Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

"Of course, no problem, General Manager Li. Shall we connect on WeChat? If there are any events, I’ll be sure to let you know right away."

Li Zifan nodded. After they added each other on WeChat, he returned to the main topic, asking:

"So, thanks, General Manager Zhou. But what was this business you mentioned wanting to partner with me on?"

Hearing this, Zhou Ming just smiled and replied:

"General Manager Li, it’s almost lunchtime, and it’s going to take a while to finish assembling your bike. Why don’t we find a place to sit down, grab a bite, and take our time discussing this?

Besides, the shop is too crowded. It’s not a good place to talk business."

Li Zifan had no objections, so he took Dewey along, and they found a high-end private restaurant. After the three of them had nearly finished their meal, Zhou Ming finally brought up the topic:

"Here’s the thing. The business is actually related to the cycling industry. I heard you know Huang Chong as well, General Manager Li?"

Li Zifan nodded readily and joked:

"I do. In fact, I’m the one who personally taught that guy his mountain biking skills.

I never thought he’d betray me and go back to road cycling.

And now he’s even made it to the World Tour. Tell me that’s not infuriating."

Zhou Ming smiled but didn’t play along, simply saying:

"It’s precisely because he’s made it to the World Tour that I want to propose a business partnership between the three of us—you, me, and Old Du—related to cycling.

I’m sure you watched Huang Chong’s race, General Manager Li. That’s why you contacted Old Du right away to order a bike.

But I believe that with Huang Chong’s potential, combined with his status as the only top rider from China, his future commercial value is going to be immense.

I’m planning to establish a comprehensive brand for manufacturing cycling gear. We can hash out the specifics after some market research, but for now, let’s just agree on the general direction.

Once we’ve settled on it, we’ll get things rolling. When the time is right, we’ll approach Huang Chong for an endorsement. We could even collaborate with his World Tour Team."

Hearing this, both Li Zifan and Dewey were taken aback.

They truly hadn’t expected Zhou Ming to leverage his connection to Huang Chong as an investment opportunity—

But on second thought, it was definitely a business venture worth exploring.

If Huang Chong could keep getting better and better on the World Tour—even if he never reached the level of beating someone like Pogačar—his commercial value would still be substantial as long as he could crack the world’s top ten.

After all, the key difference between him and the foreign riders was that he alone had the entire Chinese market behind him.

As long as he wasn’t just a low-ranking domestique on the team and could occasionally snag a World Tour victory, he would be incredibly lucrative.

Besides, he had already won two stages in his debut at the Tour of Australia. If he kept up that momentum, his future potential was bound to be high.

So, after a moment of thought, Li Zifan expressed his interest. He knew this was just an initial proposal, far from a concrete plan, but he stated his position bluntly:

"I think this is viable, General Manager Zhou. I’m interested in joining.

Rather than waiting for Huang Chong’s star to rise and letting other brands turn him into a cash cow, we should leverage General Manager Du’s close relationship with him and keep this opportunity for ourselves!"

Dewey, however, was completely dumbfounded as he listened to the two big shots discuss investing in his friend and even wanting to include him.

He couldn’t help but complain internally:

’Is this how rich people’s minds work? So bizarre.’

But he couldn’t really say anything.

After all, the only reason these two were willing to include him was because he was close to Huang Chong.