Free Web NovelChapter 140: Chapter 109: Three Jerseys in One Again, an Overwhelming Victory (Part 2)
"Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. This speed is completely within the range I can control now!"
Huang Chong, who had once been reborn after plunging off a cliff, had long forgotten the feeling of that moment.
He hadn’t experienced the pain of being smashed to pieces before his rebirth, either.
He only knew that now, whether it was his Car Control Techniques or his cornering ability, he had far surpassed his past self.
And he was closing in on the level of the world’s top cyclists.
In the nearly one year she had spent with Huang Chong, Chen Junyi had long known that beneath his sunny, easygoing, and cheerful personality, there was a will as firm as the magnificent, imposing mountains of the Qinghai Plateau.
So, in Huang Chong’s tone, she heard the gentleness and reassurance meant for her, but also the confidence and pride in his own abilities.
She wasn’t the type of sheltered girl who easily worried or fretted, so she didn’t say anything more. She simply let out a long breath to relieve her intense nervousness, then turned her attention back to the race and continued to give Huang Chong updates:
"It’s good that you know what you’re doing.
The rider closest to you now is Sinschek Nils of the Dutch ABLOC CT Team. He’s working with the Norwegian rider to chase you.
However, the time gap between you is already 4 minutes and 3 seconds.
If you can maintain this huge lead and be the first to cross the finish line, you’ll not only win the Polka Dot Jersey for climbing, but also temporarily wear the Yellow Jersey for the overall lead, as well as the blue jersey for the best Asian rider!"
Huang Chong now knew that the Tour of Qinghai Lake also only had four leader’s jerseys, not the five he had initially read about online.
The difference was that, unlike the World Tour’s White Jersey, the Tour of Qinghai had a blue jersey, and it was only awarded to the best-placed Asian rider.
But regardless of the color of the leader’s jerseys at the Tour of Qinghai Lake, Huang Chong’s attack today, and the stage result he was about to achieve, was a monumental feat never before accomplished by a Chinese cyclist.
Because while competing against five Pro teams, he had not only beaten all the other riders but would also wear three leader’s jerseys simultaneously.
The finish arch, set up in Guiding County Town, was getting closer and closer.
After entering the flat county roads, Huang Chong pressed on, and the riders from the other teams were no longer visible behind him.
The Guide Yellow River Bridge appeared before him once again.
The tall, soaring cables on both sides looked like a celestial gate standing over the mother river, welcoming his arrival and heralding his triumphant return.
Huang Chong rode onto the steel bridge, empty except for the race official’s car leading the way, his gaze drifting to the waters of the Yellow River on the side.
The water was still so calm and gentle, like a giant, deep-blue silk ribbon laid across the vast, profound plateau lands of Guiding County.
Finally, after crossing the Yellow River Bridge, Huang Chong entered the center of the county town and was the first to charge through the victory arch at the race finish.
On both sides of the road at the finish line, dense crowds of local residents from Guiding County had gathered, waiting for the champion to arrive.
As an international road cycling race that had been held twenty-one times and was now in its twenty-second year, the Tour of Qinghai Lake had long taught the people of Guiding County how to watch, appreciate, and love the sport.
Among them were Tibetans, Hui, Tu, Salar, and Han—
but regardless of their ethnicity, when they saw that the first rider approaching the finish line was wearing the kit of the China National Team, they unstintingly offered Huang Chong their most fervent applause and cheers.
At the same time, a young Tibetan woman came forward to present the stage winner with a snow-white Hada, a gesture of blessing and congratulations.
A full four and a half minutes after Huang Chong reached the finish, the Dutch rider Sinschek Nils, who took second on the stage, finally crossed the line.
After him was the Norwegian rider Stensby Anton, who lost the sprint for second place and finished three seconds later.
These two foreign riders, whose slipstream Huang Chong had drafted off of during the initial breakaway, had managed to stay away together until the end, and were not caught by the main group or the climbers from the Medellin and Bardiani teams.
But compared to Huang Chong’s finishing time of 3:03:56, Sinschek Nils’s time was 3:08:24.
With the 10-second time bonus for first place and the 6-second bonus for second, Huang Chong’s lead over Sinschek Nils after this stage grew to a full 4 minutes and 34 seconds.
After all the riders had finished, at the awards ceremony, Huang Chong not only received the win for the second stage but had also claimed three leader’s jerseys in this single stage:
the Yellow Jersey for the overall lead, the Polka Dot Jersey for the King of the Mountains, and the blue jersey for the Best Asian Rider.
However, since a rider cannot wear three leader’s jerseys at once, he would only wear the overall leader’s Yellow Jersey in tomorrow’s third stage.
The Polka Dot Jersey would be passed down to the Norwegian rider Stensby Anton, who was the second to cross the Laji Mountain summit today.
As for the blue jersey, it would be worn by the Huaxing rider Lü Xianjing, who was the second Asian rider to finish the stage and placed fifth overall.
It had to be said, based on the performances so far in this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake, the Chinese riders were doing exceptionally well.
Not only had Huang Chong won the stage, taken the overall lead, and earned 20 points for the stage win plus 10 climbing points, but Lü Xianjing and Jiang Zhihui, who finished fourth in the first stage, had also secured UCI points.
This was undoubtedly a massive boost for the nation’s chances of locking in a top-45 world ranking for its national points total.
「That evening.」
Huang Chong, winner of three jerseys in one, was naturally showered with praise and flattery by his teammates.
As a Chinese rider who could win a UCI Pro-level race with a solo victory and open up such a huge gap in the general classification, he had undoubtedly given everyone a huge confidence boost.
Who said Chinese riders weren’t good at climbing?
Huang Chong had just shattered the stereotype the West had about them.
In fact, not only was his climbing ridiculously strong, but his descending skill was on another level entirely.
To be able to extend his lead with a solo descent, even against a group of riders working together—what kind of Car Control Techniques and cornering ability did that require?
"Tomorrow’s mountain stage will be extremely difficult. Although Huang Chong won today, the main challenge now is how to defend the lead he has.
His result today was certainly stunning, but it’s possible the Pro teams just didn’t react in time because they didn’t know enough about him.
But after today’s race, every team will definitely be looking up his record and devising specific tactics to try and take back the overall lead.
So for our upcoming tactics, especially for tomorrow’s stage, we can’t stick to our original plan of just being here to learn. Everyone needs to contribute and do their utmost to lead out for Huang Chong on the First Category Climb at the start of the race, acting as his domestiques!
As long as we can get through the First Category Climb smoothly, even if you all get dropped one by one later on, it will be much easier for Huang Chong to follow the other teams on his own."
After dinner, while all the riders were getting their muscles relaxed and soothed by professional masseurs, Coach Han came over specifically to lay out the tactical plan for tomorrow.
For the members of the National Team he was leading—a team assembled on short notice—the strategy was now crystal clear: protect Huang Chong at all costs.
Even though Coach Han knew full well that given the intensity of tomorrow’s race, almost everyone would get dropped, it was just as he said: as long as they could work together to lead out for Huang Chong and prevent him from losing all his support riders too early, it would still be beneficial.
And as they were discussing their plan for stage three, the other teams with a chance to challenge for the overall winner’s Yellow Jersey were also busy devising their own tactics.
But before any team could formulate a strategy, they all faced one urgent question that needed an answer: they had to investigate the complete race history and personal information of this Chinese rider named Huang Chong.
