Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

At this time, Bora had not yet been acquired or sponsored by Red Bull.

The team had made bold, ambitious moves this winter, poaching Roglič from the Jumbo Team.

But Roglič was a top-tier star rider currently on vacation and didn’t need to report to the team early like a rookie such as Huang Chong.

During the Tour of Guangxi, Huang Chong had a brief encounter with the Bora Team’s leader, Sports Director Rolf Aldag.

He knew the man was the Bora Team’s head coach and the person in charge of rider management.

As for the team manager, Bora Team founder Ralph Denke, he was in charge of the commercial and financial aspects and wasn’t directly involved in managing the riders.

Aldag, in fact, had never imagined that this Road Cyclist from China would ultimately choose to join the Bora Team.

As far as he knew, after Huang Chong’s victory at the Tour of Guangxi, quite a few other World Tour teams had extended contract offers. Bora’s own initial offer had just been a shot in the dark.

They entered several rounds of negotiations with the agent arranged by the Chinese side. After starting with an extremely casual offer and continually sweetening the deal, they gradually realized that this Chinese rider seemed to have a tremendous interest in the Bora Team.

Then, after an internal meeting and gaining the approval of team manager Denke, they explicitly stated in the contract that he could participate in at least 10 World Tour races. With that, the two parties reached a verbal agreement for him to join.

Of course, Huang Chong’s visit today didn’t mean he could sign with the team immediately.

World Tour teams are extremely strict and place great importance on a rider’s absolute health and whether their abilities meet the signing standards.

Before the official signing, he still had to pass the team’s physical examination and performance tests. Only after confirming there were no issues in any aspect would both sides formally sign the contract, and only then would he become a member of the team for the new season.

Of course, since he had just flown from China to Germany, a journey of over ten hours, Aldag wouldn’t make him undergo performance tests right away, weary as he was from the long trip.

In such a state, his body would be too fatigued, and it would be difficult for his various metrics to reflect his true condition.

So on Huang Chong’s first day, Aldag first gave him a tour of the team headquarters and explained the team’s history and development.

In his previous life, Huang Chong’s knowledge of the Bora Team was limited to what he’d found online. Besides information about the riders who joined, he really knew nothing about the team itself.

And although the Bora Team had Roglič, as well as the GC Cyclist Lipowitz—who would begin to shine in the 2025 season and win the white jersey for best young rider at the Tour de France—it was never a mainstream team when it came to championships.

This was because the UAE Team, Alpecin, and Vismar (Jumbo) had been ridiculously dominant in the fight for titles over the past few years.

They carved up the races they excelled at among themselves, leaving other teams to fight over the scraps.

For example, it was already a rare achievement for Bora if, over the course of a whole year, they could get Roglič a win in some week-long races by avoiding Pogačar, Vingegaard, and others to sneak in a victory.

With Aldag leading the tour and providing introductions, and with Chen Junyi helping to translate, Huang Chong quickly got a general understanding of the Bora Team’s history.

In summary:

The team was founded in 2009 by its current CEO.

Initially, it was just an Intercontinental Team named Team NetApp, the kind you could register just by paying a fee to the UCI.

In the 2010 season, Team NetApp signed a total of 14 riders and began its first season of competition using road bikes from the German brand Focus.

In the 2011 season, the team was successfully promoted to a UCI Professional Team, and its bike brand switched to Austria’s Simplon.

In the 2012 season, the team received a wild card entry to the Giro d’Italia for the first time.

In the 2013 season, the team merged with the British Endura Racing team to become Team NetApp-Endura, but it still held its Professional Team license.

In the same year, it received a wild card entry to the Vuelta a España.

In the 2013-2014 seasons, the team began using bikes from the Japanese brand Fuji.

But in the 2014 season, the team received its first wild card entry to the Tour de France, which also brought them sponsorship from the kitchenware manufacturer Bora.

In the 2015 season, the team started using road bikes from the Canadian brand Argon 18, and the team was officially renamed, incorporating Bora’s name to become Team Bora-Argon 18.

The 2017 season was the most important year in the team’s development.

Not only did it gain sponsorship from the bathroom fittings manufacturer Hansgrohe, officially changing its name to the current Bora–Hansgrohe, but it also signed the top sprinter and classics rider, Peter Sagan. With that, it successfully achieved promotion to a UCI World Tour (UWT) Team.

As for this legendary rider, his historical achievements speak for themselves. A seven-time winner of the Tour de France Green Jersey and a three-time consecutive (2015, ’16, ’17) Road Cyclist World Championships winner—that’s all you need to know about how strong he was.

He was also often compared to another sprinter of the same type, Cavendish.

And with Sagan joining on a three-year contract, the team also began using Lightning bikes from the United States, a partnership that continues to this day.

In short, that was the general history.

The Bora Team wasn’t very old; it was considered a rising star team, founded around the same time the Zhejiang Province sports bureau established its road cycling program.

The only difference was that the Bora Team made a triple leap in just a few short years to become a World Tour Team.

Meanwhile, the first-string road cycling team from Zhejiang Province had been languishing at the bottom of the domestic provincial rankings, struggling to survive.

If it weren’t for the emergence of Huang Chong, the Zhejiang Province road cycling team would have absolutely no presence in China.

"Huang, that’s the team’s history in a nutshell.

Although we’re still young, at least in terms of our timeline, our team’s founder and CEO, Mr. Ralph Denke, has always had lofty goals.

To be honest with you, our team is currently building a top-tier roster capable of challenging for Grand Tour championships.

For example, we’ve already signed Primož Roglič, and he will lead us in challenging the Jumbo and UAE teams for the title in the new season.

I sincerely hope you can pass all the tests, successfully join us, and become an important piece of our championship puzzle.

The image of you sprinting at the Nongla Mountain Peak in Stage 4 of the Tour of Guangxi to defeat the Jumbo Team’s Vader Milan still replays in my mind.

That was a truly outstanding last-gasp performance.

I know very well that you’re an exceptional Climber. You not only possess powerful explosive strength but also have the sharp instincts of a hunter, knowing just when to attack to seize victory.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of outstanding performance you’ll deliver when you compete on the same stage as the world’s top riders!"

Hearing Aldag’s words, Huang Chong felt that if he weren’t a reincarnator, he might have actually been fired up by the speech. But as it was, he was completely unimpressed. ’Knowing the outcome really takes all the fun out of it,’ he thought. ’The man might genuinely have high hopes for the team, believing they can truly challenge the Jumbo and UAE teams. But in my eyes, it’s just selling a pipe dream. For Bora to win a Grand Tour in the next two years is pure fantasy.’

However, he couldn’t say anything about future events, so he could only play along, nodding with a smile and saying:

"Thank you for your high praise, Coach. I’ll improve my abilities as quickly as possible and do my part for the team."