Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Teaching by Example and Hitting the Brakes
Hearing their sponsor raging behind them, the domestiques, who were essentially hired riders, instantly fell silent, not daring to say another word.
Zhou Ming had directly threatened to fire them if they lost again, a clear sign that he was furious.
They immediately stomped on the pedals, increasing their power to pick up speed. They launched a pursuit of Huang Chong’s five-man squad, which was pulling further and further away after having dropped the main pack.
Soon, their all-out chase began to close the gap.
This greatly annoyed Liu Junjie, who had just moved to the front to lead the group. He had made a promise to Huang Chong before the race.
’So I can’t shake you guys, huh?’
He glanced at the distance on his cycling computer and saw they had already passed 45 kilometers. Gritting his teeth, he used his shifter to move the chain to a smaller cog on the cassette. He then maintained the same cadence, choosing to accelerate again.
However, as his speed increased, his heart rate shot up from his Zone 4 threshold and rapidly approached Zone 5 anaerobic.
The heavy, burning sensation in his thighs intensified rapidly.
While leading the group, an average speed of 39 km/h was the absolute maximum Liu Junjie could sustain.
This was his lactate threshold, an effort he couldn’t possibly maintain for long.
He pedaled with all his might, then got out of the saddle to rock the bike for a bit. He managed to hold on like this for about two kilometers before his heart rate completely blew up.
The shortness of breath from the all-out attack, combined with the fatigue from rocking the bike in an anaerobic state, flooded his legs with lactic acid. In an instant, he was completely spent.
Without a doubt, that all-out pull had completely drained all the energy from his body.
So, Liu Junjie didn’t hesitate. He quickly steered his bike aside, pulling out of the group’s line and intentionally dropping back.
Huang Chong, who was at the back of the group, saw him finish his pull and freed a hand to give him a thumbs-up.
As the team’s leader, he naturally had to show his sincerest respect to a domestique who had given his all so he could go further.
But this also starkly exposed the cruel gap in athletic ability between different people. Most of the time, the difference was brutally large—even greater than the gap between a man and a dog.
For him, a speed of 39 km/h was just Zone 2 cruising. But for Wang Qiang and the other two, it was quite possibly the fastest speed they could ever hope to achieve in their entire lives.
"We’re done for. Why are they still attacking? General Manager Zhou can’t keep up with this pace—"
"Slow down, slow down now!!"
"We’ve dropped Brother Zhou! Hurry and wait for him!"
The three domestiques responsible for leading Zhou Ming were horrified when they saw their sponsor suddenly get dropped.
But inwardly, they felt helpless. After Liu Junjie blew up, Chen Guangming had taken his place, continuing the attack at an average speed of 38-39 km/h.
This pace would have been fine at the start of the race, but after nearly an hour of riding, it was more than Zhou Ming could handle.
So they had no choice but to slow down, wait for Zhou Ming to catch up, and then hand him a water bottle to refuel.
When Zhou Ming saw his domestiques slow down to wait for him, he didn’t throw another fit. He just took the water bottle, chugged a few large gulps, and then watched helplessly as Huang Chong’s back grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
At that moment, he finally had a clear realization: that guy’s strength, whether on climbs or on the flats, was far superior to his own.
And what’s more, the guy was riding a TCR rim-brake all-arounder that wasn’t even entry-level. Meanwhile, Zhou Ming was on a top-of-the-line, ultra-aerodynamic Canyon race bike—a beast built for cruising on the flats—and he’d been left in the dust.
This was a massive gap in pure leg power, one that an advantage in equipment could no longer bridge.
After all, an equipment advantage only offers a slight edge when the riders are of similar strength.
"Brother Zhou, should we still try to chase Huang Chong—"
While Zhou Ming was drinking, one of the hired riders, who had slowed their pace to just under 30 km/h, asked with a pained expression.
By now, Huang Chong’s squad, still maintaining an average speed of nearly 40 km/h, was pulling a hundred meters ahead of them.
In truth, the three of them were a bit stronger than Wang Qiang and his group.
If they immediately went for a hard chase at a constant pace, they still had a chance to catch Huang Chong’s group.
"No more chasing. I know that kid’s true level now. I’ve lost, fair and square."
Once Zhou Ming understood the true gap in their abilities, his attitude became surprisingly magnanimous. He waved his hand and said:
"If you guys are interested in your overall results for this race, go ride at full tilt. Don’t worry about me.
I’ll just finish the rest of the race at my own pace."
The hired riders were all emotionally intelligent. Since their sponsor had given up, what was the point of them going for a good overall result? That would be a joke.
