Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Now that the racing season had fully entered its European leg, home to all the World Tour Teams where participation was so convenient, the Bora Team would need a miracle to win another flat stage.

Fortunately, the team's main focus for the 2024 season was on the general classification, so a subpar performance in one-day races and on flat stages was still considered acceptable.

"Huang, after watching that race, how big do you think the gap is between you and these top one-day racers?"

Aldag asked him on the way back to team headquarters after Milan-San Remo had concluded.

Huang Chong wasn't sure what Aldag was getting at, but as a Professional Cyclist, he couldn't show weakness, and he certainly couldn't admit defeat. Those two things were non-negotiable.

Confidence, after all, is the most crucial part of being an athlete.

If a person lacks confidence, then even if they are technically superior, their mentality will crumble during a major competition. This leads to a breakdown in form, making it impossible for them to perform at their true level.

Such people are often called 'chokers'—they can only bully amateurs in their own comfort zone.

Huang Chong was certainly no choker. He thought for a moment before replying directly:

"Director, until I've actually stood on the same starting line and raced against them, it's hard to say for sure what the gap is.

As you know, race conditions can never be fully replicated by training data.

I believe my mental fortitude is pretty solid.

For example, the more difficult the racing environment, or the more critical the moment, the more I find I can rise to the occasion and perform at a higher level.

You may not have seen my race at the Asian Championships in Rayong, Thailand, last June, but the memory is seared into my mind.

That was my first time going head-to-head with World Tour Cyclists.

Kazakhstan sent Gelber and Yevgeniy, and both of them were already members of the Astana First Team at the time.

Even though I gave it my all and only ended up with the silver medal, I believe my performance was extraordinary. Considering my strength back then, to be able to pull off a last-gasp victory over Yevgeniy at the finish line and snatch a direct qualification spot for the Paris Olympic Games from their hands was definitely me performing beyond my limits.

Honestly, I knew full well that based on my strength at the time—judging by training data alone—there was no way I could have gained the slightest advantage while being ground down by the repeated attacks of two World Tour Cyclists.

But the result was that I won. And I won under circumstances that seemed completely impossible to everyone at the time, including my own National Team head coach.

So ever since that race, I've always told myself to keep fighting until the very end.

Fighting doesn't guarantee victory—after all, the gap between cyclists is an objective reality—but if you don't fight, you're guaranteed to lose. Isn't that right?"

Hearing Huang Chong's response, Aldag's expression was a mixture of astonishment and shock.

He couldn't say he was satisfied with such an answer. As the team director, he had been hoping for a more factual and specific reply.

But he couldn't say he was unsatisfied, either.

After all, Huang Chong's story was undoubtedly true.

And in competitive sports, beyond one's fundamental ability, there is always the potential to perform at a higher level.

So, when Aldag returned to the team, he actually found the footage of last year's Asian Championships and watched the whole thing meticulously.

The results left him flabbergasted.

Without a doubt, the Huang Chong of last year was nowhere near as strong as he was now. That much was obvious just from his average speed at the end of the race.

According to his estimates, Huang Chong's FTP Power during the Asian Championships was probably only between 350-360W. That would explain why he was locked in such a desperate struggle with a cyclist like Yevgeniy, who had only just joined the World Tour.

But in the end, Huang Chong had indeed relied on extraordinary perseverance and flexible tactics to force Gelber, who was trying to secure the gold medal, into a premature solo breakaway before the finish.

This, in turn, created an opportunity for him to go one-on-one with Yevgeniy and deliver the final blow right at the finish line.

If he had chosen to contest the final sprint against two World Tour Cyclists, Huang Chong's chances of winning would have been drastically lower.

They could, after all, work as a team.

But in any case, after reviewing the race, it wasn't the last-gasp victory or the Olympic qualification that stood out to Aldag. In his eyes, those were secondary, almost not worth mentioning.

The one thing that left him reeling, however, was the fact that Huang Chong had increased his FTP Power by a good several dozen watts in just one short year. The thought left him unsettled long after he had finished watching the race:

'What kind of monster from the East is this?'

'How can his rate of improvement be so terrifying?'

'It's a damn good thing this guy ended up on the Bora Team.'

'If he had joined the UAE Team or the Visma Team, would any of the other World Tour Teams even stand a chance?'

And so, Aldag had no choice but to re-evaluate Huang Chong's abilities. With five top-tier one-day World Tour races about to take place in Belgium, he began to wonder: should he add Huang Chong's name to the lineup?