Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chapter 143: Chapter 111: Securing the Polka Dot Jersey Early, a Double Domination of Strength and Intellect

After Huang Chong initiated the attack, he had no intention of stopping before reaching the First Category Climb: Nie Jialiang, at an altitude of 3,520 meters.

But his anaerobic sprint wasn’t a kilowatt-level maximum power output right from the start.

For a distance of 150 meters, if it were a flat stage, he would have definitely sprinted all the way.

But on a difficult 6.9% climb, trying to go all out in an anaerobic sprint for such a long distance was simply too hard, and too much of a gamble.

So after seeing all the teams’ lead riders launch into an all-out attack in response to his breakaway, he decisively chose to slightly lower his power, keeping it between 700-800W, and surrendered the lead.

At the same time, he saw the leaders of the Colombia Medellin Team charge to the very front, and he quickly latched on, drafting behind them.

His goal wasn’t a single knockout blow, but to disrupt the other team leaders and preemptively shatter their plan to save their sprint for the final moments before the summit of the First Category Climb.

Among these foreign riders, although all the flat-road sprinters had been dropped on the previous climbs, the peloton still had its share of powerfully built, classic-race type cyclists.

At the Asian Championships, Huang Chong had been completely suppressed for the entire race by a classic-race cyclist from Kazakhstan, Gelber, and had lost the championship.

He knew full well the massive advantage classic-race cyclists had over GC Cyclists in sprinting ability. Having been burned once, he certainly didn’t want to just hang back with that type of rider from other teams until, say, only 80 or 50 meters were left to the First Category Climb, and then compete in a final anaerobic sprint.

So, he attacked early, using the Yellow Jersey’s natural ability to draw aggro to disrupt everyone else’s plans.

And as it turned out, the moment these foreign riders saw him in the Yellow Jersey attack early, they reacted like startled birds, decisively starting their all-out sprint from the 150-meter mark.

As a result, when there were about 30 meters left to the white line of the First Category Climb, all the riders’ speeds began to drop.

Because after a hard 120-meter push up the difficult 6.9% climb, their heart rates had basically maxed out—

And just then, as the Medellin Cyclist ahead of him lost power, Huang Chong, who had been holding back his maximum output, suddenly pulled out from behind him. He then continued to push around 700-800W, charging toward the white line that was now just within reach.

"25m—"

"15m—"

"10m—"

"5m—"

Although Huang Chong couldn’t push his anaerobic power to the kilowatt level after sprinting for 120 meters with the others, he relied on his formidable cardiopulmonary capacity to average out his entire anaerobic output over the full 150 meters.

So, when the others surged to over a kilowatt, he only used about 700-800W of anaerobic power, drafting behind them to conserve energy. Then, at the last moment, when the other riders’ heart rates completely blew up and their power dropped to three or four hundred watts, he was still pushing seven to eight hundred watts, overtaking everyone who had used their maximum output too early.

"No—no no—don’t!"

"Damn that Chinese rider, stop!!"

"Mulubrhan, hold on!!! Hold on for me, you’re almost at the finish line!!"

"No—!!!"

The Battaglin Team manager, seeing Huang Chong surge against the tide, couldn’t help but scream for his Core Commander over the radio.

But then he saw his own rider, with only about 5 meters left to the finish, still get overtaken from behind by Huang Chong, who completed the pass at the last second. The manager was so furious he almost fainted.

He slumped limply in the passenger seat of the team car, as if nothing in the world mattered anymore.

After all, their team had been working hard for a full 45 kilometers!

In the end, their Core Commander had lost the fight just 5 meters from the First Category Climb’s summit. As the team manager, of course he was furious.

Mulubrhan Henok watched Huang Chong, having beaten him, let go of the handlebars to raise his arms in celebration. His heart was filled with nothing but despair and helplessness.

He really had given it his all.

In fact, all of them, the foreign riders, had given it their all.

But the root cause was that they had lost too much time in the general classification yesterday, which left them mentally on edge today.

So, with 150 meters to go before the First Category Climb, when they saw the Yellow Jersey attack first, they didn’t even have time to think or analyze whether he could sustain that sprint to the finish. Like a school of fish startled by a thrown rock, they all began to unleash everything they had without reservation—

And by losing this climb, Mulubrhan Henok naturally knew that Huang Chong, by securing 30 climbing points, had definitively locked up the Polka Dot Jersey for the entire event.

There was no longer any need for him to contest the remaining climbs.

’At the same time, he had a sobering realization. This Chinese rider named Huang Chong wasn’t just absurdly strong individually—he had stuck to them tenaciously even as his own team and the Medellin Team worked together to wear him down. On top of that, his on-the-fly tactical adjustments were nothing short of masterful.

’If he hadn’t spooked them into attacking early at the 150-meter mark, thereby draining their energy, and it had come down to a contest of maximum power output in the last 50 meters, Huang Chong might not have won.

’So this Polka Dot Jersey, worth fifty thousand US Dollars, which Huang Chong had secured five stages early—it wasn’t just won on individual strength. It was won on intelligence and strategy, which he’d used to utterly crush all of them, the foreign riders, grinding them into the dust.

’But that’s professional road cycling.’