Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

[Anti-Cold Heart and Lung Adaptation Pills: After consumption, this pill allows the user’s heart and lungs to rapidly adapt and adjust to the adverse effects of inhaling cold air while cycling in low temperatures. It also enhances the body’s resistance to cold, improves overall blood circulation, and prevents physical discomfort caused by exposure to wind and cold during exercise.]

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After a quick glance at the system’s description, Huang Chong pulled his focus back entirely to the race.

In an ITT race where every second counted, he had no time to waste examining system rewards.

He had to get his average cruising speed up as quickly as possible right from the start.

At the start of an ITT race, there’s usually an artificial ramp under the starting arch to help the cyclists get up to speed immediately.

But the initial burst of power from the cyclist’s first few pedal strokes after coming off the ramp and onto the road was also extremely important.

This was especially true since TT bikes are fixed with a single chainring.

And Dewey had set Huang Chong up with a Tour de France Level configuration: a massive 60-tooth chainring, only two teeth smaller than the one used by the god of time trials, Evenepoel.

His gear ratio was in the same league as Pogačar, Vingegaard, and the others.

If he couldn’t use a quick anaerobic burst to get his speed up into his optimal threshold zone, it would significantly delay his ability to settle into a cruising pace for the stage.

Braving the slanting wind and light rain, Huang Chong didn’t hesitate for a second. As soon as he came off the ramp, he gripped the base bars and got out of the saddle to power the bike forward.

His thighs instantly unleashed an explosive power output of over a thousand watts. For a brief ten seconds, his Power-to-Weight Ratio soared past 20.

Once he was up to speed, however, he immediately settled back into his normal aerodynamic riding posture.

His hips shifted back onto the saddle, and he placed his forearms on the aero bars. He tucked his upper body down as low as possible, burying his head between his arms, leaving just a sliver of vision to watch the road and pick his line.

"Excellent start. Your average speed is around 50 km/h. Adjust your gearing on the cassette and drop the pace slightly. Riding at this speed is already putting you over your lactate threshold heart rate!"

As Huang Chong brought the TT bike up to cruising speed, a team support car, maintaining a distance of about ten meters, began to follow him down the road.

At the same time, Chen Junyi’s voice came through his radio earpiece.

What Huang Chong didn’t know, however, was that the person driving the support car at that moment was not Chen Junyi, but Zhang Guowei.

As the head of the road cycling program, he hadn’t made an appearance since recruiting Huang Chong to the provincial team, almost as if he had vanished completely.

But for this crucial race, he had personally come to the support car to monitor Huang Chong’s performance data in real time.

Soon, following Chen Junyi’s instruction, Huang Chong lowered his speed to around 47 km/h, then began to push hard, putting out his FTP Power of 328W.

FTP Power meant he could sustain that output for an entire hour—his maximum lactate threshold.

As long as he didn’t exceed this power output, he wouldn’t enter the anaerobic zone for an extended period, which would cause rapid lactate buildup and fatigue.

ITT stages, even in the Tour de France, generally don’t last more than an hour.

Therefore, this event is primarily a test of a rider’s FTP Power combined with their anaerobic capacity.

Whoever can hold the highest average speed at their maximum lactate threshold, punctuated by intermittent anaerobic bursts to finish in the shortest time, is the master of the ITT.

"You’re about to pass the first time check, Huang Chong.

In this first 10 km split, your average speed has held steady at 47.2 km/h.

The next fastest rider on the course has an average of 43.6 km/h. You’re blowing him away. Maintain your current power and cadence!"

Over the radio, Chen Junyi relayed the numbers to Huang Chong with the emotionless precision of a robot.

In reality, however, she was sitting in the passenger seat of the support car, trading stunned, incredulous looks with an equally dumbfounded Zhang Guowei.

They both knew Huang Chong’s cardiopulmonary talent was historic, but they never imagined that in just three short months on the team, he could improve so dramatically from the 40 km/h average he’d posted in his initial test.

"Damn it, this kid’s a prodigy! He was born to be a Road Cyclist!"

Zhang Guowei couldn’t help but swear, his face flush with excitement as he watched the real-time average speed on the car’s dashboard.

No one knew better than him just how much raw talent it took to maintain a speed like that.

