Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

TotalEnergies, Lotto, Q36.5, Baloise (Team Flanders - Baloise), Uno-X, Israel-Premier Tech, and Bingoal WB."

Huang Chong’s head throbbed just looking at the long list of teams.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Pogačar, Roglič, Mohorič, and others are all Slovenian riders.

When it comes to national strength in road cycling, the tiny country of Belgium is the number one powerhouse in the world.

Their national points ranking is always firmly in first place, practically unshakable.

Therefore, any team from Belgium, even a Professional Team, cannot be underestimated. They’re packed with talent.

Of course, this is directly related to how widespread cycling culture is in their country, and the fact that a network of roads suitable for cycling crisscrosses the nation.

"Damn, the number of entrants is practically the same as the Tour de France. If I remember correctly, this year’s Tour de France has 18 World Tour Teams plus 4 wildcard teams?"

"That’s right. Based on the current UCI points rankings for Pro Level teams, this year’s Tour de France lineup, barring any surprises, will be 18 World Tour Teams plus four wildcards: Israel-Premier Tech, TotalEnergies, Lotto, and Uno-X Team.

However, for the Tour de France, each team can field 8 riders, for a total of 176 people."

"What a race this is. The road conditions are absolute crap, but the lineup of riders is massive!"

After getting Chen Junyi’s confirmation, Huang Chong couldn’t help but give a wry smile and complain:

"The Tour de France courses must be wider, right? These Belgian courses... it’s like they pick them based on how rotten and broken they are.

I’ve ridden many sections during training these past two days, and some are barely two or three meters wide.

If you’re riding in the main peloton, you’ll definitely have to physically battle other riders just to get the right of way!"

"Then you have to be careful and stay safe. One-day races are dominated by Classics riders and sprinters. Every one of them is huge, and even if they’re not, they’re still packed with solid muscle—"

"I can’t promise that!"

Huang Chong shook his head at her request, his voice tinged with a defiant edge as he spoke through gritted teeth:

"You know this is a one-day race. Since I’ve been put in it, I have no choice but to go all out to the very end.

Once the race actually starts, you can’t worry about too much. Who cares if they’re muscle-bound giants!

If anyone dares to get in the way of me winning, I’ll take them down!

Worst case, we all crash and are out of the race together!"

Chen Junyi had never seen this "wild" side of Huang Chong before. She was utterly dumbfounded after hearing him.

’Is this still the Huang Chong I know?’

But at the end of the day, there wasn’t much she could say about it.

Having been by Huang Chong’s side, she had seen enough of professional road cycling to know it was no gentleman’s sport.

Sometimes, for a rider to win, they truly had to be willing to risk it all.

Using a few dirty elbows to jockey for position in the peloton was a common occurrence. As long as the race commissaires didn’t see it and penalize you on the spot, you were fine.

Ultimately, after hesitating and holding her tongue, she decided not to add any useless chatter that might give Huang Chong extra mental baggage.

Besides, the fact that Huang Chong had this almost "savage" mindset was a clear sign that he was fully prepared for and understood this type of Classics race.

In the end, she simply handed the rider list to Huang Chong so he could give it a quick look.

After a quick scan of the entry list, Huang Chong noticed that besides Philipsen and Van Aert, there weren’t any other absolute top-tier riders participating.

But the lineups for the various teams were by no means weak.

Some of them were familiar faces he had gone head-to-head with at last year’s Tour of Guangxi,

for example, Jorgenson, who transferred from Movistar Team to Visma Team; Milan, who moved from Bahrain Victorious to Trek Team; and De Bondt, who went from Alpecin to Decathlon Team.

Additionally, riders like Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Team, Stefan King of FDJ Team, Joshua Tarling of Ineos Grenadiers Team, and Nils Politt of UAE Team, among others, were also strong contenders for the win.

...

「March 27th.」

As an appetizer for the Tour of Flanders, Crossing Flanders officially began.

The global attention on this race was certainly high.

Although the most dazzling superstar among the Classics riders, Mathieu van der Poel, chose to rest for this race after competing in both the E3 Classic and the Gent-Wevelgem Classic, the excitement was still maxed out thanks to the participation of riders like Van Aert of Visma Team (one of the "two Vans"), Philipsen of Alpecin Team, and Milan of Trek Team.

In the eyes of the public, these three were undoubtedly the favorites to win.

At the same time, Huang Chong’s participation also boosted the race’s popularity.

Domestically in China, it went without saying. Ever since the Bora Team’s official accounts announced the team roster, all eyes were on him.

Everyone had their beer, sunflower seeds, and peanuts ready.

On the global stage, as a Chinese rider who had just joined the Bora Team this year and had already shown such a strong performance in the first few races—winning both a stage and a general classification—he was also drawing significant attention.

This was a top-tier one-day Classic, his debut in a truly important World Tour race, and it was being held in the cycling kingdom of Belgium. What kind of spectacular performance would he deliver?

This was undoubtedly what everyone was curious and waiting to see.

On the Eurosport cycling channel, host Steve and his long-time partner, Jimmy, had naturally already received the rider list for the race as the start time approached.