Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

All alone, Huang Chong was the first to ride past the start/finish arch at the Mao Mountain Visitor Center, entering the eighth lap of the men’s road race.

At that moment, all the event staff, along with the riders and coaches from other teams, were gathered by the side of the course, their eyes fixed on him.

Some were stunned, others shocked.

Some found it incredible, others utterly unbelievable—

It was a vivid tableau of human expression.

But Huang Chong ignored all the stares and gasps of astonishment.

His gaze was sharp, his focus absolute, all his attention concentrated on the course ahead.

Even though he had ridden this loop around the scenic area many times over the past three days and knew the terrain like the back of his hand,

in a race where every second counted, he still had to execute every straightaway and navigate every corner perfectly.

The gap between riders is built on the cumulative effect of how well every single detail is executed.

...

"Come on, Huang Chong! Two laps to go!"

"The Longjiang Team rider is 30 seconds behind you now! But the two further back are picking up speed—they’ve completely dropped the Hong Kong Team rider!"

"Beautifully done, Huang Chong! Just keep this cadence and power, and they’ll have a hard time closing the gap!"

By the side of the course near the visitor center, the Zhejiang Team’s Zhou Zitong, Chen Junyi, and Xie Kun, along with Chen Guangyi and others—even riders from the women’s team—had all run out of their tents.

They were watching the live feed on their phones, tracking the gaps to the riders behind Huang Chong, all while shouting encouragement and calling out time splits for him.

Although official race rules prohibit riders from using radios to communicate with their coaching staff,

the officials did not stop them from shouting information from the roadside.

This method of relaying information had a limited impact on the race, as Huang Chong could only get updates from his teammates each time he passed the visitor center.

If he failed to manage his pace mid-lap, he could easily be caught by the Longjiang Team riders chasing him.

Seeing the members of the Zhejiang Team going wild, the riders from other teams weren’t the least bit surprised.

If a rider from their own team were leading the race in such a dominant fashion, pulling away with an ever-increasing gap—

they would be screaming even louder than the Zhejiang Team.

After all, who wouldn’t support a teammate with a chance to win?

...

"That kid’s anaerobic attack just now was insane. Simply unbelievable!"

"Yeah, it’s rare to see a rider in China with that kind of sustained anaerobic ability. On our team, I think only the guys from Europe could match him."

"I just timed his anaerobic attack. It was at least a minute long. Judging by his average speed during that minute, his power output must have been over 600W!"

"That high? At his weight, doesn’t that mean his Power-to-Weight Ratio was close to 10.0 for a full minute?"

"More or less. His actual numbers might even be a little higher than my estimate."

In the Li Ning Star Continental Team’s support area, their team manager and Data Analyst immediately began to analyze and discuss Huang Chong’s attack after witnessing it.

...

"A prodigy. Now that’s a real prodigy, Old Li.

This young rider, Huang Chong, can attack on the climbs and put down high-intensity anaerobic sprints.

And you saw his lines through the corners—so silky smooth.

Most importantly, his timing is impeccable. He makes no move until it’s the one that counts—a decisive, fatal blow!"

In the Hengxiang Continental Team’s support area, the Data Analyst was heaping praise on Huang Chong.

The team owner, Li Fuyu, nodded in agreement with his old friend’s conclusion. "You’re absolutely right," he said.

"This kid bided his time the entire race, all for that one critical attack.

He struck without hesitation—decisive and clean. Not only did he create a gap in an instant, but he also established an undeniable advantage.

His racing instincts are incredibly sharp.

He has all the makings of a top, all-around GC Cyclist!"

"Now we’ll see if he can hold on for these last two laps. If he can pull off a 40-kilometer solo ride to victory, he’ll really make a name for himself."

...

The Huaxing Continental Team’s coaching staff had been brought in from professional teams in Europe.

As a team focused on developing riders for the National Team, Huaxing itself was backed by the China Cycling Association.

When it came to coaching and analyzing a rider’s ability, the coaches from Europe were undeniably the foremost experts.

After all, the sport of road cycling was, in essence, the exclusive domain of Europeans.

Seeing Huang Chong’s performance, the French coach, who had only just rushed to the venue today, was amazed and couldn’t help but remark:

"I am certain that this rider, Huang Chong, has a limitless future.

He is worth every bit of energy and financial resource you can invest in his development.

I heard he also won the ITT event. It’s a shame I didn’t have time to come and watch a couple of days ago.