Although a cruising speed of 47 km/h on the flats was still a ways off from the world-class riders, he knew that at Huang Chong’s rate of improvement, it wasn’t impossible for him to one day challenge the top cyclists in Europe.

Besides, at his current level, he was already at the forefront of first-tier cyclists in the country.

"Xiaochen, excellent work. Now you see, don’t you? You see why I swallowed my pride and begged you to leave the basketball program for my project? It might seem like a niche sport, but this team has a true prodigy."

Zhang Guowei added with a hearty laugh.

Hearing his question, Chen Junyi’s cheeks flushed slightly as she couldn’t help but recall the day Zhang Guowei had sought her out.

At the time, she had been preparing to take up her new post with the provincial basketball team, but he had relentlessly cajoled and pressured her into coming to the Cycling Sports Management Center. And what’s more, she was assigned to be solely responsible for Huang Chong’s professional training.

Thinking back on it now, if Zhang Guowei hadn’t been an old friend of her father’s who had treated her like a niece since she was a child, she never would have agreed. That, plus Huang Chong’s truly unbelievable cardiopulmonary data, were the only reasons. Under normal work arrangements, she would never be assigned to train a single Road Cyclist.

’Road cycling isn’t a mainstream sport in the country. Am I supposed to be a Data Analyst for Road Cyclists forever?’

But now, Huang Chong’s progress was so rapid that even she had to admit he truly had the potential to reach a world-class level.

’In that case, maybe dedicating her career to analyzing only Huang Chong’s data wouldn’t be out of the question after all.’

After all, the whole reason she had gone to study at a top sports science program in Birmingham was because her father, a former athlete himself, hoped she would learn more advanced, professional knowledge abroad. His goal was for her to provide more professional training methods for some of the country’s lagging sports programs, to help close the gap with international standards.

And road cycling was exactly that kind of sport—one where the gap was not just obvious, but enormous.

"Uncle Zhang, please don’t be offended by my frankness, and forgive me for pouring cold water on you at a time like this.

Huang Chong’s talent is truly a rare find, and I feel very fortunate to be able to help you train him.

But if we truly want what’s best for him, I’m afraid that our provincial team’s training conditions, resource allocation, and coaching staff will hardly be enough to support him on the path to becoming a world-class cyclist—"

If those words had come from anyone else, Zhang Guowei’s firecracker temper would have certainly exploded.

’Wasn’t she outright saying his team wasn’t good enough?’

But since it was Chen Junyi who said it, he could only swallow his anger.

He knew perfectly well that the bureau did indeed favor events like track cycling and BMX.

After all, those were the events where the national level was close to international standards, where there was a foundation to compete for Olympic medals.

’But road cycling? What did that count for?’

In the past few Olympic Games, the nation’s riders either couldn’t qualify, or the ones who were sent couldn’t even finish the race.

With their riders getting pulled from the race halfway through by the top cyclists, it would be a miracle if the state ever allocated significant resources to the sport, given such a massive gap in ability.

And since athlete performance was directly tied to the performance evaluations and bonuses of leaders like him, who would be willing to just throw money away with no return?

’Wasn’t that just a fast track to an early retirement, smashing your own career?’

So, Zhang Guowei fell silent. It was a long while before he spoke:

"Are you saying I have to let Huang Chong go outside the state system? Have him join an Intercontinental Team, maybe even a World Tour Team, so he can integrate with the UCI circuit?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

After taking over Huang Chong’s training, Chen Junyi had naturally spent time getting a clear picture of the international road cycling scene. She knew that the real stage for a Professional Cyclist was among the thirty-some World Tour races under the UCI’s banner.

If a Road Cyclist only ever competed in domestic races, closing the gap with the powerhouse cycling nations of Europe would be nearly impossible.

The intensity of the races in Europe was on a completely different level from the domestic competitions.

So Chen Junyi stated bluntly:

"Yes, Uncle Zhang. If—and I’m saying *if*—

Huang Chong truly reaches the level of a top Professional Cyclist in the future, and is even scouted by one of the eighteen World Tour Teams, then for the sake of his own development, as well as the long-term development of the sport in our country, I personally believe that letting him go out and manage his own career would be the best choice.

Just like how the state allows tennis players to do!"