Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Once the selection trial results were announced, the new rider roster was officially confirmed.

There was no room for dishonesty in the official, public selection process. The top six performers from the assessment were chosen to form the new team.

Huang Chong was the first to secure his official spot, becoming the new team’s undisputed Core Commander.

Wang Bao and Zhou Zitong followed close behind, joining the new first team and becoming his teammates.

As for the other three newcomers, instead of being sent back to their regional teams after failing the selection, Zhang Guowei had them all stay at the base as reserve riders.

For the three of them, this was an unexpectedly good outcome.

Although reserve riders couldn’t represent the provincial team in major national competitions for the most part—unless an official member was injured and needed a substitute—they could still gain experience as core riders in provincial leagues, amateur-level Lake Loop races, city criteriums, and so on.

Most importantly, their training environment was identical to the first team’s, and they trained together.

So no matter how you looked at it, this was far better than being sent back to their regional teams.

A different platform naturally meant access to different resources.

As long as they performed well and developed quickly, the three of them would have priority for any future openings on the first team.

Of course, Zhang Guowei’s reason for keeping them was also to deliberately put pressure on the new first-team members.

’Think you can slack off just because you’re on the first team?’

’Fine. I have reserve riders ready to take your place at any moment.’

After the team members were selected, the next few days were spent on the new riders’ onboarding procedures.

The three veteran members who were cut were demoted to the regional teams.

Huang Chong threw himself back into training. After Wang Bao and Zhou Zitong officially moved into the base, becoming his teammates and roommates, he began pre-competition training camp with them and the three veteran first-team members.

The National Road Cycling Championships was about to begin, so they had to practice and build chemistry as a team.

This competition included a team time trial, or TTT, which required all six riders to compete together.

If they didn’t practice together beforehand, they were guaranteed to finish near the bottom.

As the highest-level road cycling event in the country, the importance of this race was self-evident.

It wasn’t just a stage to showcase their strength; managers from Intercontinental Teams would be there to watch and scout for talented cyclists.

Huang Chong was determined to seize this opportunity and perform well.

Since he wanted to pursue the path of a Professional Cyclist, joining a UCI-registered Intercontinental Team was an essential, unavoidable step.

He had to become a UCI-registered cyclist on an Intercontinental Team, and he needed that team to take him to high-level UCI events to get enough exposure.

Only then could he be noticed by a World Tour Team, receive a contract offer, and advance to the highest level of competition: the World Tour.

Time passed quickly. After days of high-intensity training, it was soon December 22nd, the day before the competition.

Huang Chong’s Zhejiang Team arrived at the competition venue in Changzhou a day early.

The event was held in the Jintan Maoshan Scenic Area. The route was a circuit race, with the start and finish lines both at the scenic area’s visitor center. A single lap was 20 km.

The competition consisted of ten events in total, with 10 gold medals up for grabs:

The Men’s Elite category had three events: a 40 km Individual Time Trial (ITT), a 180 km Road Race, and a 100 km Team Time Trial (TTT).

The Junior category had a 30 km ITT and a 100 km Road Race.

The Women’s category had the same events, though the race distances differed from the men’s.

The participating teams included those from various provinces, municipalities, and special administrative regions, with a total of 109 athletes competing.

Among them, the universally acknowledged powerhouse was, without a doubt, the Longjiang Team, who wore black cycling kits emblazoned with a golden dragon motif.

Huang Chong was filled with admiration after reading their roster for the event.

It was practically a list of National Team members, including names like Liu Jiankun, Niu Yikui, and Bai Lijun.

One of them, Liu Jiankun, had even represented the National Team in the ITT event at the 2025 Road World Championships in Rwanda, competing on the same stage as top international ITT masters like Pogačar, Evenepoel, and Vine.

The next team to watch out for was the Hong Kong Team. They were all riding Pinarello bikes and wore pink kits, and their overall strength was also formidable.

They could be considered second only to the Longjiang Team.

As for Huang Chong’s Zhejiang Team, strictly speaking, they were at a level where "it’s the taking part that counts."

As long as they didn’t finish last and cause Zhang Guowei to get chewed out by the higher-ups, it would be considered a success.

"Before the race, I want you all to go out together and familiarize yourselves with the course."

"Don’t push the intensity too high today, but try to ride a few extra laps to get completely familiar with the course’s undulations."

The team was led by Xie Kun, the coach of the original first team. Chen Junyi accompanied them as an assistant coach, and they also had a team doctor.

This was a standard lineup for a competition.

But Chen Junyi was still only responsible for Huang Chong’s personal logistics.

Inside a temporary tent set up at the scenic area’s visitor center, Xie Kun laid out the strategy for Huang Chong and the others.

"The first race day is the ITT. Huang Chong and Chen Guangyi—one of the veteran first-team riders—will be competing. You two just ride to the best of your abilities."

"Huang Chong, with your ability, I think you have a shot at the podium."

"Your start time is relatively late, so use the times of the two Longjiang Team riders as your benchmark!"

Huang Chong nodded, having no objections to Coach Xie Kun’s plan.

He knew the Longjiang Team’s riders were the strongest. If he could beat their two competitors, he could basically lock up the championship title.

Xie Kun continued.

"The second race day is the Team TTT. There’s not much to say about this one; everyone has to ride."

"You’ve been practicing together at the base for a long time, so just ride like you do in training."

"As for the third race day, the Road Race, the competitors will be Huang Chong and Wang Bao."

"You’re both skilled at long-distance road cycling, so try to take turns pulling and work together. The Road Race is nine laps around the scenic area, for a total of 180 km."

"The weather here is already near freezing, so it’s definitely going to be very difficult."

"The race will last at least four hours, so don’t be in a rush to attack."

"Try to stay with the main peloton first, and then see if there are any good attack opportunities in the last thirty kilometers or so."

After Xie Kun finished laying out the plan for the men’s events, no one voiced any objections.

They were especially silent about him assigning Huang Chong to two individual events.

In any case, Xie Kun had given the other ITT spot to a veteran rider, which was seen as treating everyone fairly.

Otherwise, if it were based purely on ability, Wang Bao was more qualified than Chen Guangyi to compete in the ITT.

As for Huang Chong competing in all of the Men’s Elite events, even if some of them were unhappy about it, they didn’t dare voice their complaints.

Huang Chong’s ability was simply too far beyond anyone else on the team.

Seeing that no one objected, Xie Kun moved on to planning the women’s events. Once all the arrangements were more or less settled, the riders took their race bikes out to circle the scenic area and recon the course.

After an easy lap in his Zone 2, Huang Chong was already very familiar with the course conditions.

Overall, the course was mainly Daping Road, with only a very short, rolling section with a slight gradient.

On a course like this, as long as he performed to his usual standard, his chances of winning a medal were quite high.

Moreover, after reviewing the full roster, he noticed that several other top riders from the National Team weren’t competing due to health and safety protocols, which indirectly lowered the difficulty of winning gold.

As long as he kept a close watch on the Longjiang Team throughout the race, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

And so, when the 23rd arrived, he and Chen Guangyi were at the race venue by 9 a.m. sharp. Inside the team’s tent at the visitor center, they began warming up on their trainers.

Their start time was fast approaching.