Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

However, Huang Chong, who was currently sticking close to the four breakaway riders at an average speed of over 60 km/h, replied with a resolute tone:

"I know. But to avoid getting repeatedly pulled back and forth by the peloton on the climb, I think actively breaking away is the better choice.

Although I’ll have to take turns pulling during the breakaway, and the energy consumption is far greater than just drafting in the peloton.

But as long as I can handle the high-paced riding, I should be able to stay in the breakaway almost all the way to the finish line.

Even if the peloton catches me by then, it will just be a battle between the sprinters before the finish, and the GC Cyclists will just have to finish safely.

Once that happens, I just need to cross the line without any time gaps, and I won’t lose any time to the other teams’ GC leaders."

Hearing Huang Chong’s explanation, Coach Han frowned and thought it over carefully.

In the end, he realized the rider had a very good point.

The biggest difficulty for a breakaway rider is maintaining a high power output for the entire race.

But Huang Chong was no stranger to 200-kilometer, high-paced rides, having done so at the Asian Games.

He had experience with pacing himself in this kind of race.

At the very least, if he got into the breakaway and the peloton didn’t accelerate early, they wouldn’t be able to pose a threat to Huang Chong on the climb in the last 40 kilometers.

So, after some thought, Coach Han didn’t try to stop or dissuade him. He simply instructed in a serious tone:

"Alright then. I’ll have the team car follow you to ensure you have supplies for the whole race."

Huang Chong felt a wave of relief upon hearing Coach Han’s support.

But in truth, the reason he had made the last-minute decision to break away after the race started was because he had seen the composition of today’s breakaway group.

Among them were the Polka Dot Jersey holder, Wandahl from Bora Team, and the Alpecin Cyclist from whom he’d taken the Red Jersey yesterday: De Bondt.

These two had clearly chosen to break away to collect intermediate sprint and climbing points, aiming to definitively secure the Polka Dot Jersey and Green Jersey for the entire tour.

What the main peloton hadn’t expected, however, was that Huang Chong, wearing the Red Jersey, had also joined the breakaway. This came as a huge shock to the team directors of Jumbo and Cofidis.

Their two teams’ GC Cyclists were the closest to Huang Chong in the overall standings.

They had laid out their tactics the night before, both planning to drop Huang Chong on the climb in the final 40 kilometers and overturn the general classification.

But unexpectedly, he chose to break away right from the start, completely throwing them for a loop.

’Is this a carefully designed tactic?’

’Or did Huang Chong just decide on the fly to go for a breakaway victory to avoid being targeted on the climb?’

Under normal circumstances, Huang Chong, as the Red Jersey holder, had no reason to be in a breakaway.

After all, he wasn’t Wandahl or De Bondt, who had already accumulated a large number of climbing or sprint points in the previous stages.

Even if he won every sprint point in the fifth stage, he wouldn’t have enough points to contend for those two honor jerseys.

His best option was to conserve energy in the peloton and then do his best to hang on and not get dropped during the climbing section.

After all, attempting a 209-kilometer breakaway carried enormous risks.

If he blew up midway and his stamina failed, his overall lead could be overturned in an instant.

"Boss, what do we do now? That Huang Chong actually went for the breakaway. This is completely different from what we expected!"

In the team, Vader Milan was somewhat frustrated as he watched the Red Jersey quickly pull away.

Hearing his lead rider’s question, the team director’s expression turned grim.

’This Huang Chong is completely unpredictable; he’s totally wrecked my plans.’

’The overall leader, and he actively breaks away instead of playing it safe and conserving energy in the peloton?’

’That’s just bizarre thinking!’

He thought for a moment and ultimately decided not to send a domestique to help Vader Milan chase the five-man breakaway, which had already pulled out a gap of about one minute.

Because if he sent Vader to break away, there was also a risk of him being dropped midway.

But by staying in the peloton, the latter could at least protect his current standing and not lose any more time.

When the Cofidis and Movistar teams saw Huang Chong break away, their coaches had similar thoughts to the Jumbo team director.

Since they hadn’t sent any riders into the breakaway today, they definitely wanted their leaders to stay safe in the peloton.

