Chapter 157: Chapter 117: Arrival of Asia’s Strongest Rider and Two-Time Asian Games ITT Champion
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On the evening of October 1st, the day Huang Chong and Chen Junyi returned to Hangcheng, the airport was unbelievably bustling.
It was already the National Day holiday, and with the Asian Games being held on top of that, Hangcheng was absolutely overflowing with people.
If it hadn’t been for their access to a special corridor, they would have been stuck in traffic for ages just trying to leave the airport.
Even in the Asian Games’ co-host cities like Ningbo, Wenzhou, and Shaoxing, hotel bookings had skyrocketed by more than five times compared to previous years.
This was the first large-scale gathering of the post-mask era.
Although Huang Chong had long since taken a system-assisted medicine that made him immune to viral infections, he and Chen Junyi still dutifully wore their masks and returned safely to the National Team’s temporary base.
The National Team’s head coach, Coach Han, personally met with him. When he saw how weathered Huang Chong looked after training at high altitude for so long, his eyes filled with concern and sympathy.
Huang Chong had once been a handsome and sunny young man, but now his face was flushed red and his skin had coarsened. It would surely take a while for him to return to his former appearance.
"You’ve worked hard, Huang Chong. To prepare for the Asian Games, you stayed on the plateau to endure difficult training ever since the Tour of Qinghai Lake ended.
I won’t say more for now. You just came down from the plateau, so hurry up and get something to eat with Xiaochen, then go straight to your room and rest.
Don’t worry about anything today. Just focus on recovering. Everything else can wait until tomorrow!"
In truth, Huang Chong and Chen Junyi both felt fine physically.
After all, Doba is only a little over 2,000 meters above sea level. Upon returning to Hangcheng, Chen Junyi felt no discomfort or symptoms of oxygen intoxication.
She usually participated in daily training with Huang Chong, so she was in excellent physical condition.
However, they had worked with Coach Han for a long time and knew his personality, so they didn’t refuse his kind gesture. A staff member led them to dinner, after which they returned to their rooms to rest.
The next day, they finally met the teammates they would be competing alongside and began training together.
Huang Chong was already very familiar with Lü Xianjing and Niu Yikui, two of the nation’s top cyclists, from the Tour of Qinghai Lake competition.
Back then, his own teammates had been dropped or had withdrawn from the race early on. If not for the two of them, along with the Huaxing Team and the Li Ning Star Team, giving him a draft, it wouldn’t have been nearly as easy for him to win the championship.
Thus, having raced alongside each other, they had become good friends.
They made small talk as they trained.
Only when Coach Han came over later to discuss strategy did they stop chatting and turn their focus to the task at hand.
Coach Han spoke directly to Huang Chong:
"The men’s ITT race is tomorrow at 2 PM, with a total of fourteen cyclists from various countries participating.
We’re the host nation, so you’ll be the last to start.
Among your competitors, the one you need to watch out for the most is, without a doubt, the rider from Kazakhstan starting just before you: Alexey Lutsenko.
He is the two-time gold medalist in the ITT event, having won at both the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
But besides him, others like the Japanese cyclist Koishi Yuma, Liu Yunyou from the Hong Kong Team, and Du Zhihao from the Taiwan team are also exceptionally skilled.
Prepare well, but don’t get nervous before the race, or your muscles might stiffen up.
At your current level, as long as you perform to your full potential, winning a medal will be no problem. Just ride your heart out!"
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