Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

The race was once again scheduled to start at 11:20 AM.

The weather was better today, with occasional cloud cover.

But for the riders, a midsummer day without rain still meant oppressive heat and humidity.

After the peloton set off, during the initial phase of the race, all Huang Chong had to do was draft behind the group.

In the lineup Aldag put together, there were two other skilled climbers besides him.

They were German veteran Ben Zwiehoff and Spanish rider Roger Adrià, who had also just joined the Bora Team this season.

As the winner of the S1 Stage, Sam Welsford was wearing the orange leader’s jersey today.

The team holding the general classification jersey is obligated to do the work at the front of the peloton.

So for today’s stage, Huang Chong wasn’t the only workhorse; the other two climbers on the team would be as well.

They had to go to the front of the peloton to take turns pulling.

The first 10 kilometers of the race started with a long, gradual climb, and the peloton’s formation remained largely unchanged.

It wasn’t until the Category 2 climb near the 10-kilometer mark that the riders vying for the Polka Dot Jersey began to make their move, pushing for the Ashton summit.

After clearing the Category 2 climb, just like yesterday, three riders took the opportunity to launch a breakaway.

They quickly extended their lead over the peloton to more than five minutes.

Unfortunately, one of the breakaway riders suffered a mechanical failure. With his bike out of commission, he was quickly dropped by the other two.

Being dropped meant he had lost any chance to compete for sprint and climb points.

The purpose of a breakaway is to collect points at the intermediate sprints and climbs, thereby contending for one of the classification jerseys.

It’s also a way to get significant airtime on the live broadcast, effectively advertising for the team’s sponsors.

The peloton wouldn’t start chasing the breakaway so early in the race.

With one rider dropped, only two remained in the breakaway: Luke Burns of the Australian National Team and Christiaan van der Lee Jardi of the EF Education Team.

The race proceeded without much excitement after that.

The peloton controlled the time gap to the breakaway, letting it come down from five minutes to three and a half before settling into a long cruise.

Of course, once the race entered the circuits around Robesole and the peloton passed the second Category 2 climb at Fox Creek, Huang Chong’s water-carrying duties began.

At this point, 63.5 kilometers into the race, they hadn’t even reached the halfway mark.

But after riding this Category 2 climb, Huang Chong could feel just how brutal it was.

It wasn’t like the first climb at Ashton. That one was a full 10 kilometers long, so its average gradient remained low the entire way.

The Fox Creek climb, though only 1.6 kilometers long, had an average gradient of a whopping 7.5%.

Only the first 400 meters, at a 3.3% gradient, were easy.

But the steep section between 400 and 1,200 meters kicked up to an average gradient of 10%.

For Huang Chong, who had conquered the 17% gradients of Nanning Qingxiu Mountain, this level of difficulty was still manageable.

But for the team’s bigger-bodied lead sprinters, it was pure torture.

And in the final 400 meters, while the gradient eased to 7.7%, it was still a slope no sprinter would welcome.

The only reason the sprinters survived was because the race was less than halfway done and the peloton wasn’t pushing a hard pace on the climb. Otherwise, if the climbers from any of the teams had decided to attack, every single sprinter would have been dropped.

After cresting the summit with the peloton, Huang Chong didn’t even need a reminder from the team director. He began to slow down, dropping back to the team car.

Seeing how proactive he was, the director couldn’t help but joke:

"Huang, after yesterday’s race, it looks like you’re getting more and more accustomed to the pace of the World Tour!"

Huang Chong, who could now fully understand and speak English, just smiled, shrugged, and replied:

"Director, wasn’t this part of the plan all along?

You said I was supposed to be on supply duty for the team after the Fox Creek climb.

Since we’ve passed the designated spot, it’s my job to help the team. And I get to stretch my legs a bit, too!"

Inside the support car, the entire coaching staff was stunned to hear Huang Chong suddenly speak so much, and so fluently, in English.

They all knew his foreign language skills were terrible.

Normally, he could barely go anywhere without his interpreter, Chen Junyi.

To communicate with him, they had always made an effort to use the simplest words and shortest sentences possible—

’How did he suddenly become so fluent, with perfect grammar, too?’

But surprising as it was, it wasn’t something to make a big deal out of.

The fact that Huang Chong could communicate with them properly only made things more convenient.

The director’s expression quickly returned to normal. He said with approval:

"You’re right. According to the pre-race plan, you’re responsible for keeping the team supplied from here on out.

Additionally, after this lap, you’ll need to deliver four more rounds of supplies to your teammates over the next two laps.

You seem to be in good shape, though.

But making five supply runs in a single race is no easy feat.

If you can’t keep up, don’t try to tough it out. Make sure you let me know on the radio."