Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

In the sport of road cycling, almost all riders share a common understanding:

The strongest rider on the team is the Core Commander.

Although Wang Qiang and the other two were reluctant, they had to admit it. In the less than a month since they’d met Huang Chong, he had gone from being weaker than them to being able to completely drop them on any terrain.

While a superior FTP Power is determined by both natural talent and hard work, for most ordinary riders, natural talent is undoubtedly more important.

Huang Chong possessed immense cycling talent. Wang Qiang and the other two were well aware of this.

After all, when Zhang Yi had mentioned Huang Chong’s exceptional talent last night, he hadn’t tried to hide it from them. Later, before they went to sleep, Zhang Yi had laid out the team’s strategy for this race: they would be built around Huang Chong as the Core Commander.

To be honest, Huang Chong was quite surprised by the strategy Zhang Yi had devised.

He was well aware of his own strength. It went without saying that he was far stronger than Wang Qiang and the other two, but on the flat sections, he was still several dozen watts behind Zhang Yi himself.

On top of that, he hadn’t had time to go to the gym these past few days to complete the series of muscle-building missions the system had issued, so his sprinting ability was still lacking.

If it came down to a final sprint, he definitely couldn’t beat Zhang Yi.

Because of this, he had even mentally prepared himself to work for Zhang Yi, assuming the latter would be the Core Commander for this race.

However, since Zhang Yi had taken the initiative to make him the commander, he wasn’t going to be modest about it. It was just a dual-leader strategy, and besides, he was aiming to develop into a GC leader in the future anyway—

’Getting used to it a little early isn’t a bad thing.’

So, after the race started, Wang Qiang and the other two went straight to the front of their team, taking turns with him and Zhang Yi in a frantic lead-out rotation, staying firmly attached to the main group. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

It was obvious that the power output during a race was completely different from a normal training session.

Plus, the amateur cyclists in the country lacked any reasonable tactics. They basically went straight into Zone 4 threshold riding from the start, and the average speed shot up to over 40 km/h.

Some riders even tried to launch an all-out breakaway right from the gun, so the pace of the main group was pulled incredibly fast at the beginning.

"For the first 10 kilometers, you three just focus on staying with the main group. Do a lot of drafting, don’t take the lead, and conserve energy."

"They can’t maintain this high of an average speed for long. Don’t worry about the breakaway group for now."

"Wait until the main group starts to slow down, then you can pull away on your own."

"Remember, you must maintain formation and lead out for Huang Chong. If you can’t hold it, rotate. Don’t push yourselves too hard."

"As long as you three can last through the first half, you’ll have completed your mission for this race."

With the group’s average speed at 40 km/h, Zhang Yi was still quite relaxed. While conserving energy in the peloton, he had enough left to ride alongside Wang Qiang and the others, giving them more detailed, real-time tactical adjustments.

The result was just as he’d predicted. Most of the amateur riders were hotheads who got too excited at the start. After 10 kilometers of continuous threshold riding, those who had initially tried to break away and win were quickly caught and mercilessly swallowed by the group.

Huang Chong followed closely behind the group, his focus sharp.

Riding in a large group of several dozen people saved energy, but it was also very dangerous.

In the Tour de France, even the pelotons of World Tour Teams could have massive, devastating crashes. This was just an amateur-level race.

If anyone in the group touched wheels, even slightly, it was usually the start of an accident.

Fortunately, with an experienced former Professional Cyclist like Zhang Yi leading them, their team always stayed on the far right side of the group. This greatly reduced the risk of being caught up in an accident if one were to happen.

You could say that as long as they didn’t get clipped by riders from other teams on right-hand turns, their safety factor was quite high.

Soon, as time and distance wore on, the race began to heat up. After just 20 kilometers, only about a fifth of the way through, the main group began to shed riders rapidly and fracture.

The field of 110 competitors suddenly dropped by twenty or thirty riders.

These were all the riders who had gone out too hard at the start, naively thinking they could win with a breakaway.

In addition to the riders who were dropped, a third group formed after the peloton fractured, this one also consisting of about twenty to thirty riders.

Huang Chong glanced back at the riders who had been filtered out and could no longer contend for the podium after only about 20 kilometers. He felt a little emotional.

In his previous life, he had been at their level.

A pure amateur with no tactical sense and no teamwork.

He was always just there to participate. In three years, he had never once competed in an elite-level race.

Every time he entered the open category, he would just barely finish the course and then go collect a commemorative medal from the organizers.

As for getting on the podium and winning prize money? For the him of his past life, that was a challenge a million miles away.

"Thirty years on the east bank, thirty years on the west—there’s really some truth to that!"

Huang Chong recalled this classic line, made famous in web novels, and couldn’t help but smile to himself as he compared his drastically different physical condition and cycling skill across his two lives.

He glanced over at Zhou Ming’s team within the main group, which now only had about 50 riders left. They were on the far left side of the group, the furthest away from them horizontally.

But it was clear that Zhou Ming’s lieutenants had some real strength on the flats. They were approaching the 30-kilometer mark and still hadn’t been dropped.

At around the 35-kilometer mark, one of their riders even got out of the saddle and started attacking, breaking away from the main group to single-handedly chase the breakaway group of about 10 riders up ahead.

Zhou Ming’s plan was simple: as the race approached the halfway point, he would first launch his team’s strongest rider.

The goal was that when the race reached its final stages, after his other three lieutenants had completely burned themselves out leading him through the middle part, he could then smoothly bridge up to this breakaway rider at the front.

Finally, this strongest rider would give him a final "aerial refueling" lead-out, allowing him to complete the final sprint.

But the plan was perfect, while reality was cruel.

By the 40-kilometer mark, the main group fractured again. The second group of 50 riders suddenly shed another ten or so.

When Wang Qiang and his two teammates saw that Zhou Ming and his three men were still in the same group, battling against their team, they considered the mission their captain had given them. They only had to lead for another ten kilometers before they could fall back. Deciding not to conserve any more energy, they all started drinking from their bottles, exchanged hand signals, and then pushed their heart rates to the peak of Zone 4 threshold to begin a new surge of acceleration.

And so, their group, now effectively the second group on the road, suddenly increased their speed from around 35 km/h to 37, then 38, quickly dropping the other riders in the group who had already been riding for nearly an hour.

"Damn it, Huang Chong’s team has started a suicide pull! If we try to follow them, Brother Zhou will probably get dropped. What should we do, guys?"

"Fuck, we’re only at the 40-something kilometer mark! Not even halfway through the race. Why are they in such a hurry to attack? What’s the point?"

"Who knows? But that kid, Huang Chong, has clearly learned to use tactics this time. Have you noticed? For this entire distance, he’s stayed at the very back of his team, he hasn’t taken a single pull at the front—"

"You think he’s doing that because he’s not strong enough on the flats to take a turn leading, or is he the team’s Core Commander and everyone’s protecting him?"

But before they could come to a conclusion, Zhou Ming, who was riding right behind them and could clearly hear their discussion, turned livid with rage.

’Fucking hell, the rival team has already launched their attack, and these guys are still here speculating and gossiping—’

He couldn’t hold back and immediately exploded:

"What are you three rambling about? Get a move on and pick up the pace! Chase down Huang Chong’s team!"

"We’re not even halfway through, and you want me to get dropped?"

"I’m warning you! If we lose this race again and I’m made to look like a fool, you can all get the fuck out!"