Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chapter 122: Chapter 101: The Decisive 5cm for Direct Olympic Qualification (Part 3)

He knew full well that once Gelber broke away, he’d never be able to catch him.

Yevgeniy would surely control the pace and hold him back, allowing his teammate to safely break away and claim the championship.

And once Gelber won the championship, he would be left to contend with Yevgeniy for second place.

In the eyes of the Kazakhstan riders, a sprint between them was a 50-50 toss-up.

And Huang Chong saw it the same way.

He couldn’t guarantee he could beat Yevgeniy—who wasn’t a specialist sprinter—one hundred percent of the time.

After all, the man was an ITT champion and a World Tour Cyclist. ’Who knows if he was hiding his true strength during the previous attacks?’

That’s how sprints were. No one knew the outcome until the very last moment.

After Huang Chong began his pursuit, he could clearly feel that his own maximum power output was no match for Gelber’s.

So even though he responded, Gelber immediately pulled away, opening up a gap.

The hearts of cycling fans around the world leaped into their throats:

’Is this Chinese cyclist not going to make it after all?’

’And look at how his opponent is pulling further away—is he going to blow up before the finish?’

These two questions surfaced in the minds of every fan.

But after the anaerobic attack ended, Huang Chong found himself over a hundred meters behind Gelber, yet over a hundred meters ahead of Yevgeniy. He was completely sandwiched between them. Steeling himself, he quickly took a couple of gulps from his electrolyte sports drink, then locked in at the maximum FTP Power indicated by his system and began to chase down Gelber.

So, while he couldn’t match his opponent’s explosive burst, he relied on his precise power control. With the desperate persistence of someone who had thrown all caution to the wind, he actually managed to close the gap on Gelber, inch by inch, using his cruising speed.

Watching this, Coach Han’s eyes filled with hot tears, and his entire body trembled.

’To have a warrior like this, what more could one ask for?’

Gelber was stunned when Huang Chong caught up to him using only his cruising speed.

’This guy’s resilience is terrifying!’

He’d already launched so many anaerobic attacks that the lactic acid in his body had reached an extremely high level; 360W was the most he could currently sustain at his threshold.

If he pushed recklessly, he might blow up before the finish line—

’But how did this Chinese cyclist manage to catch up to me using just his cruising speed?’

’It’s simply incomprehensible!’

But there was nothing to be done. Since he’d been caught, his only option was to slow the pace and wait for his teammate, Yevgeniy, to catch up.

By the time the three of them were grouped together again, they were only about 5KM from the finish line.

A gentle, -1% descent appeared before them.

The two cyclists from Kazakhstan continued to lead the pace on the gentle descent.

They knew Huang Chong wouldn’t come up to take a turn at the front.

So they ramped up the speed to over 55 km/h, but the man from China still managed to stick to their wheels.

The trio rode on like this, with no one launching an attack. Then, with only 500 meters left, a briefly rested Gelber launched another anaerobic attack.

Huang Chong watched Gelber instantly pull away at over 60 km/h and desperately wanted to give chase.

But after being worn down by the repeated efforts of the other two, he no longer had the strength to respond.

After all, the system-rewarded Energy Bar could only be used once a day; using a second one wouldn’t provide any additional energy.

Besides, even if he had been able to respond, he knew in his heart that he couldn’t catch Gelber, whose peak explosive power was simply greater than his own.

After this direct confrontation with the World Tour Cyclists, he knew he had lost the championship because, in the end, he was just a step behind in terms of raw power.

If his FTP had been 380W, or even 400W, he might have been able to drop both World Tour Cyclists on the earlier series of climbs. There would have been no need for a sprint at all.

But an FTP of just 367W wasn’t enough to defeat Gelber.

In the end, Gelber successfully broke away with his sudden attack in the final 500 meters and won the Asian Championships title.

However, after Gelber broke away, Huang Chong rode alongside Yevgeniy until they were just 200 meters from the finish. He remained glued to his opponent’s wheel.

Yevgeniy, riding at the front, pushed the pace while constantly glancing back at Huang Chong.

In a sprint to the finish, the person leading is inherently at a disadvantage.

They never know when the rider behind them will suddenly launch their attack.

So he was looking back almost every second, preparing to wait until the final 100 meters before launching his own all-out sprint.

However, with 120 meters to go, in the split second that Yevgeniy glanced back at Huang Chong and started to turn his head forward again, Huang Chong—his reflexes sharpened by the Cognitive Enhancement Agent he’d taken on Taizi Peak—seized the opportunity. Exploiting that momentary blind spot, he decisively got out of the saddle and launched his attack. Pumping out nearly 1200W of power, he shot out from behind his rival and sprinted madly for the finish line.

Yevgeniy reacted the instant he saw Huang Chong pass him, immediately getting out of the saddle to give chase.

But since Huang Chong had caught him by surprise and gained a 20-meter head start, and with their power outputs being so similar, Yevgeniy could only grit his teeth and hold Huang Chong’s wheel for the first eighty or ninety meters of the chase. He couldn’t manage to overtake.

Not until the final 30 meters, when Huang Chong’s peak power began to drop noticeably, did Yevgeniy start to close the gap from the side, inch by inch.

However, was it really possible to close an entire bike-length gap in a mere 30 meters?

At the last second, their front wheels crossed the finish line at almost the exact same time.

Everyone who witnessed this held their breath.

The gap between Huang Chong and Yevgeniy was impossible to discern with the naked eye.

Even Huang Chong and Yevgeniy themselves, the ones in the sprint, didn’t know who had crossed the line first.

The gap as they crossed the line was just too small!

But then, the race officials promptly displayed the image from the photo-finish camera. Huang Chong, so exhausted he could barely stand, saw to his astonishment that his front wheel was about 5 cm ahead of his rival’s, pressed against the white finish line.

He had pipped Yevgeniy at the line to take second place in the Asian Championships!!

And this meant that although he hadn’t won the championship, he had secured an incredibly precious, direct Olympic qualification spot for the China Team!!

Seeing this, Coach Han, who was in front of the TV, let out a huge roar, releasing all his pent-up tension. The sudden outburst startled Chen Junyi, who was beside him, making her jump.

And near the finish line arch, the members of the women’s team—who had already finished their own events and come specifically to cheer on the men—erupted in rapturous cheers the moment they saw Huang Chong clinch second place.

They rushed forward to support Huang Chong, who was so exhausted he was on the verge of collapsing.

Only Yevgeniy, the loser of the sprint, lowered his head in anguish, gasping for air as his heart hammered against his ribs.