Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chapter 112: Chapter 97: Three Jerseys United, Unstoppable

The Jiyuan Station race featured a circuit in Nanshan Forest Park, with each lap spanning 47 kilometers.

The most difficult climb had a gradient of about 6.2% and a length of 1.3 kilometers, located between the 39.2 and 40.5-kilometer marks of the lap.

After this climb, the route to the arch in Chengliu Town—which served as both the lap’s starting point and the stage’s finish line—was mostly free of difficult ascents.

By the time Huang Chong’s group entered the second lap, it had dwindled to only about seven riders.

Among them, the biggest threat to his first-place overall standing was undoubtedly Niu Yikui, a Longjiang Team rider wearing the Li Ning Star Team jersey.

But in reality, though he was a Longjiang Team rider, he was actually from Henan.

The race continued.

Huang Chong, who was drafting behind the others, was also in constant communication with the coach in the team car.

He heard the coach on the radio, informing him that the time gap to his breakaway teammate, Peng Yuantang, was shrinking as Huang Chong’s group closed in. The coach told him to figure something out.

After a moment’s thought, he decisively rode to the front of the group and took a turn leading the pace.

This rather baffled the other six riders, who knew him all too well.

’Well, I’ll be,’ they thought. ’Aren’t you the one who loves to sit in the draft and then launch a fierce attack at the critical moment?’

’Why the sudden change of heart today, volunteering to lead the pack?’

’I’ve really seen it all now!’

But after Huang Chong had been pulling at the front for less than five kilometers, they quickly realized something was wrong.

The guy was keeping the group’s cruising speed a little too low.

Given his abilities, there was no way this was his true pace.

And just as the six riders figured it out, they too received radio calls from their team cars.

The message from every team was the same: that kid Huang Chong wasn’t being benevolent by leading; he was deliberately slowing the pace from the front.

His real goal was to control the time gap between the small group and his teammate up ahead.

At this, not only Niu Yikui of Li Ning Star but also the lead riders from the other five Intercontinental Teams reacted, immediately accelerating past Huang Chong to chase down Peng Yuantang in the breakaway.

They weren’t about to let that insidious, cunning fellow Huang Chong lead the pack ever again.

The Hengxiang Team car, with Coach Li inside, was right behind Huang Chong’s group. Seeing the other lead riders speed up, he quickly got on the radio to tell Peng Yuantang at the front to pick up his pace.

Peng Yuantang was in a solo breakaway at the very front, and the physical toll was undoubtedly immense.

Other riders could take turns pulling and drafting in the group to rest, but he couldn’t. He had to rely on the power of his own legs to maintain a constant output for the entire ride.

This level of intensity was far beyond what an ordinary rider could manage.

The only good news was that when Huang Chong had deliberately slowed the pace while leading, it had bought Peng Yuantang a significant amount of recovery time.

During that time, he had also taken the opportunity to consume an Energy Gel provided by the team.

So, as he faced the last long 6.2% climb of the second lap and heard Coach Li’s order to accelerate, he gritted his teeth. Even with no rivals chasing him, he still began to furiously speed up the long climb, pushing into his maximum Zone 4 threshold.

"Huang Chong, Peng Yuantang is already over the last long climb.

The time gap between you is still about a minute and a half.

You can look for an opportunity to attack. Shake everyone off and go link up with your teammate ahead."

The voice of Coach Li crackled again in Huang Chong’s earpiece. He had just started the 6.2% climb, having ridden less than a fifth of the way up—only about two hundred meters.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he decisively got out of the saddle, unleashing his maximum output of over a thousand watts. He shot from the back of the small group, madly overtaking the others as he stormed toward the summit.

Niu Yikui was quite surprised by Huang Chong’s early attack.

But his body reacted instantly. He immediately got out of the saddle and tried to follow.

Seeing the two top contenders for the win launch their attacks on the final long climb, the other five riders were hesitant.

The reason was that the race was only in the final stretch of the second lap. They had only ridden 96 kilometers of the total distance, with about 55 kilometers still to go before the finish.

’Is it really necessary to launch an anaerobic attack this early?’ they wondered.

And so, in their moment of hesitation, Huang Chong and Niu Yikui pulled further and further away on the climb.

But even though both had attacked on the long climb, Huang Chong’s anaerobic capacity was clearly superior to that of Brother Niu, who was chasing him from behind.

After an anaerobic burst of about 30 seconds, averaging over 600 watts, he settled back into the saddle and resumed pedaling at his threshold power of 360 watts, quickly widening the gap to his rival.

By the time he finished the entire 6.2% climb, he glanced at his bike computer and saw that his average speed for the ascent had reached around 31 km/h.

An average speed of 31 km/h on a 6.2% gradient!

That was nearly as fast as Dewey’s average cruising speed on flat roads.

This just went to show how wide the gap between them had grown in the ten or so months since last year.

"Excellent work, Huang Chong!

You’ve already pulled a gap of nearly two hundred meters on your rival with that last attack.

And the gap to Peng Yuantang ahead is now only about 30 seconds.

Pick up some more speed on the descent after the summit. Try to catch your teammate by the bottom of the hill.

Once you hit the flat section, you two can work together and take turns pulling.

Niu Yikui has no teammates left with him. There’s no way he can catch the two of you on his own."