Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 98: Securing the Overall Results, Heading to the Asian Championships
The entire team was undoubtedly thrilled that Huang Chong had won three jerseys in his very first race after transitioning from the domestic league to the much tougher professional league.
A leader’s jersey didn’t just represent a cyclist’s versatility across different terrains and courses; it was also directly linked to league points and even prize money.
In the professional league, each stage had a prize pool of 100,000 yuan.
By winning three jerseys, Huang Chong alone would take home the lion’s share of the prize money.
This was even more than the prize money he’d earned for winning two gold medals at the Mang City Station.
Moreover, the professional league prize money was awarded directly by the General Administration of Sport and was tax-exempt, just like the National Championships.
After giving the team a small percentage as a bonus, the vast majority would go directly into Huang Chong’s personal account.
So, after just two races this year, his income—including his team salary and the Athletic Champion stipend from the provincial team—had already surpassed 100,000 yuan.
It just went to show that even in a niche, unpopular sport like road cycling, you could still make a living—if you could win championships and become one of the very top riders.
Of course, there could only be one winner, and it was impossible for Huang Chong to win every single stage.
On purely flat stages, for instance, the Intercontinental Teams were packed with experts.
Especially the foreign cyclists—many of them were professional sprinters.
Without a climb difficult enough to weed out these sprinters ahead of time, Huang Chong could only watch helplessly if it came down to an explosive final sprint.
"You’re a beast, Huang Chong! At this point, I doubt anyone in the country can out-climb you in a race with a tough ascent."
"Seriously, the kid’s a monster on the climbs!"
"I heard from Coach Li that on that long 6.2% gradient, your average attack speed hit over 30 km/h, and you dropped your rival by more than 200 meters before the summit. Is that for real?"
"That’s terrifying. Hitting an average speed of over 30 on a steep climb... Are you even human?"
...
After the race, on the team bus rushing to the next venue in Luoning County, his teammates started showering Huang Chong with praise.
One teammate even squeezed Huang Chong’s thighs and, finding them hard as iron, was instantly filled with awe.
Based on physique alone, Huang Chong was no brawny giant, nor was he a typical muscle man.
He was on the leaner side, and at nearly 1.8 meters tall, he looked quite slender.
Aside from his standard Asian face and the typical features of his Han Ethnicity—black hair, dark eyes, and skin tone—his build didn’t seem Asian at all. In fact, he looked more European.
"Hey, pretty boy, how is your physique even more ripped than Pogačar’s?
And your muscle definition... isn’t it a little too off the charts?"
As everyone was teasing Huang Chong, Brother Xiaoma came over and gave his muscles a squeeze.
As a sprinter, his own muscles were certainly well-developed.
He had achieved his current physique only through specialized muscle training.
But he found that Huang Chong’s muscle definition was exactly the kind he’d dreamed of, the kind he’d always wanted to build for himself.
The muscles were prominent right where they needed to be.
And in the areas where there shouldn’t be any—like the transitions between muscle groups—there wasn’t an ounce of fat.
This made one thing abundantly clear: Huang Chong’s body fat percentage was incredibly low, and his specialized muscle training had reached a level of perfection.
This made Brother Xiaoma intensely jealous. At the same time, he couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. ’He must have gone through so much specialized training and endured so much hardship to become a GC Cyclist.’
’No wonder he had the strength to crush the competition right from his debut,’ he thought. ’It must all be the result of hard work that no one else sees—’
If Huang Chong knew what Brother Xiaoma was thinking, he would have blushed for sure.
’Because this ’supermodel’ body of mine isn’t natural, and it certainly wasn’t built entirely through training.’
’Just last year, in early July, I was a chubby kid of 165 pounds, all soft and flabby.’
’Although I certainly trained hard after joining the provincial team under Chen Junyi’s strict supervision, my now-perfect musculature and top-tier cardiovascular abilities are ultimately thanks to my ’cheat’.’
Of course, he had nothing to say on the matter, so he just used Chen Junyi as a shield, giving her all the credit.
After all, she was his dedicated coach and was currently in charge of his daily training.
Every day, she was either following him in the team car during his outdoor sessions to log data, or she was arranging his weight-lifting and indoor trainer sessions, continuing to collect his personal stats.
About three hours later, the bus arrived smoothly at the venue for the second stop of the professional league: Luoning County.
Compared to the course at the Jiyuan Station, the Luoning County stage was more straightforward and brutal.
The race started at the county’s Shangyi Square, followed a route along Provincial Highway 244, National Highway 241, Provincial Highway 249, Masha Road, Hushang Road, Tongxin Road, Cangjie Bridge, and Xinning Avenue, before returning to Shangyi Square for the finish.
The Luoning Station was also a circuit race. Like the one in Jiyuan, it consisted of three laps, but the total distance was longer, coming in at 197.4 km, with each lap being 65.8 km.
The course also featured two Category 2 climbs (in the Tour de France, a Category 2 climb has an average gradient of about 4-8% over a distance of 5-10 kilometers) and two intermediate sprint points.
This made its overall difficulty somewhat higher than the Jiyuan Station.
In any case, after looking at the race’s distance and elevation profile, even Huang Chong did a quick mental calculation. ’It’ll take at least five hours to finish this,’ he thought.
