Free Web NovelChapter 141: Chapter 110: A Full 45km Struggle, All for the Polka Dot Jersey
[Name: Huang Chong]
[Nationality: China]
[Gender: Male]
[Date of Birth: October 10, 2000]
[Personal Race History:
China National Road Cycling Championships: Road Race Champion, ITT Champion, 9th in Team Time Trial
China Road Cycling League, Mang City Station: Road Race Champion, ITT Champion, 8th in Criterium, 7th in Team Time Trial
China Professional Road Cycling League, Jiyuan Station: Champion
China Professional Road Cycling League, Luoning Station: Champion
China National Road Cycling Championships: Road Race Champion, ITT Champion
Asian Road Cycling Championships: Runner-up
China Professional Road Cycling League, Wenzhou Station: Road Race Champion]
...
On the evening after the Doba-Guide stage ended, nearly every team that had come to Qinghai from all over the world to compete had received Huang Chong’s personal information, along with his complete race history from his career in China.
「Italy Bardiani Team Operations.」
The team manager looked at the performance summary for Huang Chong that the sporting director had brought him, his hairy hand trembling slightly.
He looked at his team members, including the sporting director, took a deep breath, and asked in a low voice:
"Let’s hear it. What do you all make of this Chinese cyclist, Huang Chong?"
The moment he asked the question, the sporting director and the cyclists present were all taken aback.
’It’s all written out plainly in the file, so why is he asking the obvious?’
But the sporting director thought for a moment, then replied with a serious expression:
"Manager, I think this Chinese cyclist—
Emmm, it’s obvious he has strong legs. After all, the number of championships doesn’t lie, even if they were all races held within China.
And based on his race history, he’s also extremely good at time trials.
He’s clearly a very well-rounded and outstanding GC Cyclist."
"So all of us teams from Europe, and even America, knowing nothing of his strength beforehand, paid a terrible price in today’s stage!"
The Bardiani team manager chuckled darkly and snorted.
"Five minutes and twenty-four seconds!
Right now, in the general classification, he’s a full five minutes and twenty-four seconds ahead of our team’s top riders, Zanoncello Enrico and Mulubrhan Henok.
In a single stage today, our Core Commanders fell behind by that much time.
Can anyone tell me how we’re supposed to catch him in the next six days of racing?"
At these words, the entire room fell silent.
The sporting director is a senior manager on the team, normally responsible for summarizing and providing rider information, as well as managing the team’s overall operations.
The team manager, however, is the real boss of the team, second only to the team owner and shareholders.
Faced with this accusation, the sporting director knew, of course, that the manager meant to blame him.
After all, he had only just now managed to look up Huang Chong’s information, and had failed to compile a profile on him before the race.
Strictly speaking, this was a dereliction of his duty.
It’s just that, in his view, this whole situation had come out of nowhere.
’A Chinese cyclist actually managed to drop the Core Commanders of a Professional Team like ours by nearly five and a half minutes in a single stage?’
’This is just too absurd!’
’As far as he recalled, China didn’t even have a single Professional Team.’
He had, in fact, prepared and submitted files to the team manager on all the foreign riders hired by the Chinese Intercontinental Teams.
But this whole mess just had to happen with a homegrown Chinese cyclist.
And he hadn’t looked up the historical data for any of the Chinese cyclists.
Simply because, in his subconscious, he believed the Chinese were no threat at all.
Based on his experience from the past few years of racing, the Bardiani sporting director knew well that Chinese cyclists were no threat to the general classification in a multi-day race. In fact, few of them could even finish the tour successfully.
Usually, in the first few stages of the race, they might fight for a top-five finish to see if they could snatch some UCI points.
Once the race was past the halfway point, it was basically all about the participation trophy for them.
But he never expected that in this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake, a GC Cyclist this top-tier in every aspect—perhaps only slightly lacking in flat-road sprints—would appear out of nowhere and catch them completely off guard.
Seeing that the sporting director didn’t dare answer the team manager, the team’s black star rider and best hope for the overall championship, Mulubrhan Henok, finally spoke up to help:
"Manager, I think it’s too early to be so pessimistic.
This rider, Huang Chong, certainly has a lot of wins, and his only runner-up title was at the Asian Championships, but he is an Oriental, after all.
The races he won before were also mostly single-day events.
The Tour of Qinghai Lake is an eight-day race, and tomorrow is a massive mountain stage with 3,761 meters of total climbing.
You know as well as I do, even in Europe, that much climbing would be considered a high-difficulty stage.
Given the physique of a Chinese person, he must have burned a massive amount of energy to win today’s stage.
Can he really hold on again tomorrow?
I have my doubts.
If his stamina doesn’t recover, and he gets dropped on tomorrow’s stage or any stage after that—if he can pull five and a half minutes on us, we can certainly get it back!"
"Excellent, Mulubrhan. That’s exactly what I was waiting to hear!"
The team manager said, his tone seemingly appreciative, but in reality, it was a cold sneer:
"As long as we don’t give up, there’s always a chance, right?
Everyone, you’d better give it your all. If we, a Professional Team, end up losing to a Chinese rider, how are we going to explain ourselves to the owner and the shareholders when we get back?
