Chapter 78: Chapter 78: An Inaugural Victory and The Only Remaining Suspense
Seconds ticked by, one by one.
As everyone present focused their attention on the passing seconds, the rhythm of the entire world seemed to slow down.
However, Huang Chong, speeding against the wind on the road, had no idea that everyone was watching him.
He simply remained focused, maintaining his own rhythm as he pushed steadily toward the finish line.
To be honest, he hadn’t truly pushed himself to his absolute limit in this race.
The reason was that the results of the two strongest competitors in this ITT event were already out.
He could now control his own speed based on their data.
And the Hong Kong cyclist who had started after him, Liu Yunyou, while also posting an excellent time, had only managed an average speed of around 46 km/h after the first two checkpoints.
Therefore, he posed basically no threat to Huang Chong’s victory.
All Huang Chong had to do was maintain his 10-second advantage over the Longjiang Team cyclist and cross the finish line to lock in the national championship for this ITT event.
But to be on the safe side, Huang Chong wasn’t content to just maintain this slight advantage.
What if the Hong Kong rider got a sudden adrenaline rush after he crossed the finish line, pulled off an extreme out-of-the-saddle sprint, and staged a comeback—
’I wouldn’t even know where to start crying.’
Until a race is finished, anything is possible. That is an immutable truth.
Celebrating too early is just asking for a jinx.
So, with only 2 km left to the finish, facing the final small climb—a short incline of about 3% grade and only a few dozen meters long—Huang Chong chose not to continue his steady pace.
He decisively got out of the saddle and, with an anaerobic burst generating over a thousand watts of power, began to charge up the short climb.
The result of this seemingly risky choice was that he smoothly crested the climb at an average speed of over 50 km/h. This not only shocked Chen Junyi and Xie Kun, who were following behind and thought he had already reached his limit, but also left the managers of the Intercontinental Teams watching the race completely dumbfounded.
"Holy crap, this kid has been riding for almost fifty minutes and can still pull off an anaerobic sprint on a climb? What kind of cycling prodigy is this?!?!"
...
"The Zhejiang Team actually has a rider of this caliber? Zhang Guowei sure kept him well hidden!!!"
...
"This kid maintained an average speed of around 47 km/h for the whole race. Factoring in the current low temperatures, his FTP power must be at least 320W or higher. And with that anaerobic sprint before the finish, that’s at least a kilowatt of output—"
...
"It seems he’s not just strong on the flats; his climbing and sprinting are terrifyingly good too. Such a well-rounded prospect is incredibly rare in our country. If developed properly, he’ll be an absolute force to be reckoned with in multi-day races!!!"
...
At almost the same moment, the managers of three major Intercontinental Teams were all marveling at Huang Chong.
What does it mean for a cyclist to be so well-rounded?
It means he’s a top-tier talent who can be molded in the style of Pogačar, developed into an all-around GC Cyclist, and potentially become a team’s Core Commander in the future.
How could they, as team managers, not be tempted by such a gifted rider?
’I have to get this kid!!!’
These team managers, without even waiting for Huang Chong to finish the race, were already thinking about poaching him from the provincial team.
And as it turned out, Huang Chong did not disappoint.
After that final out-of-the-saddle sprint on the climb, his finishing average speed rose to 47.3 km/h. He finished his first event with an excellent time of 50:07.399, a full 59 seconds faster than the Longjiang Team cyclist.
He was also the only rider in the entire field to finish with an average speed exceeding 47 km/h.
Afterward, while doing his cool-down in the recovery zone, Huang Chong watched the final starter, the cyclist from the Hong Kong Team, cross the finish line with a time of 52:03.995. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.
This meant he had officially locked in the championship for the event, successfully claiming his first gold medal at the National Road Cycling Championships!
"Holy crap, man, you’re so fucking awesome! From now on, you’re my real brother!!!"
In the Zhejiang Team tent, Zhou Zitong, who had been watching the entire race and was arguably more nervous and excited than Huang Chong himself, breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw the Hong Kong Team cyclist finish in fourth place.
Then, with an excited expression, he couldn’t help but run up to Huang Chong and start singing his praises.
"Huang Chong, you’re truly incredible. I’m impressed, truly impressed!"
The other two riders from Zhejiang’s original first-string team were also completely won over by Huang Chong at this moment, both giving him a thumbs-up.
"Finishing with an average speed of 47.3 km/h in this cold weather, you’re a monster. My average of 43 km/h is nothing compared to you."
After Huang Chong won his first title, Chen Guangyi’s face was a mask of resignation and a wry smile.
His own result wasn’t actually bad; it was considered top-tier, at least at the provincial level.
But on the national stage, he had ranked dead last among all the competitors.
When a single team produces both the champion and the last-place finisher, it certainly creates a surreal and bizarre feeling.
Yet, that was exactly what had happened.
