Free Web NovelChapter 118: Chapter 100: Zero-Point Racer, Battling 2 World Tour Cyclists Alone (Part 2)
"That way, they can break away as a pair all the way to the finish, take the top two spots, and bring both Olympic slots home."
"It’s so infuriating. We all know their strategy, but our best riders just can’t keep up. We’re simply outmatched in raw power."
"Sigh, you’re telling me? All we can say is, if you’re weak, you just have to train harder. Right now, our only hope is that Huang Chong can stick with them and not get dropped on that final, difficult climb!"
...
As Huang Chong, riding solo, followed the lead group onto the 8% climb, the entire pack had been whittled down to eight cyclists from six nations.
Without a doubt, these eight were the strongest cyclists in Asia, with the exception of Lutsenko, who wasn’t present.
But in truth, before the race began, every team had done some preliminary research on the cyclists from the other participating nations.
To be honest, in the eyes of the other countries, the China Team was not considered a top contender for the championship at all.
The cyclists from other nations even had serious doubts about whether any of China’s riders could break into the top ten in the general classification.
This was especially true for Kazakhstan and Japan, the two favorites to win. They were completely baffled that Huang Chong, in his China National Team jersey, had managed to hang on this long.
According to their research, China’s strongest cyclist based on UCI point rankings should have been Lü Xianjing, followed by others like Ma Binyan and Niu Yikui.
As for who Huang Chong was?
They only looked him up after the China Team’s roster was announced and found that he had just registered with the UCI before the new year.
He had yet to participate in a single UCI-sanctioned event, had zero points to his name, and was a complete rookie.
But now, deep into the race, not only was China’s highest-ranking cyclist, Lü Xianjing, a no-show, but Ma Binyan, Niu Yikui, and the others had also been dropped, just as expected.
The only exception was this zero-point rider they knew nothing about, who was stuck firmly to their rear wheels.
And judging by the way the guy looked on the climb, he didn’t seem to be struggling too much with this 8% grade.
So, their plan to drop all the Chinese cyclists on this short climb was clearly impossible now.
In the end, after Kazakhstan sacrificed another domestique, the eight lead riders from Asia’s six strongest nations all survived the short climb at the 92km mark. They then entered a long, high-speed descent of about 4-5 kilometers together.
Huang Chong’s descending skills were now quite formidable.
But, following his personal habit to prevent anyone behind from clipping his wheel and causing a crash, he positioned himself at the very back of the group to draft and rest.
At the same time, he knew that the final showdown between the nations’ lead riders would begin immediately after this descent.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he drank his electrolyte sports drink while descending, then took out the Rapid Recovery Energy Bar the system had previously awarded him. He ate it, and the fatigue accumulated over the past hundred kilometers vanished completely.
Although this was practically no different from cheating, the lead riders from the other teams were also starting to eat their energy gels on the descent.
So, generally speaking, everyone was refueling.
It was just that his provisions were the most effective.
As the descent ended, Kazakhstan’s remaining duo, Gelber and Yevgeniy, were led by their domestiques right to the foot of the decisive climb. No longer holding back, they unleashed the terrifying power befitting World Tour Cyclists. They launched a thousand-watt-plus anaerobic attack on the short, steep 700-meter climb ahead, which boasted an 11.5% gradient.
Faced with such an explosive burst of power, even though the other lead riders were mentally prepared, only the Japanese Team veteran Arashiro Yukiya could respond instantly and latch onto the Kazakh cyclists’ wheels. And the only other one to follow was Huang Chong.
As for the other four lead riders, they only managed to hold on for about two hundred meters on this incredibly difficult climb before their faces contorted in masks of pain, forcing them to fall back.
This just showed how devastatingly lethal World Tour Cyclists were when they finally bared their fangs.
Huang Chong stuck grimly to the trio’s wheels. He didn’t need to look to know his heart rate must be over 210. He was completely at his physical limit.
At that heart rate, he could last for about 10 seconds at most.
Fortunately, the World Tour Cyclists from Kazakhstan were also mortal. Their thousand-watt attack only lasted for about 10 seconds before their speed dropped, and the assault turned into a 700-800 watt anaerobic out-of-the-saddle push.
Although it was all Zone 5 anaerobic effort, the effect of pushing out of the saddle at different power outputs was completely different.
Huang Chong had originally thought, ’I’m still one step behind. I’m about to be completely dropped by their maximum output.’ He was even preparing to grit his teeth and use his FTP Power to chase them down after this impossibly hard climb. But then he realized their thousand-watt attack could only be sustained for a short time.
So, he gritted his teeth and, relying on his powerful cardiac recovery, managed to reconnect during their 700-plus watt out-of-the-saddle push.
In contrast, Arashiro Yukiya of the Japanese Team seemed to be losing to his age, falling back slightly about 30 meters from the summit.
But after cresting the top, there was an immediate short descent. Arashiro Yukiya also gritted his teeth and, by putting out insane power on the downhill, actually managed to reconnect as well.
This made even Huang Chong, who had never held a favorable opinion of the people of Japan, feel a flicker of respect.
Putting national allegiances aside, as a fellow athlete, his incredible resilience and fighting spirit at such an advanced age were truly admirable.
