Free Web NovelChapter 121: Chapter 101: The 5cm That Decides Olympic Qualification (Part 2)
"Although I’m confident I can beat this kid in a Sprinting Burst, a final sprint always feels like a 50/50 toss-up.
In any case, there are still two of us. I think for the rest of the race, we can just take turns launching anaerobic attacks to constantly wear him down.
The goal is to completely drain his energy before the finish line."
As the rookie and junior partner, Yevgeniy, despite his boundless potential, certainly wouldn’t dare to object.
Besides, the senior rider was their team’s primary hope for victory, so he immediately replied:
"Okay, Gelber. We’ll do it your way.
So, we’ll take turns launching solo breakaways and see how our opponent reacts.
It works out, since I’m not good at flat-ground sprints. If the Chinese cyclist drags it out to the end, I’m not confident I can win the race either.
Our mission is to bring home two Olympic spots. Losing even one would be a colossal failure!"
Huang Chong, riding right behind the duo, could of course see them whispering to each other.
But he couldn’t understand a single word they were saying.
Forget Kazakh; he wouldn’t have understood them even if they were speaking English.
This was the tragic reality for a student from an average university.
During his undergraduate years, he had only managed to pass the basic English proficiency exam required for his degree, and it had taken him three attempts just to scrape by so he could graduate.
But at this stage of the race, even if he could understand their tactics and strategy, there was nothing he could do about it.
Because it was obvious they wouldn’t let him ride peacefully with them all the way to a final sprint.
Never mind that they clearly looked down on a Chinese cyclist like him. As World Tour Cyclists, their pride was at stake. If they couldn’t even drop an obscure rider—a complete nobody who’d never even competed in a single UCI event—before the finish line, they’d almost certainly be scorned by their fellow countrymen on the team.
And just as Huang Chong predicted, as the descent ended and they hit the final stretch of rolling hills with gradients of only around 2%, Yevgeniy, who was leading at the front, glanced back at Huang Chong. Without a second thought, he decisively launched an out-of-the-saddle attack on the gentle climb.
Seeing the attack come from Yevgeniy—the ITT champion who, despite being over 190cm tall, had a build similar to his own—Huang Chong knew he had no other choice.
He immediately jumped, surging past Gelber and quickly latching onto Yevgeniy’s wheel to counter the breakaway attempt.
’Huang Chong wasn’t stupid. Compared to the muscular sprinter, Gelber, Yevgeniy’s peak explosive power was clearly inferior to his senior teammate’s. Plus, during their earlier series of anaerobic attacks, it was only Gelber’s move that had almost dropped him.’
’When Yevgeniy attacked, Huang Chong had specifically checked his bike computer and saw that the Kazakh’s peak power was only around 1100W, about the same as his own. So his only hope was to hang on until the very end and beat them in a final sprint. As long as he wasn’t dropped beforehand, he had a chance to snatch one of the direct qualification spots for the Olympics.’
’As for trying to counter-attack with a solo breakaway of his own, using his FTP Power to stay away until the end and take the championship—that was pure fantasy.’
’His FTP Power of 367W might be dominant in China, but at the World Tour Level, it was really just entry-level.’
They were now less than 40 km from the finish, and with their current aggressive pace averaging a staggering 52 km/h, they would reach the end in well under an hour.
The two riders from Kazakhstan could definitely hold an average power of 367W for that short amount of time.
Yevgeniy was furiously rocking his bike out of the saddle on the gentle climb, but just as Huang Chong had analyzed, his strength lay in steady lactate threshold endurance riding.
That was why his ITT and climbing abilities were so strong.
But short-distance Sprinting Bursts were his weakness.
After attacking out of the saddle for a few hundred meters, he was somewhat frustrated to find Huang Chong easily glued to his wheel.
’He could feel that on this Asian Championships course, this Chinese cyclist’s level was very close to his own. As for how the other rider would perform on the much harder high-mountain stages of the Grand Tours, with their brutally steep climbs of 18, 20, or even 24% gradients, he couldn’t say for now.’
In any case, once they reached the flat section, Yevgeniy knew it would be impossible to drop Huang Chong with a solo breakaway.
So he had no choice but to slow his pace and wait for his senior teammate to catch up.
The three riders regrouped, but Gelber gave Huang Chong no time to rest, immediately launching another attack.
His power out of the saddle was far greater than Yevgeniy’s, exploding with a peak output of over 1300W, nearing 1400W.
It was even a notch above that of the pure sprinter, Brother Xiaoma.
And yet, Gelber was a Classics rider, not a pure sprinter.
This showed that the gap between the World Tour and China’s domestic leagues was like the difference between the NBA and the CBA.
Many players who can no longer make it in the NBA can still come to the CBA and put up monster stats.
Similarly, many cyclists retired from the World Tour are now signed by domestic Intercontinental Teams to serve as their Core Commanders.
All in all, as a rising force in the sport of road cycling, the China Team certainly had a huge amount of room to grow.
Seeing Gelber launch his attack, Huang Chong still had no other choice but to respond in kind.
’It was still too far to the finish. If he chose to give up the chase now, it would be the same as handing the championship over to them on a silver platter.’
