Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Hearing Huang Chong’s confident reply, the team director was at a loss for words.

If the cyclist assignments and overall race strategy hadn’t been predetermined by Aldag, he would be seriously questioning his own qualifications as a team director.

Huang Chong’s form was simply too good, and his individual ability was nothing like that of a rookie.

Assigning a GC Cyclist of this caliber to be a domestique was an absolute travesty!

So, after receiving Huang Chong’s definitive answer, he decided he wouldn’t follow Aldag’s overly conservative and rigid plan.

Besides, Aldag had already given him permission to make tactical adjustments during the race based on the cyclists’ real-time condition.

Since both Adrià and Zwiehoff had been dropped by their own support rider on the climb, it was only natural for him to back the cyclist in better form and let him keep going.

Otherwise, he, the team director, would look utterly incompetent and unable to adapt to the situation.

After all, the other teams’ support cars were following closely, and all the directors could see the current state of the race.

If he ordered Huang Chong, who clearly had energy to spare, to give up his position and fall back to help a teammate who had already blown up, it would be a career-ending move. Such an idiotic decision would ensure that if he ever left the Bora Team, no other team would touch him.

With this in mind, the team director made a bold and decisive call over the radio:

"Since you’ve got the energy to go for the finish, go fight it out with the other teams’ lead GC Cyclists! Forget about Zwiehoff!!"

Hearing those words was like being given a royal decree. Huang Chong was instantly fired up.

He immediately kicked up his power, quickly dropping the last teammate behind him and latching onto the leading group of just over a dozen riders ahead.

They were now less than 2km from the finish. The closer the Willunga Hill climb got to the summit, the gentler the gradient became.

In the final 700 meters, the gradient even dropped to 5.1%.

Under normal circumstances, a gradient like this would be no challenge at all for a World Tour level Climber.

But after a 2.7km anaerobic push, sprinting on this gradient was a monumental task.

Soon, the race entered the final kilometer. Jieke Team’s support rider, Chris Harper, completely ran out of energy and was dropped from the leading group.

Immediately after, the Jieke Team’s sole remaining leader, Simon Yates, held nothing back and launched an attack out of the saddle with 1km to go.

Right on his wheel were Onley from Team DSM, Narváez from the Ineos Grenadiers Team, and Alaphilippe from the Quick Step Team.

Seeing this, Huang Chong quickly latched on as well. A glance at his system’s bike computer revealed that although Simon Yates’s attack was from a long way out, his peak power output wasn’t that high—only just over 500W.

As expected, Yates couldn’t shake any of the other team leaders. With about 500 meters to go, he gave up the attack.

Seeing that there were still 500 meters to the summit, none of the other team leaders wanted to take over from Simon Yates. With a tacit understanding, they all eased off the pace and began to mark one another.

But at this moment, so close to the finish, the fans lining the sides of the road had erupted into a frenzy.

An endless torrent of cheers, like a tidal wave, crashed against Huang Chong’s ears.

He could no longer tell if the fans’ voices were cheers of encouragement or just pure, deafening noise.

But regardless, he knew in his heart that every fan who had braved the scorching summer sun and waited over two hours on this mountaintop shared the same goal.

They were all here to witness the final stage winner be crowned right before their very eyes.

And the Professional Cyclists were the reason for their wait.

And so, after being held back for four entire stages, Huang Chong—though already out of contention for the overall title—waited only about 15 seconds after Simon Yates eased up. Then he shot up from his saddle, unleashing a staggering 1300W of peak power. Like an out-of-control supercar, he rocketed past the group from behind.

Seeing him launch this explosive attack, the fans on both sides of the road erupted, their cheers growing even more thunderous.

It was as if Willunga Hill itself was shaking from the roar!

The lead GC Cyclists from the other teams saw Huang Chong of the Bora Team suddenly surge past them from behind, his power output frighteningly high. For a moment, none of them reacted.

It wasn’t that their reflexes were slow; it was that it never even occurred to them that they needed to mark Huang Chong of the Bora Team.

The guy was over a minute down in the general classification. He’d long lost any chance of fighting for the ochre jersey.

And for the first four stages, he had been nothing more than the team’s water carrier.

A rider assigned as a domestique by his own team was actually trying to contest the climbing finish with them on the Queen Stage?

It was completely absurd.

Unless the entire coaching staff of the Bora Team was out of their minds, there was no way they’d use a rider with this kind of GC potential as a domestique—

But this absurd situation was happening right now.

And it had caught them completely off guard.

The only one who reacted, though still a beat too late, was Narváez. He had personally witnessed Huang Chong take the stage victory at the Nongla Mountain Peak in last year’s Tour of Guangxi. He knew this attack was for real—Huang Chong was going for the stage win. After Huang Chong had opened a gap of more than ten meters, Narváez immediately got out of his saddle and gave chase.

Huang Chong might be out of the running for the overall victory, but Narváez knew full well that a stage win was still incredibly important.

It wasn’t just a World Tour Level victory; to earn it, you had to beat all the best riders of your type.

It was an undeniable and effective way to boost a rider’s personal market value.

For an athlete, what statistic was more persuasive than a victory?

Narváez’s pursuit triggered a chain reaction, and the other GC Cyclists began to get out of their saddles and chase as well.

They were forced to start their final sprint early on the climb, risking blowing up themselves, just to chase down Huang Chong.

However, among this group of GC Cyclists, only Alaphilippe and Narváez—both with the explosive power of a Classics rider—could even come close to matching Huang Chong’s peak power output. The others were completely outmatched.

They were, after all, known for their incredible endurance on climbs, not explosive sprints.

A 1300W anaerobic sprint was not something a pure Climber could easily produce.

Especially with 500 meters still to go. Trying to match the massive anaerobic output of Huang Chong—whose VO2 max had broken 98, a new world record—was a losing battle from the start.

400M—

300M—

200M—

100M—

The further Huang Chong rode, the closer his heart rate climbed to its absolute limit.

But even after returning to the saddle, he gritted his teeth and maintained his anaerobic power, pushing onward toward the finish.

Narváez and Alaphilippe’s explosive power was indeed incredible. After they both responded, they managed to keep the gap from widening any further, holding it at around 10 meters for the entire chase.

But as the anaerobic effort dragged on, the natural gap in their cardio-pulmonary capacity and VO2 max compared to Huang Chong’s began to tell. Their endurance started to fail.

And so, with about 100 meters left to the finish line, just as they crested the First Category Climb, both of their heart rates spiked into the red. They blew up.

But Huang Chong was still able to maintain a power output of over 500W.

He was the first to crest the climb. After easing his cadence for just a few pedal strokes, he was back out of the saddle, launching one final anaerobic attack toward the finish arch that lay just beyond a wide bend in the road.

The result was no surprise. He completely dropped the two Classics riders behind him, the gap growing with every pedal stroke.

In the end, the man who started the race as a mere domestique, who earned his place as a team lieutenant through sheer diligence, seized the single opportunity given by his team director. He launched an attack 500 meters from the line, rode solo to the finish, and passed through the arch to claim victory in the S5 Queen Stage of the Tour of South Australia.

He had also become the first King of Willunga from China!

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