Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

This was the advantage of being backed by Middle Eastern princes.

An ample budget allowed them to sign all sorts of top-tier World Tour riders as they pleased.

However, the riders from UAE Team who came to warm up at the Milan-Turin Race were, after all, support riders, not their team leader, Pogačar.

Their climbing ability wasn't as strong on climbs steeper than 10%.

This was a known characteristic of Milan-San Remo: the Poggio Mountain climb before the finish wasn't steep or long enough. That was why Pogačar could never shake van der Poel, and each time, it came down to a flat sprint to the finish.

Therefore, this group of support riders had been assigned to Milan-San Remo to assist Pogačar specifically for their ability to set the pace on gentle slopes and flat roads. Leading the pack on steep climbs was definitely not their forte.

And so, after UAE Team's Ulissi frantically ramped up the pace in the peloton and successfully dropped a pack of riders who weren't strong climbers, he had just finished the first kilometer of the Praskorsano climb. It was then that EF Education Team's Alberto Bettiol launched an out-of-the-saddle attack on the steepest, most difficult section of the entire segment.

Seeing this, the three UAE Team riders were surprisingly unable to respond.

This meant all their frantic pace-setting and efforts to thin the herd had been for nothing; they had merely set the stage for someone else's attack.

Having watched the World Tour for three years in his past life, Huang Chong was of course no stranger to Bettiol.

The man was a native Italian rider. Although he didn't have many moments in the spotlight, in 2019, he had won the Tour of Flanders, one of the five Monument classics.

In addition, he had won a stage at the Giro d'Italia and secured a third-place finish at the Quebec Grand Prix, among other achievements.

In short, the guy was a strong classics rider and would also be riding in Milan-San Remo after this race.

However, being born in '93, he was getting a bit old for a professional cyclist—a trait he shared with the French rider Alaphilippe.

So Huang Chong definitely wasn't going to let him get away solo. Otherwise, given the man's ability, catching him later would be extremely difficult.

He decisively got out of the saddle to follow, instantly latching onto the other rider's slipstream on the steep incline.

When it came to short climbs like this, Huang Chong's ability was truly top-tier.

The recovery ability granted by his terrifyingly high maximum oxygen uptake was a complete nightmare for other climbers.

When Bettiol saw Huang Chong sticking to his wheel on the steepest, 11.6% part of the climb as if it were a casual stroll, his expression immediately soured.

In fact, by now, there was probably no one in the entire World Tour who didn't know about this rookie from the Bora Team.

First, his nationality was too unique—he was the sole rider from all of China.

Second, his performance in the first two World Tour races of the season had been simply too dazzling.

Admittedly, the prestige of those two races might not have been the highest, since the absolute top riders hadn't participated.

But for a rookie who had just joined a World Tour Team to be able to completely dominate over a hundred other World Tour cyclists was already an insane achievement.

Many teams were now eyeing Bora Team covetously. Some had even started thinking about poaching Huang Chong.

Huang Chong's rookie contract was only for one year, and once signed, that sort of information becomes public knowledge.

Therefore, with a performance like his, he would inevitably be the subject of a frantic bidding war next season among teams with general classification ambitions.

It was obvious that by his second year, his contract and salary would surely be far more than just a few thousand euros a month—a wage considered barely subsistence level among World Tour cyclists, akin to pocket change for a beggar.

Huang Chong didn't know that his market value and fame had already begun to skyrocket after those two World Tour races.

Making money was important to him, of course, but for now, he cherished every opportunity to compete for a win even more.

So when Bettiol, realizing Huang Chong was glued to his wheel, decided to sit back down in the saddle, Huang Chong didn't pause for a moment. He shot past him and continued his out-of-the-saddle attack.

Seeing this, Bettiol, who had just sat down, had no choice but to immediately stand up again. His attack had turned into a defense as he was forced to get out of the saddle and follow.

'This kid has no respect!'

He was taking advantage of his youth, attacking with no regard for the consequences. It made Bettiol furious.

'I still have to race Milan-San Remo in three days! If I burn myself out now, at my age, my recovery will definitely suffer for it.'

But when Huang Chong saw Bettiol matching his pace, he kept up his out-of-the-saddle, anaerobic attack for nearly a minute. He then sat down for a 20-second rest before immediately standing up to attack again.

It was just a one-day race, after all, and he knew his own limits.

'I can definitely handle another four or five waves of attacks like this, no problem.'

He had rested for over half a month after the UAE Tour. Now, he was bursting with energy and had been itching for a place to unleash it.

And so, Bettiol was hit with two consecutive, kilowatt-level anaerobic bursts, followed by dozens of seconds at five to six hundred watts. The effort completely dazed him.

Finally, Bettiol shook his head in resignation. He gave up on trying to stick with Huang Chong, allowing him to speed away on the final 5.5% stretch of the climb.

After cresting the summit, Huang Chong went into a solo breakaway, starting his rapid descent.

Since he had scouted the route beforehand, he was already quite familiar with the terrain ahead.

Furthermore, a race marshal's car was clearing the way, so he had no safety concerns. Even while racing through the narrow one-way streets of a small Italian town, he unleashed his superb bike-handling and cornering skills, weaving through the mountain roads like an arrow through a dense forest.

Aldag and the rest of the coaching staff, including Denke and others watching the live broadcast on the team bus, were all glued to the screen. The official race broadcast was now locked onto Huang Chong. He was rapidly pulling away from the second-place Bettiol, opening a thirty-second gap, a lead that only grew larger on the descent. Everyone was completely dumbfounded.

What the fuck?!

'His descending skills are this insane, too?'