Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

This year’s Tour of Tai Lake cycling race was divided into an Elite Group and a Public Group.

As the name suggests, the Elite Group was composed of amateur teams, with a maximum of 22 teams allowed to participate. Each team could register up to five riders, and spots were first-come, first-served.

Since it was an unofficial competition, no professional teams or Professional Cyclists would be participating. It was more of a celebration for amateur cycling enthusiasts.

As for the prize money, the amounts were naturally not high—the champion of each group only received 8,888.

In fact, after a quick calculation, if enough people registered, the race organizers could actually turn a profit, thanks to the 88 registration fee charged to every participant.

When it came to shrewd calculations, you had to hand it to these capitalists.

It seemed like they were just throwing money around by holding a cycling event for their grand opening to build hype and attract crowds, but in reality, the event itself was another business venture.

Even if they didn’t make a profit, given the explosive popularity of road cycling in the country right now, they certainly wouldn’t lose money. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Huang Chong and his teammates left the youth hostel early, rode to the starting line, and then began their group ride training.

However, it was clear that due to the large number of race participants, many other cyclists were also on the lake loop road early in the morning, scouting the course and training.

Although this was called a lake loop race, the actual distance was only 100 KM, not even halfway around the lake.

Tai Lake was just too big; a full lap was over 300 kilometers. There was no way the event organizers would set such a long course.

The Windward Team brought a total of eight people this time: five to compete in the Elite Group, and three female riders for the Public Group.

But no one knew that Zhang Yi’s primary focus in leading the team for this race was actually entirely on Huang Chong.

The first 50 KM of the group ride was unremarkable. They took turns at the front, keeping the average speed around 33 km/h.

Both Huang Chong and Zhang Yi were thoroughly bored. For riders of their caliber, this pace was just a Zone 1 warm-up; their heart rates barely even budged.

However, after the 50 KM mark, Zhang Yi followed his pre-arranged plan and announced to everyone:

"That’s it for the warm-up. For the second half, everyone ride at your own true race pace. Go all out, but safety first.

We’ll regroup at the finish line.

Huang Chong, Wang Qiang mentioned you’ve improved a lot. Why don’t you try keeping up with my pace?"

Huang Chong didn’t know what Zhang Yi had in mind, but back on the Zhejiang Western Sky Road, he had witnessed the man’s strength. He knew very well that even a retired former Professional Cyclist was not someone an amateur rider could hope to challenge.

Still, he hadn’t gotten much of a workout from the first 50 KM, so when Zhang Yi singled him out to follow his wheel, his interest was instantly piqued.

He had also been wanting to test his own true abilities against Zhang Yi, so he immediately replied:

"Alright, Captain, I’ll do my best to stick with your pace!"

"Alright. Then let’s go now!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Yi, who had been riding at a warm-up pace, flicked his shifter to change gears, moving the chain from the small chainring to the big one.

Then his two muscular thighs instantly erupted with astonishing power, bringing his cadence to over 90 RPM.

The result was immediate. Riding Pogačar’s signature race machine, a V3RS, he instantly pushed their cruising speed to over 40 km/h.

Huang Chong reacted in a flash and matched the pace, his heart rate soaring.

It was just that his bike was a little shoddy. Although he could stay on Zhang Yi’s wheel, it always felt a bit unstable.

Of course, it wasn’t purely the bike’s fault. He had lost too much body fat recently, and he hadn’t yet done targeted strength training for his chest, back, and glute muscles. The more aerodynamic his position and the lower he got, the less stable he felt.

If his bike-handling skills hadn’t already been at the level of a Professional Cyclist, he felt he wouldn’t even dare to put his full power into the pedals.

It seemed the help from that rich kid from the mountains, Li Zifan, had been truly significant.

He glanced at the data on his system’s bike computer, a thrill of excitement running through him.

Riding all-out, he was putting out 270W of power on the flats just to keep up with Zhang Yi, and their speed was an astonishing 48 km/h. It was an undeniably terrifying pace.

