Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

After saying goodbye to his parents, Huang Chong still chose to travel by bike.

The return trip was the same 260 km journey.

For him, this distance was no longer much of a challenge.

Throughout the Chinese New Year holiday, he had maintained his training every day except for two: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. On those days, he helped prepare the family’s reunion dinner and accompanied his father to their ancestral village to make offerings at the clan shrine.

On flat roads, he rode entirely in his Zone 2 aerobic range.

When climbing, he would increase his power output a bit.

On descents, he relied on his cornering ability—already at the level of a Mid-level Professional Cyclist—and his top-tier Car Control Techniques to fly downhill.

After a solo ride of 260 km that took over six hours, he arrived in Hangcheng with an average speed 0.5 km/h faster than his ride home before the New Year.

Upon his safe arrival in Hangcheng, the first thing he did, of course, was call his parents to let them know he was safe, and then he headed to Dewey’s house.

He had already left the provincial team, but Dewey had kept the room he used to live in, so he wasn’t without a place to stay.

Afterward, he went to the large villa where Dewey’s parents lived to wish them a Happy New Year and have dinner, then went to Zhang Yi’s home to do the same.

Although he and Zhang Yi hadn’t interacted much, the latter was truly the one who had guided him onto his path.

If Zhang Yi hadn’t recommended him to Zhang Guowei, his professional career definitely wouldn’t have advanced so quickly.

Therefore, Huang Chong couldn’t forget the debt of gratitude he owed for the support.

However, when he followed through on his promise and actually tried to give one of his National Road Cycling Championship gold medals to Zhang Yi as a souvenir, the latter politely refused, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:

"Huang Chong, I’m truly happy for you, reaching the pinnacle of national road cycling in just half a year.

Back in my day, I trained in road cycling for four or five years just hoping to win a single gold medal at the provincial games, but it was always just out of reach.

The gap in talent between people is truly decided by fate.

But how can you just give away something as precious as a gold medal?

I never took those jokes you made seriously, so hurry up and put that medal away.

I understand your sentiment, but these are two different things. Don’t go around casually offering to give away your gold medals in the future.

The fact that you came to pay me an early New Year’s visit shows you’re a person who values relationships, and more importantly, that you haven’t forgotten me. I’m already very content with that.

So, keep up the hard work. As long as you can carry the sport of road cycling forward, reach a bigger stage, and even compete for championships in Europe, that will be the greatest reward for all of us who love this sport!"

Huang Chong nodded silently.

’Zhang Yi’s talent was indeed very limited. Especially after competing against the nation’s top riders, he had come to a profound realization: if someone couldn’t even win a championship at the provincial games, they could only be considered a second or third-tier rider. However, cycling in Zhejiang Province had developed relatively late. As one of the first people to get into the sport there, he was essentially crossing the river by feeling the stones. Just making it to the provincial team must have been incredibly difficult. Who knows how much effort and sweat that must have cost him.’

He replied:

"Captain, don’t worry. I’ll continue to improve my competitive level.

I’ve joined an Intercontinental Team now, and I’m reporting to the Shanghai Headquarters tomorrow.

By the end of this year, I will definitely get an offer from a World Tour Team. Next year, I’ll go to Europe to compete in the World Tour."

Zhang Yi clapped Huang Chong on the shoulder, his face full of admiration.

If anyone else had said something like that, he definitely would have been skeptical.

After all, not since Ji Cheng had China produced a world-class cycling prodigy.

’Is the World Tour really that easy to conquer?’

But Huang Chong was different. Not only did he possess world-class cardiopulmonary talent, but in just six months, he had transformed from a complete amateur into the national champion.

The speed of his improvement couldn’t be described with common sense; it was as if he had divine assistance.

Therefore, Zhang Yi truly believed that Huang Chong would receive an offer from a World Tour Team before the end of this year’s season.

...

After leaving Zhang Yi’s home, Huang Chong naturally had to make a trip to Zhang Guowei’s house as well.

The man was his master now. Although they hadn’t interacted much before and it was more of a master-disciple relationship in name only, he was still, after all, a rider within the state system.

Not paying his master a New Year’s visit would be completely inexcusable.

When Zhang Guowei saw that Huang Chong had returned from the holiday having maintained his physique, he nodded in satisfaction.

Before becoming a director, he himself had been a head coach and was extremely sensitive to changes in an athlete’s body shape.

After not seeing someone for a few days, he could spot any changes almost at a glance.

Many athletes who had the rare opportunity to go home for the holidays found it very difficult to control their eating.

After all, most athletes were young. They were fine when under the team’s strict supervision, but once they left the team and returned home, their self-control would inevitably weaken.

As a result, they basically all had to lose weight again after returning from a break.

But Huang Chong clearly didn’t have this problem.

"Not bad. It seems you were very disciplined during the Spring Festival and didn’t take the opportunity to feast and drink excessively.

Xiaochen said you were a very restrained person. What she said was true.

For an athlete to be able to hold themselves to their own standards without supervision—that already puts you a big step ahead of others."

Zhang Guowei was a very serious and proper leader who rarely smiled.

For him to say such words to Huang Chong was already high praise.

He continued:

"You and Xiaochen are heading to Shanghai tomorrow to report in, right?

Once you get to the team, you must train hard.

For the next two and a half months after the New Year, there won’t be any competitions, but this is the most critical training period for a Road Cyclist.