The team had recently registered official accounts on all major Chinese social media platforms because of Huang Chong’s signing, and on these accounts, they announced his participation in the Tour of Australia.

For fans in China, this was fantastic news that came out of the blue.

A Chinese rider had just joined a World Tour Team and was set to debut in the very first World Tour race of the season—how could it be anything but exciting and highly anticipated?

Two and a half months prior, when the news of Huang Chong joining the World Tour Team Bora was confirmed, fans all over China had already been celebrating with great fanfare.

After all, the World Tour is different from domestic leagues. It’s the highest level of competition, equivalent to a Chinese player joining one of Europe’s top five soccer leagues or the NBA.

Who wouldn’t want to see a fellow countryman dominate in a top-tier league and show those foreigners the mysterious power from the East?

And so, when the Bora Team announced Huang Chong’s participation, fans from different platforms flocked to the official accounts to cheer him on, spamming "666" and declaring the Bora Team to be the best in the world.

Beyond that, in QQ groups, WeChat groups, and other communities dedicated to race broadcasts, various streamers announced they would be live-streaming the entire event. The cycling fans who loved watching road races began rubbing their hands in anticipation, waiting for the show to begin.

Many fans, in particular, had only learned that Huang Chong had won the Tour of Guangxi last year *after* he joined the Bora Team. They all felt a sense of regret that they hadn’t been there to watch his race in person.

Now that he was a World Tour Cyclist, it went without saying: they would be following every single race Huang Chong was in, from start to finish.

"Alright everyone, let’s discuss. Now that Huang Chong has joined the Bora Team and is representing them for the first time in a World Tour race, can he go for the championship directly, just like he did at the Tour of Guangxi?"

In a QQ group founded by a race commentator.

After last season’s races had all ended, the group owner (the streamer), who had been lurking all winter, suddenly popped up to post the news of Huang Chong’s participation, and the group immediately erupted in passionate discussion.

On this question, different cycling fans clearly had wildly different opinions.

Some felt: "Is that even a question? Huang Chong is so strong, of course he can win!"

Others thought: "The Tour of Australia has too many top riders. It’s not likely he can win."

And some experienced pros analyzed it based on their race-viewing experience: "As a rookie, there’s no way Huang Chong will be the team leader right off the bat, so he’s not even in contention for the championship."

In short, the hype within China’s circle of World Tour-watching cyclists had already skyrocketed. It was a far cry from previous years, when the viewing community would only start to heat up after the Italian White Road Race began, waiting for Pogačar’s season debut.

After all, for people in China, it was only the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month. The Spring Festival hadn’t even passed yet, so it didn’t really feel like 2024.

But the 2024 road cycling World Tour season was already kicking off early, right in the dead of winter.

...

「Xianyun County.」

Huang Lingshan, who was about to start her winter vacation, was a veteran netizen. After her older cousin joined the Bora Team, she had naturally followed all of the team’s official accounts.

She was constantly refreshing the Bora Team’s official accounts every day, looking to see if they had posted any training photos of her big brother.

Now that she had suddenly come across the official announcement of her brother’s participation in a race, with her flamboyant personality, she naturally began to trumpet the news all over her class immediately.

Then, through word of mouth, the news spread throughout all of Xianyun Middle School—

Huang Chong was also a graduate of Xianyun Middle School. After all, in a small county with a population of just over 100,000, it was the only public high school.

As it so happened, Huang Lingshan’s current homeroom teacher, Chen Juan, was also Huang Chong’s homeroom teacher back in the day.

So, as the students in her class buzzed with excitement over the news of Huang Chong participating in the World Tour, Chen Juan also felt a sense of pride.

Her tolerance for Huang Lingshan, who was a slacker, even increased significantly.

Back when Huang Chong was in her class, he had been just one of those students whose grades were neither good nor bad, always hovering around the middle of the pack—a thoroughly unremarkable student.

Then suddenly, he had become a big star in the world of sports.

Who knew if Huang Lingshan, being Huang Chong’s younger cousin, would also suddenly transform from an ugly duckling into a swan one day?

In any case, Huang Chong was now a household name in all of Xianyun County, and his influence was so great that it even affected the county’s planning and construction of urban greenways.

Case in point: because the county had produced an Asian Games road cycling champion, Xianyun County, which originally had only one greenway, was already building a new, dedicated cycling path.

Looking at the situation, once the road was finished, the Xianyun County officials would definitely promote the development of road cycling in the county in a big way.

This couldn’t help but make Chen Juan, a math teacher, sigh with emotion:

’Life is truly unpredictable!’