Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chapter 150: Chapter 114: Sweeping Three Stage Wins to Take the Crown and Millions in Prize Money

Mulubrhan Henok had been watching Huang Chong’s every move. The moment Huang Chong stood up, Henok also rose from the saddle of his Drosha War Chariot.

But he had assumed Huang Chong would once again attack with an anaerobic burst of 700-800W. After trying to keep pace for a few pedal strokes, he found his thighs had instantly turned hard as concrete, as if they were filled with cement.

"1100W? My God, how is that possible?"

Mulubrhan Henok glanced at his bike computer in horror. The numbers were correct. He knew that after being dragged into three consecutive anaerobic attacks by Huang Chong, his body was flooded with lactic acid, and his heart rate had red-lined.

With no other choice, and less than a kilometer from the summit of the Deep Mountain, he finally gave up the chase, watching as Huang Chong sped away and disappeared into the distance on the final 8.2% gradient.

"Five seconds—"

"Ten seconds—"

"Twenty-five seconds—"

"Thirty-seven seconds—"

Chen Junyi watched the live broadcast, where the officials displayed the real-time gap calculated from the riders’ current speeds. She relayed the numbers to a gasping Huang Chong, who was also on the verge of blowing up, and couldn’t help but clench her fists.

She always made this small gesture unconsciously whenever she got nervous.

But when she finally saw Huang Chong, his face a mask of pain, cross the last First Category Climb first with a 37-second lead, she let out a huge sigh of relief.

Seeing this, she knew Huang Chong had sealed the victory.

The rest of the route, from the 85.5km mark to the finish line at 127.25km in Gonghe County, was almost all downhill. Aside from a 1.2km, 6.3% Third Category Climb at the 108km mark, it would be a complete solo performance for Huang Chong.

Just how ferocious was Huang Chong’s descending skill on a solo breakaway after dropping everyone?

Chen Junyi had seen it countless times in this year’s races.

The most recent example was the second stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake.

"Huang Chong, you’re way out in front now!!

You’ve put about a minute into Mulubrhan Henok from the Bardiani Team!!

Your overall lead on him is now more than six minutes.

Tomorrow, as long as you ride safely in the main group to Chaka Salt Lake, you’ll be the first Chinese cyclist to win the overall title in a UCI Pro-level multi-day race.

And you’ve already won three stages in this event!!"

After Huang Chong passed the final Third Category Climb at the 108km mark, Chen Junyi’s voice trembled with excitement.

In truth, ever since the Tour of Qinghai Lake began, she had been far less calm than she appeared.

Especially after Huang Chong established an early lead, the European teams had been frantically increasing the pace in the subsequent stages, looking like they were trying to drop him head-on.

She had been terrified that Huang Chong wouldn’t be able to hold on during one of the stages or climbs.

The race had been going on for seven days. On day one, there were 154 riders. By the start today, only 113 remained.

With such a high DNF rate, most of whom were local riders, how could Chen Junyi not worry about Huang Chong’s physical condition?

But fortunately, his hard work had paid off, and now the dust had settled.

He had not only successfully withstood the counterattacks from all the foreign teams but had also beaten the strongest foreign GC Cyclist head-to-head on the last difficult climb where the tables could have been turned, winning another stage.

Huang Chong heard the slight tremor in Chen Junyi’s voice over the radio and knew she must be thrilled. But the race wasn’t over yet, and she was clearly trying her best to control her emotions so as not to affect him.

He, too, never liked to bring personal emotions onto the race course.

In a high-speed sport like road cycling, a moment’s distraction, especially on a descent, could be fatal. So he simply replied with a terse "Mm" and focused all his energy on the final long descent.

In the end, without any surprises, after successfully dropping Mulubrhan Henok in the last kilometer of the First Category Climb on stage seven, he relied on his world-class descending skills to solo all the way to the finish line.

With the conclusion of this stage, having won three stages and multiple climbing points, his current UCI points had reached 116.

Adding the 200 UCI points for winning the overall Yellow Jersey, his final points total for this Tour of Qinghai could be locked in at 316 ahead of time.

