Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

"Oh my God, Brother Bao got overtaken right before the finish line—"

"Holy crap! I thought the riders were sent off at three-minute intervals, right? Doesn’t that mean that guy’s finish time is at least three minutes faster than Brother Bao’s?"

"My overall time put me in third, and I was over twenty seconds slower than Brother Bao. This guy’s probably three and a half minutes ahead of me!"

...

Over with the Hangcheng Team, coach Liu Jialiang was filled with a mix of emotions after watching the Men’s Group A ITT race.

It wasn’t that his riders had performed poorly. Far from it.

Aside from the runaway leader, Huang Chong, his team had swept second, third, and fourth place.

But to say they had performed well was a stretch, because the gold medalist’s time had absolutely crushed his riders—

From second place all the way down to twentieth, the time gaps between each rider were measured in seconds.

But that first-place rider wasn’t just ahead by minutes—he was a full three minutes ahead!

It left everyone speechless.

"Alright, this ITT race was still a valuable experience for us, the Wenhai Cycling Team."

After a long pause and after greeting the last to finish, Wang Bao, Liu Jialiang chose to console his riders, continuing:

"While it’s a shame we couldn’t take the gold, encountering such a formidable opponent is a good thing for you all.

Remember, you can only have a target to strive for and chase when you have a powerful rival. So don’t walk around with such long faces.

As athletes, having a good mentality is crucial. You need the humility to admit your shortcomings and the grace to congratulate others.

Besides, the competition isn’t over yet. The day after tomorrow, you still have the road race. If you lose your confidence now, how are you going to keep fighting?

Pull yourselves together and get ready for the award ceremony!"

Hearing this, Wang Bao and Zhou Zitong, who had placed third overall, felt a bitter taste in their mouths. But there was nothing to say, so they headed to the podium for the ceremony.

Huang Chong stood on the top step of the podium, a gold medal around his neck, a bouquet of flowers in one hand, and the champion’s certificate in the other. He felt quite calm.

In an ITT, as long as you have a support team, you basically know the results before the race is even over, so there’s not much suspense.

He had known for a while that he would win, so naturally, there was little excitement.

This was different from a mass-start road race. In national-level competitions, like the World Championships or the Olympics, riders aren’t allowed to wear radios.

Therefore, riders don’t know their final results until they cross the finish line. They can only give it their all, which keeps the suspense high.

After receiving his award, Huang Chong posed for photos with the silver and bronze medalists. As this was an official competition, a photo of the top three was standard procedure.

Chen Junyi was standing in front of the podium, squeezed in with the reporters and photographers. She had her phone out, also taking pictures of Huang Chong, her face wreathed in smiles.

She was genuinely happy for Huang Chong.

After three months of grueling training, no one knew better than her how self-disciplined and hardworking Huang Chong was.

His hard work had finally paid off, and it was great to see such a good result.

Two small dimples appeared at the corners of her mouth, revealing two neat rows of pearly white teeth. The sight was both unique and beautiful.

Seeing this, Huang Chong realized that when she wasn’t being a coach and was just being herself, she was just a lively, cute, and optimistic young woman in her early twenties.

She was the perfect embodiment of the phrase "a smile as beautiful as a flower."

After the photos on the podium were done, Huang Chong prepared to step down and give the flowers to Chen Junyi.

It was no exaggeration to say that she deserved at least half the credit for his victory.

But just as he was about to move, the silver medalist next to him smiled and struck up a conversation.

"Hey man, your ITT is insane. Did you start out as a track cyclist?"

Hearing this, and considering his own finishing time of 39’01"34 with an average speed of 46 km/h, Huang Chong could guess why the other guy thought he specialized in time trials. He nodded and went along with it.

"You could say that!"

"Oh, good. Then in the road race the day after tomorrow, let’s go again. I definitely won’t lose to you next time!"

Wang Bao didn’t come from a track cycling background. He had trained the most in road cycling, so long-distance mass-start races were his true specialty.

Losing the ITT by three minutes had really pissed him off, especially being overtaken right before the finish by someone who started after him.

It was a humiliation he had never experienced since he started cycling as a child.

What’s more, before the competition, he had been planning to sweep both the ITT and road race gold medals at these provincial games.

Losing like this was just too hard to accept.

So he had to boost his own confidence and settle the score in his strongest event, even though he knew it wasn’t very polite to come up and talk trash to his opponent before a race—

Huang Chong didn’t mind. ’They’re young, and they’re athletes. What’s the point if you don’t have a little fire in your belly?’

If he had been the one beaten by three minutes, he might not have said anything to his opponent’s face, but he definitely would have been up all night, consumed with thoughts of revenge.

So he nodded, accepting the challenge head-on.

"Alright, challenge accepted. I’ll see you at the road race!"

With that, they parted ways for the time being, heading back to their respective hotels to rest.

After stepping off the podium, Huang Chong gave the flowers to Chen Junyi. He also took off his gold medal and draped it around her neck, saying with a smile:

"Assistant Chen, let me take a picture of you. Strictly speaking, this gold medal belongs to you. You’re the real champion.

After all, without you helping me optimize my ITT technique, supervising my training, and constantly polishing my skills to fix my flaws, I never would have improved so quickly."

Chen Junyi had a very cheerful and optimistic personality, which had a lot to do with her open-minded parents and the comfortable environment she grew up in.

Her cheeks flushed slightly, but she didn’t refuse Huang Chong’s kind gesture. Holding the flowers in one arm and the gold medal in her hand, she gave a sweet smile as Huang Chong took her picture.

Nearby, Zhang Guowei took in the whole scene but didn’t think much of it.

Athletes were generally straightforward people. As long as Huang Chong’s professional performance kept improving, he wouldn’t interfere with their private interactions.

Soon after, however, Chen Junyi spotted him and pressed her phone into his hand, saying with a smile:

"Uncle Zhang, could you take a picture of me and Huang Chong? This is the first professional gold medal of his cycling career! I want to capture this precious moment!"

Zhang Guowei didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he did as she asked. He took a photo of Huang Chong in his cycling kit and Chen Junyi in her Li-Ning sponsored coach’s uniform.

And it had to be said, when the phone’s camera framed just the two of them standing side-by-side, it had the strange feel of a portrait for an official document, a thought that quietly surfaced in Zhang Guowei’s mind.

Especially since both of them were so good-looking.

The man was dashing and nearly 180 cm tall; the woman was gorgeous and around 170 cm. No matter how you looked at it, they were an exceptionally good match.

’Was it a mistake to assign Xiaochen as this kid’s dedicated coach?’

As Zhang Guowei captured the photo, freezing the two of them in the frame, a faint sense of regret inexplicably crept into his heart.

Because he suddenly thought of Chen Junyi’s father, who was also a former athlete.

That man was famous for doting on his daughter. He treasured her so much it was like he was afraid she would melt in his hands. He was a total doting dad.

But when it came to picking a son-in-law, his standards would be sky-high!