Afterward, under Chen Junyi’s arrangement, Huang Chong went to the podium to receive his award.
Despite him being the national champion, the atmosphere at the scene could only be described as lukewarm.
Aside from the event staff, reporters, media, and the local officials in charge of presenting the awards, there were only the team personnel.
There were no fans or spectators around, not even a single curious onlooker.
This showed just how niche professional road cycling was in the country at the moment.
However, Huang Chong, with the gold medal from the National Road Cycling Championships hanging around his neck, was not disappointed by this.
As long as he continued down his professional path and onto the world stage, he believed that the professional cycling league would sooner or later enter the public consciousness in China.
As a reincarnator, he knew that there were actually many groups of cycling fans in the country who had always watched live broadcasts of the World Tour races.
They watched the battles of Wen Bo, the rivalry of the two Vans, Eve and Ganna clashing in the ITTs, and Pogačar going head-to-head with van der Poel in the five major Classics.
It was just that these fans had not yet turned their attention to domestic competitions.
Soon after receiving his award, Huang Chong was escorted by staff to the official anti-doping test, a mandatory part of the competition procedure.
As a prodigious talent who had burst onto the scene, ensuring he was "clean" was, of course, necessary.
But he had no worries on that front.
The drugs from his system were purely natural and wouldn’t trigger any violations.
His diet, on the other hand, was always managed by Chen Junyi. Every meal consisted of purely organic, pollution-free food, and he only ate large amounts of carbohydrates, high-quality protein, and so on each day.
As for pork, beef, lamb, and other meats on the market that might contain clenbuterol, he hadn’t touched any of them since joining the team.
The only meats he ate now were basically chicken and various types of fish, all of which had undergone rigorous testing by the provincial team.
While Huang Chong was undergoing his doping test, the ITT competitions for the other categories began one after another.
On the first day of the competition, all the ITT races for the four categories would be completed.
At the end of the day, the results were much as he had expected.
Although Zhejiang Province had sent riders to compete in the Junior, Women’s Elite, and Junior Women’s categories, the championships for all of them were swept by the Longjiang Team.
Aside from the one gold medal lost to Huang Chong, they displayed a terrifying, unstoppable, and utterly dominant strength.
The Hong Kong Team was the second-strongest team after the Longjiang Team.
"Tomorrow will be the Men’s Elite and Women’s Elite TTT races. Everyone, do your best."
After the first day of competition ended, Xie Kun gathered all the members at the hotel to go over the tactical arrangements for the next day:
"Huang Chong, your strength is significantly ahead of the other members of our team. See how you feel on the day of the race."
"If you feel good, help out by pulling at the front for a bit longer. Try to keep the team from finishing last."
"If you feel just average, then just stick to the normal rotation and finish the race. Don’t overexert yourself."
"You have the 180 km road race the day after tomorrow. You have a chance to go for double gold, so you must maintain your physical condition."
"The team time trial is 100 km long and very difficult. Our goal is not to finish last, not to win a medal. Everyone, remember that clearly."
"Just being able to compete on the same stage as these top riders, learning from their strengths to increase our own race experience, will be the greatest reward."
Xie Kun was under immense pressure leading the team at these National Road Cycling Championships.
After all, the team’s overall strength was indeed much weaker compared to the other provincial and municipal teams.
Originally, he had been thinking that if Huang Chong could just manage a podium finish through his individual ability, he could go back and report his mission accomplished with peace of mind.
He never expected Huang Chong to make such a stunning debut and win the ITT championship outright.
This left him overjoyed, and a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders.
However, the TTT team race on the second day ultimately depended on the collective strength of six people.
No matter how strong Huang Chong was individually, he could only do so much to help; he couldn’t change the final result.
The rules for the TTT at the championships didn’t take the time of the first rider to cross the line; the entire team was required to cross the line together.
Therefore, on the team, Huang Chong would actually have his power output dragged down by his own teammates.
And, just as Xie Kun had predicted, in the TTT race on the second day, even with Huang Chong giving it his all and single-handedly pulling his five teammates for nearly half the distance, their team’s finishing speed only reached 45 km/h.
While not last place, they were second to last.
Meanwhile, the Longjiang Team, in both the men’s TTT and the women’s 60 km TTT, displayed terrifyingly good coordination and dominance, sweeping both championships on the second day with finishing times of 2:04:08.502 and 1:21:54.723, respectively.
This sent a chill down the spines of all the other competing cyclists.
If not for Huang Chong snatching away the gold medal in the individual ITT at the beginning, the Longjiang Team would have nearly swept all six gold medals in the first two days of competition.
Looking at the schedule for the final two days, the only remaining question was whether Huang Chong had the ability to snatch another gold medal from the formidable Longjiang Team in the Men’s Elite road race.
This was the question on the minds of all the competing cyclists—aside from the Longjiang Team—as well as the managers of the three Intercontinental Teams.
