Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

He even beat their top Black climber to take the overall championship.

Of course, he had grown much stronger this year.

If he were to participate in the Tour of Qinghai Lake again, he could crush all the Core Commanders from last year's Professional Teams.

After looking at the team list, Huang Chong focused his attention on the rider list.

Looking over it all, he found that aside from Movistar Team's Einer Rubio and EF Education's Bettiol, the only riders who needed special attention were indeed from the UAE Team and Astana Team.

The UAE Team was sending Jan Christen, Marc Hirschi, and Diego Ulissi, among others.

All three were set to participate in Milan-San Remo to continue supporting Pogačar. Their strength in one-day races couldn't be underestimated.

They were participating in this race to warm up in advance.

Meanwhile, the Astana Team was sending his old rival from the Hangcheng Asian Games, Alexey Lutsenko, as well as Mark Cavendish, who won the overall championship in this same event in 2022.

All in all, compared to the Tour of Australia and the UAE Tour, this race certainly wasn't difficult, but it wouldn't be a walk in the park either.

After all, it was a one-day race. Everyone would go all out, and it was hard to predict if an unfamiliar rider might suddenly have a breakout performance.

After reviewing all the entry data, Huang Chong knew clearly that his only chance to win was indeed at the spot Aldag had just mentioned.

The Praskorsano climb, specifically at its steepest section.

If he couldn't break away here, his only remaining option would be to compete in a bunch sprint at the finish line.

Although his explosive power was also quite good, he wasn't a pure sprinter at the end of the day.

A finish line sprint meant dealing with the jostling for position within the main group. If he failed to secure a good position in advance and got boxed in at the back of the pack, all his hard riding throughout the race would be for nothing.

'I can't believe it. After performing so consistently in the first two World Tour races, I still have to participate in this kind of second-tier event.

Sigh, the way these foreigners think is so rigid. They know the team has no chance at Milan-San Remo, so they might as well bring me along to test myself against the top guys.

At the very least, it would let me know just how big the gap is between me and Pogačar.'

Once he was done, Huang Chong shook his head and couldn't help but complain.

Chen Junyi, who was helping him pack his personal belongings, replied as she organized his things:

"The Milan-Turin Race might be a Pro Level event, but the difference in participation between the two is still huge.

Milan-San Remo is definitely one of the highest-level, most popular races on the World Tour, drawing the attention of fans worldwide. It would be great if you could make the roster, but you definitely wouldn't be racing as a team leader.

But it's different here. This is the first time the team's upper management has actually assigned you to race as a leader.

For you to become a leader this quickly, even if it's in a developmental lineup, is an incredibly fast promotion!

You have to realize, Lipowitz, who's racing with you this time, joined the team years before you, and he still hasn't had many opportunities to participate in the World Tour.

Besides, this is the densest part of the Spring Classics season. After Milan-San Remo, aside from the Catalonia Grand Prix which is a stage race, the next five consecutive World Tour events are all one-day races.

They are the Bruges-De Panne Classic, the E3 Classic, the Gent-Wevelgem Classic, Crossing Flanders, and the Tour of Flanders.

Even though only a couple of those five one-day races might have courses that suit you, if you can still deliver an outstanding performance in the Milan-Turin Race, maybe the team will take you to some of those World Tour events?"

Hearing this, Huang Chong felt a jolt of realization.

Now that she mentioned it, that was a real possibility—a very strong one, in fact.

He knew very well how these old-school Europeans ticked. Their thinking was extremely conservative; they always wanted to see a good performance from a rider before promoting them, as if they could only do things by the book—

but at their core, they were also extremely results-oriented.

As long as he truly had the strength and wasn't just a clown—for example, by deliberately going against the team—Aldag wouldn't intentionally hold him back.

Plus, his team's owner was an incredibly ambitious person.

And ambition, to some extent, could be directly linked to aggression.

"They say an outsider's perspective is always clearer. You really do see things more clearly than I do.

I was a little annoyed before, but I feel much better now.

As for that kid Lipowitz not getting to race much this year, it's only temporary. After all, he wasn't the Tour of Guangxi champion when he joined the team, was he?

But by next year at the latest, he'll definitely break through.

The kid has a lot of potential, and on top of that, he's German. The team will definitely groom him as a core rider."

Without the Eye of God, Chen Junyi was naturally a bit surprised why Huang Chong was so optimistic about Lipowitz.

But after thinking for a moment, she decided not to ask any more about it.

After all, whether Lipowitz did well or poorly had nothing to do with her.

...

「March 12th.」

The Bora Team set off for Italy's second-largest city: Milan.

As a Professional Cyclist, every time they went for a course reconnaissance ride, it was actually a lot like bicycle touring.

Although they couldn't wander around the city, shop, or make special trips to check off famous attractions like normal tourists, the places they could reach during the race were far more varied and detailed than what a normal tour would offer.