In any case, Huang Chong had no intention of attacking on the final stage tomorrow. Just as Chen Junyi had said, he just needed to finish the race safely.

「July 16th.」

The Tour of Qinghai Lake International Road Cycling Race entered its final day of competition: the Gonghe - Chaka Sky One Scenic Area stage.

Although this was a hilly stage with rolling terrain, the entire route only had one categorized climb: a Fourth Category Climb at the 36.5km mark.

The other three were intermediate sprint points.

Perhaps it was because Huang Chong had thoroughly dropped Mulubrhan Henok head-on in yesterday’s race, earning the complete respect of the foreign riders.

As a result, even though today’s race was 200.27km long, aside from a frantic effort for the final sprint, no riders launched any fierce attacks during the stage, and the overall cruising speed was not fast.

Huang Chong finished safely in the peloton, successfully clinching the overall championship of this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake.

At the same time, he also swept the Polka Dot Jersey for King of the Mountains and the blue jersey for Best Rider.

This meant that in prize money for the honorary jerseys, he alone would take home 200,000 US Dollars (100,000 + 50,000 + 50,000).

In addition to that, each of his three stage wins came with an extra prize of 10,000 US Dollars, for a total of 30,000 US Dollars.

On top of that, each first-place finish at a climbing point was worth 200 US Dollars. He had taken eight of them, adding another 1,600 US Dollars.

So, from this one competition, in addition to 316 UCI points, he had also won a massive 231,600 US Dollars in prize money!

After taxes, and considering the exchange rate for the US Dollar, the prize money from this single race still amounted to over a million yuan.

Of course, from a national perspective, his prize money was peanuts. The 316 UCI points he earned were far more important.

Thanks to his huge points haul, combined with the 200 points from the Asian Championships and the scattered points earned by other local riders, China’s total national points ranking had now entered the world’s top 40.

As long as they could maintain this ranking until the end of the road cycling season in October-November this year, China would secure another spot for the road cycling event at next year’s Paris Olympic Games based on its points ranking.

For Coach Han, this was undoubtedly the ultimate goal.

...

"Fucking awesome, Huang Chong! The overall champion of the Tour of Qinghai Lake! You’re so fucking awesome!!"

"Quick, let me borrow your champion’s trophy for a picture! I want to tell my mom I played a part in the first overall victory for a Chinese rider in a ProSeries race!!"

"Get outta here! You only lasted three stages before you DNF’d, and you have the nerve to take credit? I held on for five stages before I had to DNF. If we’re talking about contributing to the championship, my contribution was way bigger than yours!"

...

After all the races were over, the National Team bus took Huang Chong and the others back to where the race had started: the National High Altitude Training Base in Doba Town.

Because Huang Chong had unexpectedly won the overall championship with a crushing advantage, successfully keeping the champion’s trophy and gold medal within the country’s borders, the General Administration specially approved a victory banquet to be held that very night for him and the entire National Team.

The dinner was a magnificent feast, as lavish as a Tibetan New Year celebration.

Top-quality, safety-inspected beef and mutton from the local Qinghai area were brought to the tables in basins.

Huang Chong was truly exhausted from the race, so with Chen Junyi’s "special permission," he let loose and ate his fill tonight.

Of course, as National Team athletes, they weren’t allowed to drink alcohol. They could only have local milk or orange juice.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, his teammates clamored to take photos with his trophy, and even with him. He naturally didn’t refuse anyone, graciously obliging every request.

After dinner, he and his teammates even went into the city to relax, and he generously bought souvenirs and gifts for all the National Team members.

But just as Huang Chong was about to buy a gift for Chen Junyi, he suddenly received a call from Coach Han. He could hear the excitement in the coach’s voice over the phone:

"Huang Chong, where are you right now? Get back to the base, quick.

The team managers from a Professional Team in Italy and another in Spain just came to the base to find me. They said they want to invite you to join their teams, to represent them in more UCI events in Europe.

I was wondering if you might be interested?"