Of course, this pace was unsustainable. Maintaining 48 km/h for the entire 100 KM race would mean riding at his Zone 4 threshold—bordering on Zone 5 anaerobic—for over two hours straight. It was simply impossible.

The average speed of a World Tour Cyclist over an entire race is typically just over 40 km/h.

Of course, that’s because they ride for five or six hours, covering courses over 200 kilometers long.

If you put a World Tour Cyclist on a 100 KM Daping Road with only a few dozen meters of climbing, an average speed of over 50 km/h would be a piece of cake.

For Zhang Yi to pull at the front and maintain a speed of 48 km/h was the absolute limit of his current ability.

Back on the provincial team, during his peak, he could have held a pace of over 50 km/h for 20 minutes, but that was impossible for him now.

So, after pulling at 48 km/h for 20 minutes and seeing Huang Chong still glued to his wheel, Zhang Yi already had his answer:

’This kid really is a genius!’

And so, he had no choice but to turn to Huang Chong and say:

"Let’s rotate. You take a pull at the front for a bit, let an old man like me catch his breath!"

Huang Chong froze for a second when he heard that.

He had been riding at his Zone 4 threshold for 20 minutes and was already on the verge of bonking.

If he didn’t refuel soon, he was about to get dropped. For the captain to ask him to rotate now really caught him off guard.

’Jeez, and here I thought the captain could pull for the whole segment and I could just enjoy the draft—

Looks like he can only hold 300W for about 20 minutes, too.

Cycling really is a sport of both endurance and strategy. If you don’t know how to sit in the pack and save energy by drafting, you’ll just burn yourself out early and set someone else up for the win.

Take us, for example. If we ride at our threshold for over 20 kilometers, we’ll be totally cooked for the last 20!’

As Huang Chong mulled this over, he realized he was gaining a new understanding of racing.

In a real professional race, no one goes all-out from the start. The peloton might spend as much as three-quarters of the race conserving energy. Only the riders in a breakaway go full-gas.

But at this moment, he had no time to sit up and recover.

The captain had asked him to take a pull. He couldn’t just make an excuse that he was spent and refuse to ride even a single meter at the front.

That would be a terrible display of teamwork!

So Huang Chong had no choice but to pull a Rapid Recovery Energy Bar from his storage space and swallow it down. Then, with his energy renewed, he gritted his teeth, moved in front of Zhang Yi, and began to pull.

However, it was obvious that for the same power output, the speed was different when pulling at the front versus drafting.

Drafting at 270W, he could hit 48 km/h, but while leading, that same output only got him to around 45 km/h.

After all, the wind resistance at the front was immense. Road cycling is a battle against the wind, so for him to reach this speed was already incredible.

Zhang Yi tucked in tightly behind Huang Chong, drafting in his slipstream. A glance at his own bike computer confirmed that their average speed had dropped compared to when he was leading.

But he had also just done 20 minutes of high-intensity riding and was no longer at his peak.

Even at an average speed of 45 km/h, he still had to ride near his Zone 4 threshold to keep up.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was, he had now truly gauged Huang Chong’s cardiovascular strength.

He himself couldn’t handle riding at threshold for more than 20 minutes, yet Huang Chong had done it and was still going.

’This monster...’

Zhang Yi watched the rail-thin Huang Chong maintaining a cadence of nearly 100 RPM ahead of him, attacking relentlessly as if his feet were on fire. A sense of resignation and bitterness welled up inside him.

True, Huang Chong’s raw power couldn’t quite match his yet—though it wasn’t far off—but the chasm in their innate cardiovascular talent made Zhang Yi realize that when it came to their potential for growth in road cycling, they were worlds apart.

Even without putting Huang Chong through professional fitness and medical testing, he was almost certain: the kid couldn’t just become a Professional Cyclist, he had the potential to compete at the World Tour Level.

’It’s true what they say, comparisons will be the death of you!’

Zhang Yi watched Huang Chong’s back, sighing to himself.

At the same time, he felt incredibly fortunate to have actually stumbled upon a genius rider.

Even if, for an athlete just turning pro, he was already getting a late start!