Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chapter 180: Chapter 128: An 800m Super-Strong Lead-out, Helping a Teammate Create History

"How are you feeling? After finishing a stage with the World Tour teams, are you holding up physically?"

After the S1 Stage ended, Coach Han immediately checked in on Huang Chong, asking about his condition with concern.

Huang Chong, who had crossed the line with the main peloton and ultimately placed only 27th in the general classification, hadn’t managed to break into the top ten for UCI points. Still, his overall feeling after the day’s ride was good.

Surprisingly, the intensity today was much easier than the Asian Games road race.

Moreover, after getting used to the rhythm of a World Tour race, Huang Chong discovered that he wasn’t outmatched by the average World Tour cyclists.

It was just that there was likely still a huge gap between him and the top-tier riders.

He nodded and answered honestly:

"Thank you for your concern, Coach Han. I feel like the race wasn’t as difficult as I imagined.

It could also be because it was the first day, and the Beihai stage wasn’t very long, so everything feels pretty good.

Tomorrow’s stage is flat all the way, perfect for Brother Ma to go for a stage result. I want to see if I can find an opportunity to give him a lead-out."

Hearing that Huang Chong was feeling good and even wanted to take the initiative, Coach Han hesitated for a moment before turning to Brother Xiaoma and asking:

"Xiaoma, how are you feeling physically? You heard what Huang Chong said. What are your thoughts on this?"

Brother Xiaoma was a flat-stage sprinter, and the entire Tour of Guangxi course was actually very well-suited for him.

For instance, in today’s final sprint, he had also gone up against the world’s top-tier sprinters.

Unfortunately, without any teammates to help, he ended up boxed in by the World Tour teams in the middle of the peloton, only managing 16th place.

Now, hearing that Huang Chong wanted to give him a lead-out, he was undoubtedly excited and said frankly:

"I have no problem, Coach Han. I can definitely keep up in the first few stages. If Huang Chong is willing to work with me to get a stage result, I couldn’t ask for more."

Hearing this answer, Coach Han pondered for a moment before nodding.

"Alright then. For tomorrow’s Beihai-Qinzhou stage, you two can try to contest the final sprint. But for the first half of the stage, you have to do the same as today: stay at the back of the peloton and conserve energy.

When you reach the last few kilometers, Huang Chong can bring Xiaoma to the front of the group.

But you must be careful. Safety is the priority. Absolutely do not get into a physical battle for position with those World Tour sprinters in the middle of the road. The risk of crashing is too high.

In a sprint that intense, if you crash, the consequences will be unimaginable.

You must ensure your own personal safety.

We are here to learn from the World Tour cyclists, not to fight for any championship.

The primary mission is for everyone to finish the race safely and to learn from the World Tour cyclists about controlling the race pace, making formation adjustments, and so on!"

Naturally, neither Huang Chong nor Brother Ma had any objections to Coach Han’s instructions.

...

The next day, Huang Chong—who had deliberately taken a system Energy Gel before bed to help his body recover from fatigue—once again started the race at one hundred percent.

The ride from Beihai to Qinzhou was 149.6 kilometers long with no climbs.

However, there were two intermediate sprint points in the latter half of the route, at the 94.5 km and 131.5 km marks, respectively.

Neither Huang Chong nor Brother Xiaoma expected to get any intermediate sprint points; they weren’t competing for the Dash King Green Jersey anyway.

After the race began, four riders from different teams once again chose to form a breakaway right from the start.

Among them, the rider from the Alpecin Team was the same one from yesterday, a man named De Bondt.

However, the Israel-Premier Tech Team had switched riders, and the remaining two were from the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux Team and the Cofidis Team.

The breakaway riders started off fast again, reaching speeds of at least 60 km/h.

Without that kind of speed, it was impossible to quickly open up a gap on the main peloton behind them.

Huang Chong’s group of five naturally continued to draft at the back of the main peloton.

Huang Chong could probably handle finishing a race with an average speed of 45 km/h, but for the other few riders, who could only manage average speeds of just over 40 km/h in the domestic leagues, it was too difficult to keep up without drafting in the peloton.

The first two-thirds of the race remained largely uneventful.

At its largest, the breakaway group’s lead had stretched to nearly a minute and a half over the main peloton.

But with yesterday’s experience, Huang Chong knew that the main peloton was actually very steady in its control of the pace.

Closing a gap of that size was a matter of minutes; it all depended on whether they wanted to chase or not.

In any case, there was no way the breakaway group would escape being caught before the finish line.

As the race entered the final 30 kilometers, the main group surged a few times, and the breakaway riders’ lead was cut down to just 45 seconds.

At this moment, the riders from the Jumbo Team began to control the field, taking responsibility for leading the chase train.

The Jumbo Team had brought both their sprinter, Olav Kooij, and their general classification rider, Vader Milan, to this race.

Even though the team had swept all three Grand Tour general classification titles this year (Roglič was the Giro d’Italia Champion, Vingegaard was the Tour de France Champion, and Kuss was the Tour of Spain Champion), they had still sent strong riders to the Tour of Guangxi and surely wanted to win the final World Tour race of the season.

This was truly the Year of Jumbo; they had reaped a huge harvest and naturally wanted to cap off the season in the most perfect way possible.

Thus, under the Jumbo Team’s control and pace-setting, with only 25 kilometers left to the finish, the breakaway group’s lead had shrunk to just 30 seconds.

However, as a Bora cyclist took over the lead, and breakaway rider De Bondt pushed his speed up to 55 km/h, the 30-second time gap between the main peloton and the breakaway held steady for the next five kilometers, not closing by even a bit.

But upon entering the 20-kilometer mark, the Jumbo cyclists in their yellow jerseys once again pushed to the very front of the peloton to set the pace.