Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Seeing Huang Chong maintain such a monstrous cruising speed on the flats, Dewey completely lost his composure.

Especially when he remembered that during their previous ride around West Lake, the guy could only hang on his wheel to draft, with an average speed of only about 30 km/h.

And in the meantime, he himself had barely trained, while the other guy had supposedly been focusing more on his mountain biking skills—

’And yet, the next time they ride together, he’s somehow boosted his average speed by a full 10 km/h?’

"That’s like gaining 1 km/h a day! What the hell is that?!"

Dewey felt utterly dejected.

After all, for the average person, rapid improvements only came during the "newbie gains" phase right after getting into road cycling.

Once a rider hit an average speed of 35 km/h, getting any stronger became incredibly difficult.

A rider who could maintain a 40 km/h average on the flats was considered a seasoned amateur, the kind of core cyclist you’d find on major city club teams.

’Damn it, don’t tell me Old Huang was sandbagging before, deliberately hiding his true strength just to mess with me?’

A deep suspicion took root in Dewey’s mind, but then he thought again:

’No, that can’t be right. The kid has only been riding for a short time, less than a month and a half in total.’

’Even if he wanted to sandbag, he hasn’t been riding long enough to build that kind of base—’

’Could it be that losing weight is really that effective?’

’Can it really cause such a huge improvement in someone’s average speed and Power-to-Weight Ratio in such a short time?’

Dewey, who had never before been the least bit interested in cutting weight, was suddenly starting to have second thoughts.

He wasn’t so petty as to be consumed by jealousy, but seeing his friend’s massive improvement, he was undeniably envious.

The most crucial part was that after slimming down, Huang Chong had gotten a lot more handsome.

What man wouldn’t want that lean, toned, and sharply defined physique that comes from dedicated training?

Huang Chong had no idea that revealing just a fraction of his true ability would cause such a seismic shock to the friend riding behind him.

For him, all his attention was focused on one thing: catching the group of five with Zhou Ming, who were already a hundred meters ahead.

The Lake Loop road was winding, and the climbs followed the contours of the mountains. So, not long after he set off in solo pursuit, Zhou Ming’s group had already entered the toughest part of the course: a triple-climb section.

Because of this, he quickly lost sight of the group ahead.

Once on the forest roads, the mountains of Zhejiang Province were covered in dense firs and pines, and the thick canopy completely obscured his view.

Without team radios, a rider chasing from behind had no way of knowing exactly how far ahead the lead group was.

But after nearly 20 kilometers of riding, Huang Chong had a decent idea of the basic strength of Zhou Ming’s five-man group.

Their climbing ability was definitely better than Dewey’s, but they were still only mid-level amateurs.

With four of them taking turns to draft for Zhou Ming the whole way, he calculated, ’if I base this on cruising data for Daping Road, their power output should be around 200W.’

"Brother Zhou, how are you feeling? Should I slow the pace down a bit?"

"Yeah, Brother Zhou! We’ve totally dropped that Dewey kid anyway. The guy can’t climb for shit!"

"Once we’re past this triple climb, we probably won’t see them again!"

Seeing Zhou Ming’s strained expression and ragged breathing as he climbed, the hired pacers, who were taking turns at the front, began to voice their suggestions.

After all, Zhou Ming was their sponsor. From their daily training to the top-of-the-line racing machines they were all currently riding, Zhou Ming paid for everything. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Although the four of them were capable of pushing the pace even higher, whether they won or not was completely irrelevant.

They all knew they had only one job: to do whatever it took to ensure their patron took first place.

Zhou Ming knew he had a massive advantage over Dewey.

First, he had carefully designed the course to play to his opponent’s weaknesses. On top of that, he had a whole crew on his payroll to train with him.

These pacers weren’t Professional Cyclists, but they were all members of various road-bike-brand teams in Hangcheng, making them highly experienced amateurs.

He had been preparing for this event for a long time. Besides his day job at his company, he spent nearly all his time after work training on his bike.

In the last week, even his "power training sessions" in bed with the Riding Beauties had been significantly reduced.

And now that the race had officially started, he had an even bigger advantage, bringing four domestiques who were all stronger than him.

Not only did he have someone breaking the wind for him the entire way, allowing him to just sit in and cruise, but he had also taken his weight-cutting to such an extreme that he wasn’t even carrying a single water bottle on his bike.

Whenever he got too thirsty to bear it, one of the four would simply hand over their own bottle for him to drink his fill.

It had to be said, the level of support Zhou Ming had bought for himself was even better than what a Core Commander on a World Tour Team received. The experience was absolutely maxed out.

Just as they crested the first short climb and reached the halfway aid station in Ganwu Village, a Riding Beauty—prearranged by Zhou Ming—was waiting for him with an Energy Gel.

While others could only grab some mineral water or other drinks, he was already taking a gel to replenish his energy stores.

This was in preparation for the next section: a long, 2-kilometer climb with a steep 5% gradient.

The final 0.5 kilometers of it, near the summit by Xiejia Village, would ease up to a gradient of about 3%.

"Just as I thought, they can’t catch up. I bet those two haven’t even made it halfway up the first climb yet."

"By the time they pass through Ganwu Village and get down the descent to where we are now, we’ll probably be on the final climb to Chen Family Village, won’t we?"

"Brother Zhou, next up is a 1.5-kilometer climb at a 5% gradient. Just let us know if you need us to control the pace. If it feels too fast, we’ll match your rhythm."

The pacers were, in fact, quite relaxed.

After all, Zhou Ming’s only opponents were Dewey and that kid, Huang Chong.

They had used a hard, Zone 4 pace right from the start to drop their main competition. Based on what they’d seen, there was no way the others could catch up. They were even starting to think this job was way too easy.

Having ridden this far, Zhou Ming was also feeling a bit disappointed and unenthusiastic.

He had expected a repeat of last year’s Lake Loop race, where he and Dewey would be evenly matched, trading blows until a final showdown near the finish. He’d imagined himself getting his fiery revenge—

But to his surprise, after several months, his rival hadn’t improved at all. In fact, he seemed to have gotten worse.

As for Huang Chong—who, in his opinion, was just a blowhard who talked a big game—he had to admit that in the ten or so days since he’d last seen him, the guy’s physique had changed dramatically.

But, just as he’d said, cycling ultimately came down to the power in your legs. Just losing a little weight and getting some abs wasn’t going to cut it.

"Just ride at your normal pace. I can still keep up with this speed!"

Although Zhou Ming was already struggling, his heart rate immediately spiking into the anaerobic Zone 5 as they started the long 5% climb, his passion for cycling was the real deal.

With such a perfect setup, he wanted to see what his own limits truly were.

So, even with a huge lead over Dewey and his partner, he didn’t let his guard down or tell his domestiques to ease up.

But just as they were riding at their normal pace, confident that victory was in the bag—

Less than twenty meters behind them, a lean figure on a 9th-generation TCR ADV 3 shot out from Ganwu Village like a lightning bolt, arriving at the foot of the climb.

Then, having already shifted into the right gear, Huang Chong attacked the 5% climb. Still pushing an FTP Power of a whopping 240W, it only took him a moment to catch up to Zhou Ming’s lead group.