But based on my experience, that race-winning attack alone puts him just a hair’s breadth away from the world-class level.

If you get him into some UCI events next year, especially to temper him in some stage races, I am very optimistic that your country will have another rider capable of competing on the World Tour stage."

Hearing the coach’s words, the Huaxing Team manager was ecstatic.

It wasn’t easy for a homegrown rider to receive such high praise from a European coach.

Their team was built around riders from the National Team, but none of them had ever received such high praise from him before.

This Huang Chong from the Zhejiang Team was truly having a meteoric rise.

...

The race continued.

Having committed to a long-range solo breakaway, Huang Chong dared not let his power output drop.

There were still a full three riders from the Longjiang Team behind him.

He didn’t need to guess to know that over the next 40 kilometers, they would certainly regroup and work together, taking turns to mount a furious chase.

In road cycling, the advantage in a three-on-one situation is significant.

A group can work together to combat wind resistance.

By rotating the lead, they can even get moments of rest, as long as they control their pace.

This meant all three of them could sustain a high-power output at their lactate threshold for a long time.

This was why in the individual ITT, the best Longjiang Team rider only managed an average of 46.8 km/h.

Yet in the TTT, they had finished with a frightening average speed of nearly 50 km/h.

However, Huang Chong’s decision to attack with over 40 kilometers remaining was partly a reaction to the race situation, and partly a reflection of his confidence in his own pacing and power.

According to his original plan, he would have preferred to wait for the climb on the eighth lap to launch a high-intensity anaerobic attack, drop everyone, and then ride solo to the finish.

But since the Longjiang Team rider attacked early, he had no choice but to adapt and respond ahead of schedule.

The result was clear: when he attacked at full tilt using his anaerobic capacity, no one in the race was his match.

He not only passed everyone but also instantly opened a gap of dozens of meters.

As the race moved into the middle of the eighth lap, he was cruising at 340W, nearly 50 km/h, on a straightaway that was over a hundred meters long. Glancing back, he saw no trace of another rider and knew he was pulling further and further away from the three riders of the Longjiang Team.

His advantage was steadily growing.

This meant he was getting closer and closer to his second gold medal.

Some distance behind him, just as Huang Chong had predicted, the three Longjiang Team riders regrouped. They began taking turns at the front, desperate to catch the solo rider ahead.

But when they reached the longest straightaway on the course and still couldn’t see any sign of Huang Chong up ahead, a sense of helplessness washed over them.

"Damn it, how is that kid so fast? He vanished in the blink of an eye. I can accept that he dropped me with that anaerobic attack, but how is he pulling away even faster now that the three of us are working together?"

The Longjiang Team’s designated attacker felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

He was the team’s strongest road racer, yet not only had he been bested by Huang Chong in a head-to-head anaerobic burst, but now it seemed his ability to cruise at threshold was also far inferior.

The three of them were all riding at their anaerobic threshold heart rate on the flats, but their top speed was capped at 45 km/h; they couldn’t squeeze out a single bit more.

Then again, you can’t expect a road bike to match the cruising speed of a TT bike.

Besides, they had already ridden over 150 kilometers today, on top of a full 100-kilometer time trial the day before. Chasing at 45 km/h at this stage was already an impressive feat.

At least when they began their frantic pursuit of Huang Chong, they had dropped the Hong Kong Team rider completely out of sight.

This proved they were giving it everything they had.

But the reality was cruel: Huang Chong’s FTP Power was simply higher than theirs.

So, at the end of the eighth lap, when Huang Chong passed the visitor center again, he got a new time check on his rivals from Zhou Zitong.

After his one-lap solo effort, the gap to the three Longjiang Team riders had grown to a minute and a half.

In a road race, this was a massive time advantage, translating to a gap of at least several hundred meters.

Huang Chong quickly calculated their average speed in his head, then eased his own power output by nearly 20W as he began the final lap.

He did this so as not to reveal the true, extreme extent of his abilities.

Winning by a one or two-minute margin was already sensational enough.

This was the Longjiang Team, who were now left with none of the five championships they’d aimed for. As it turned out, the two men’s individual titles—the two most prestigious championships of the entire event—were both snatched away by him.

In the end, with no surprises, Huang Chong was the first to cross the finish line. He finished with an average speed of 42.5 km/h for the stage and a total time of 4:23:52.

Not long after he crossed the line, the Longjiang Team riders who took second and third place finished with times of 4:26:14 and 4:27:10, respectively.