Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

She was a compulsive liar, so the fibs came naturally. She nodded repeatedly and, with an exaggerated flourish, thumped a chest so flat compared to her friends’ that you could probably use it for the street performance of breaking a stone slab. Then, she cheerfully announced:

"No problem, girls! My cousin’s still abroad, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Once he’s back home, I’ll give you all a heads-up. I’ll set up everything—meet-and-greets, autographed photos, the works!

But for now... who’s finished today’s math test paper? Mind if I copy it—"

Hearing this, the group took the little liar’s words as gospel. Elated, they scrambled back to their seats, each more eager than the last to grab their math test paper, terrified of being a moment too late.

They slapped their test papers down on Huang Lingshan’s desk, tripping over themselves to be the first to answer:

"I aced today’s test! Copy mine, I guarantee a perfect score!!"

"No, Lingshan, copy mine! My handwriting’s neater than hers. You might copy something wrong if you use hers!!"

...

After the UAE Tour concluded, the riders still had to attend the official closing banquet.

The Middle Eastern princes lived up to their reputation for wealth—the banquet was incredibly extravagant.

Furthermore, the food provided by the organizers had undergone rigorous testing and was perfectly safe. So, after a grueling week, Huang Chong let himself go and feasted. Once he’d eaten and drunk his fill, he returned to the team’s headquarters in Germany with the rest of the squad.

With the conclusion of the UAE Tour, March arrived.

For the professional road cycling world, concentrated on the European Continent, this marked the official start of the busiest part of the season.

The UCI has four tiers of competition: World Tour, Pro Race, Class 1, and Class 2. The spring season hosts the highest number of races throughout the year.

For instance, of the five Monuments of cycling, only the Tour of Lombardy is held in the fall; the other four are all concentrated in the spring.

Huang Chong had just completed two consecutive high-intensity World Tour stage races, so the team certainly wasn’t going to throw him immediately into another competition.

Ample rest is essential for a Professional Cyclist.

Too much intensity can easily lead to injury.

Plus, with the season just beginning and Huang Chong’s performance being so exceptional, the team needed to rethink his upcoming race program.

Under his original contract, while they had promised Huang Chong ten World Tour races, their actual plan had been to assign him to less significant events just to fulfill the terms.

After all, he was a rookie. Other teams wouldn’t even let a neo-pro ride the World Tour in their first season; the Bora Team was already being extremely aggressive on that front. But now, the talent Huang Chong had displayed made them realize something profound: if they invested resources in this kid, he had the genuine potential to win.

This meant they had to make a strategic change.

As a top-tier World Tour Team, every staff member was under immense pressure. They had to answer not only to the shareholders but also to the sponsors.

If they poured in heaps of money but failed to deliver results, the team would not only risk sponsors pulling funding and facing bankruptcy, but everyone’s job would be on the line.

Of course, in terms of funding, starting this year, the Bora Team was one of the best-resourced teams in the entire World Tour.

Aside from UAE, backed by its Middle Eastern princes, only the Ineos Grenadiers Team had a budget that could compare.

This was thanks to the head of the Bora brand being a good friend of the team’s CEO, Ralph Denke, which made for a very stable partnership.

Additionally, Austria Red Bull had already acquired a stake in Denke’s team and was just waiting for official approval. Once Red Bull was in the picture, the team’s funding stream would be virtually guaranteed.

Red Bull has always been a company with huge ambitions. Last year, when they were first planning to acquire a stake in Denke’s team, they had even wanted to buy out two riders they sponsored—Van Aert from the Visma Team and the Quick Step Team’s super-rookie Evenepoel—and bring them both to Bora.

Unfortunately, both riders were on long-term contracts and had no immediate desire to switch teams, so the plan fizzled out.

But the team’s financial stability didn’t necessarily translate to job security for its staff.

This was especially true for Aldag. As the sports director in charge of both team management and race operations, he was the central figure responsible for building the team roster and setting the race lineups.

If he failed to deliver good results, the odds of him being fired were high.

The more powerful the shareholders, the greater the pressure on the staff.

Of course, the Red Bull acquisition wasn’t yet finalized, and Bora’s top-tier lineup for this year’s Grand Tours was newly assembled. Aldag still had time to prove himself and get the team to gel.

After rejoining the team and attending a celebratory banquet, Huang Chong returned to his daily training routine.

He wouldn’t have any races for a while, so all he could do was watch his teammates compete.

He wasn’t a fool; he knew team politics were at play. It was impossible for him to get a spot in every single race.

Many riders had clauses in their contracts, just like him, that guaranteed a certain number of race starts, some even specifying particular events.