Besides, they had come to the Suzhou race to protect their sponsor in the first place.
Unfortunately, the gap was just too big. Even if they gave it their all, they couldn’t pull him along.
So in the end, they simply rode with Zhou Ming to finish the remaining 50 kilometers. At least they weren’t quitting halfway.
But while they had stopped chasing, the story was different for Zhou Ming’s strongest domestique. He had broken away earlier and was now with the lead group. With about 30 kilometers left in the race, he watched as Huang Chong and Zhang Yi successfully bridged the gap to him. Looking back, however, he saw no sign of Zhou Ming or his other three teammates. He was completely dumbfounded.
’What’s going on?’
’Where’s General Manager Zhou?’
’Why didn’t he follow?’
’And where are my three brothers?’
He turned to look back, but there was no sign of Zhou Ming’s group at all. He quickly understood: his sponsor had been blown away by the competition.
’So, should I still try to stay with Huang Chong?’
He didn’t think for long. Gritting his teeth, he decided to keep following the high-speed pace of his rivals.
Not long after Wang Qiang and the other two had completely exhausted themselves leading the group, Huang Chong and Zhang Yi caught up to the first group on the road.
And because the two of them kept their speed at a steady 45 km/h while taking turns at the front, they quickly overtook the entire lead group, which had been in a breakaway for nearly 70 kilometers.
In fact, only Zhou Ming’s strongest domestique managed to hang on, and he had to get out of the saddle to do it.
But when an amateur rider has to get out of the saddle just to keep up, it means they’re at their absolute limit. It’s only a matter of time before they blow up.
After all, an amateur rider isn’t a World Tour Cyclist who can stay out of the saddle from the bottom of a climb all the way to the summit without a break.
And so, at the 80-kilometer mark, Zhou Ming’s strongest domestique was dropped as well, unable to hold the pace any longer.
He could only watch in despair as Huang Chong and Zhang Yi, still averaging a blistering 45 km/h, sped off into the distance, leaving him completely shattered.
’Damn it, what kind of opponent did General Manager Zhou pick a fight with?!
’After riding for two hours, this kid’s average speed is even faster than my initial breakaway speed. He’s just too strong!
’With this kind of strength, he was definitely sandbagging last time at Qiandao Lake.
’I was so fucking blind. Back then, I thought he was just a strong climber and would be terrible on the flats—
’Now I see it. Winning by only a single bike length... he was clearly just saving face for General Manager Zhou, trying not to make the loss look too bad!’
The domestique’s face was a mask of wry amusement; he knew his guess was more or less on the money.
There was nothing more embarrassing in the world.
However, Huang Chong had dropped every other competitor. He was following Zhang Yi and was now just 200 meters from the finish line, fully prepared to cross in second place. But then, he suddenly heard Zhang Yi’s voice:
"Huang Chong, watch my form closely. I’m only going to teach you this anaerobic sprint once. Make sure you stick to my wheel!"
Hearing this, Huang Chong immediately cleared his mind of all other thoughts and focused his gaze on Zhang Yi.
He saw Zhang Yi move his hands directly to the drops of his handlebars. His hips lifted off the saddle, and he stood up on the pedals, getting his upper body as low as possible.
Then, Zhang Yi’s legs exploded with power. He furiously stomped on the cranks, instantly generating over a kilowatt of power.
But as he rocked the bike, Huang Chong was stunned to see that while Zhang Yi’s bike swayed from side to side with each powerful pedal stroke, his own body remained as steady as a mountain.
Even against the immense wind resistance, Zhang Yi’s upper body was completely motionless.
Seeing this, Huang Chong instantly understood the essence of an anaerobic sprint:
The bike rocks, not the rider!
So, he copied what he saw. Following Zhang Yi’s example, he also got out of the saddle, rocked his bike, and went into an anaerobic state, pushing his own max power up to seven or eight hundred watts.
But compared to Zhang Yi, his explosive power was far inferior. Before his muscles were fully optimized, he simply couldn’t compete.
So, while it seemed like only 200 meters, the difference in their explosive power made the gap feel as wide as a chasm.
But what Huang Chong didn’t expect was that, even as he tried to stay in Zhang Yi’s slipstream and sprint madly for the finish, he was still being gapped by nearly two bike lengths—
Zhang Yi, who had the victory firmly in his grasp, suddenly stopped pedaling with only about 10 meters to go and even manually squeezed his brakes.
He smiled, watching as Huang Chong surged past him to be the first one across the finish line.