If Huang Chong happened to gift them a surprise by blowing up halfway, their own leaders would have a chance to turn things around.

In any case, compared to having their leaders bear the risks and uncertainties of a breakaway, they felt it was more worthwhile to stay steady in the peloton and wait for Huang Chong to make a mistake.

However, as the race went on, the outcome left them sorely disappointed.

Not only did Huang Chong stay with the breakaway group the entire time, but by the successive climbs at the 40-kilometer mark, he had even extended the time gap over the peloton behind them to more than three minutes.

With a time gap like that, even if teams like Jumbo, Cofidis, Movistar Team, and even UAE wanted to launch an attack on the climb to chase him, it was no longer possible.

In the end, despite being in the breakaway for the entire race, Huang Chong didn’t contest a single sprint point with the other four riders.

But when it was his turn to pull at the front, he went all out, holding nothing back, and helped create a massive lead for the other four breakaway riders.

As a result of their five-man cooperation, they weren’t caught by the peloton until there were only about 7 kilometers left to the finish line.

With so little distance left to the finish, all of it on flat roads, and seeing that top sprinters like Milan, Morano, and Viviani were all in the peloton, Huang Chong had nothing left to worry about.

The outcome of the fifth stage was already clear: it would come down to a final sprint.

All he had to do was dutifully follow the sprint group and cross the line safely.

This couldn’t help but fill the team directors of the Jumbo Team and Cofidis, who had made a grave strategic miscalculation that cost their riders any chance to overturn his lead on the climbs, with immense regret.

They had essentially squandered a golden opportunity to attack Huang Chong and reverse the standings.

...

「October 17th.」

The Tour of Guangxi entered its final day of competition.

On the general classification leaderboard, the top five remained unchanged.

This was because in the fifth stage, Huang Chong had used his breakaway ability to avoid being targeted by the peloton on the climbs, essentially outsmarting them to survive the ordeal.

However, the terrain of the final stage, though a circuit race in Guilin, was extremely similar to the fifth stage.

It also featured a combination of a second-category climb and a First Category Climb situated around 40 kilometers from the finish.

After the race began, five riders again launched an attack, but today, Huang Chong didn’t join the breakaway at all.

This left several teams, including Jumbo, who had prepared to accelerate for the whole race—planning to let Huang Chong wear himself out in a breakaway for 120 kilometers before catching him ahead of the climbs at the 40-kilometer mark—with a failed tactic once again.

In the end, Huang Chong stuck close with his National Team members, firmly planted within the peloton.

Then, when the climbing began 40 kilometers from the finish, Jumbo, Movistar Team, Cofidis Team, and others, as expected, launched successive attacks on the climb, trying to completely drop Huang Chong and the other teams’ Core Commanders.

This was the last possible place for any team to make a final, desperate attempt to overturn the general classification.

Unfortunately for them, Huang Chong had secretly eaten an Energy Bar before the climb began. With incredible resilience, he weathered the repeated attacks from the major teams and successfully crested the final First Category Climb of the entire race.

And as the main group failed to create a gap and descended together, it was an early declaration that there would be no further changes in the general classification.

In the end, as the team directors of the major teams watched the Chinese rider Huang Chong successfully defend his first place in the general classification, snatching the best rider’s honor jersey from their grasp, they were filled with mixed emotions. At the same time, with the exception of a few teams uninterested in GC Cyclists, most of them began to consider recruiting him after the race.

So, that evening, after Huang Chong accepted his trophy on the podium, sprayed champagne with second-place Vader Milan and third-place Rochas Rémy, returned to his team, and attended the closing banquet with all the World Tour Teams, he immediately received contract offers from seven or eight World Tour Teams and three Professional Teams.

This not only overjoyed him but also presented him with a difficult choice.

’Damn it all,’ he thought. ’I knew I’d get offers from World Tour Teams after winning the Tour of Guangxi, but I never imagined there’d be this many.’

’Suddenly I’m a hot commodity?’

And facing so many unsolicited offers from top-tier teams, including even powerhouses like Jumbo and UAE, how was he supposed to choose?

After all, this was a chance to be teammates with Mars People like Vingegaard and Pogačar!